Access debate draws differing views on university

Vol. 9 No. 10
23 June 2009

Lead item …

Access debate draws differing views on universities’ relevancy

Māori Party Co-Leader Dr Pita Sharples’ call for open access to universities for Māori, made last week in a speech delivered at Victoria University of Wellington, has met with differing responses from opinion writers for two weekly newspapers.

An editorial in the National Business Review, headed “Universities should lift sights not lower them”, said that higher education was about creating a more informed and equipped population, and “lowering standards is not a way to do this”. However, the editorial took a positive view of universities’ economic contribution, referencing evidence that a one percentage point increase in the size of a country’s tertiary educated workforce would boost GDP growth by about six per cent.

Writing in the Sunday Star-Times, columnist Michael Laws observed the oddest aspect to Sharples’ view that “Māori kids should get some automatic right to attend university” was that universities were still relevant. Laws went on to state that universities were “past their prime”, the academic standard of undergraduate degrees had been “declining for decades” and the “effective (sic) full-time student funding model has devalued tertiary education”.

The NBR editorial noted that many countries had adopted strategies to best exploit their advantages, innovation and research and pointed to the OECD emphasis on the need for higher skills to foster greater levels of entrepreneurship and increase an economy’s ability to absorb, implement and adapt ideas generated by others.

However, Mr Laws’ questioning of universities’ relevancy appears to overlook their role as principal research providers in this country and their role in the innovation system through basic research. He provided no evidence to back his view that the standard of undergraduate degrees had declined and failed to reference the university system’s quality assurance arrangements. His column also did not acknowledge that per student funding models had international acceptance as the most practical basis for public support of tertiary education students.

A central point in NZVCC advocacy in recent months has been the need for universities to work in partnership with government to maximise universities’ contribution to economic recovery and growth. The NBR editorial backed that position, observing that universities “offer the best opportunity to combine knowledge and wealth with a resultant lift in the country’s overall growth potential”.

Meanwhile, the NZVCC’s contribution to the debate surrounding Dr Sharples' speech, made in his capacity as Minister of Māori Affairs, was through a media release headed “Universities active in support of Māori achievement”. That activity was identified as programmes to ensure increased Māori participation and success in university education.

The release referred to active mentoring and monitoring for Māori at university at programme level during the first year of study with appropriate interventions when students encountered difficulties. Research had shown that approach greatly increased the likelihood of Māori students completing their qualifications.

Other items …

Commonwealth conference VCs’ forum recognises global recession challenge

NZVCC Executive Director Penny Fenwick and Professor Mason Durie, Assistant Vice-Chancellor, Massey University, attended the Vice-Chancellors’ Forum organised by the Association of Commonwealth Universities and held last week in conjunction with the 17th Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers in Kuala Lumpur. It was the first time that a Vice-Chancellors’ Forum had been held as part of a CCEM.

The forum issued a communiqué to Commonwealth Ministers of Education calling on them to agree that higher education, through teaching and learning, research and knowledge transfer, will be a key driver taking countries out of recession.

As well as the impact of the global recession, the communiqué covered five other themes: a commitment to the millennium development goals and to education for all; gender equality for higher education access; the contribution of ICT and distance learning; the role of partnerships and, respect and understanding.

Under a heading “specific areas of focus”, the communiqué called upon Commonwealth Ministers of Education to foster a strong and sustainable university sector by ensuring that there are appropriate processes for accreditation of universities as “Governments have a responsibility to remove bogus universities and to protect students and the public”.

Professor Durie, who chairs the NZVCC Committee on Māori, Te Kāhui Amokura, presented a paper “Towards Social Cohesion: The Indigenisation of Higher Education in New Zealand”. A synopsis of that paper will shortly be available as a “Viewpoint” item on the NZVCC website.

Ako Aotearoa seeks applications for good practice publications grants

Ako Aotearoa, the National Centre for Tertiary Teaching Excellence, is seeking applications for the 2009 round of its good practice publications grants. A total of 20 grants of up to $5000 are available to enable departments, centres, groups or individuals to share proven good practice in teaching and/or supporting learners. Proven good practice is defined as practice that has been shown to benefit learners.

The good practice publication grants are open to any individual or group in the tertiary education sector involved in teaching and/or supporting learning. Applications close on Friday, August 28. Further information is available on the Ako Aotearoa website: www.akoaotearoa.ac.nz

Ako Aotearoa has also been running a series of workshops on how to secure funding from its National Project Fund. Due to conclude this week, the workshops expanded on the process of applying to the fund which totals more than $1.4 million in 2009 and supports strategic initiatives to improve tertiary teaching and learning. The fund covers four streams; research and implementation projects, Māori initiative projects, Pacific peoples projects and collaboration projects.

The ceremony for Ako Aotearoa’s annual Tertiary Teaching Excellence Awards will this year be held on July 21 with Tertiary Education Minister Anne Tolley hosting the function in Parliament Buildings’ banquet hall.

India reviews university status for 125 institutions

A minister in India’s newly re-elected Congress Party-led government has ordered that “deemed university status” awarded to 125 tertiary education institutions be reviewed, according to a report in University World News. All pending requests for such status have been shelved.

The minister made the move after meeting with Indian University Grants Commission officials. The report says that Indian universities have traditionally been established by legislation but the newer “deemed university status” can be awarded by central government to institutions that meet prescribed standards. Subjective criteria for those standards could be bent to grant the status to private institutions as payback for political favours, according to World University News..

A central government committee is now checking staff qualifications, institutional infrastructure quality and admission processes before reporting within three months. World University News says the Indian government wants to reform the country’s higher education sector, partly in response to a television sting operation that showed aspiring medical students being charged as much as US$100,000 as a bribe to secure entry. The two private medical colleges in question have “deemed university status” and are based in Chennai.

Four Commonwealth Scholarships to the UK awarded

Four New Zealand doctoral students have been awarded 2009 Commonwealth Scholarships to the United Kingdom. The scholarships for developed Commonwealth countries are now supported through a partnership involving the United Kingdom Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, the Scottish government, and host universities.

University of Waikato graduate Benjamin Deadman will undertake a chemistry doctorate at the University of Cambridge. Francesca Short, a University of Otago graduate, is also off to Cambridge where her doctoral study will be in the biochemistry/microbiology area. History is the chosen subject area for Charlotte Burgess, a University of Auckland graduate who will undertake her doctorate at Oxford University. Steven Sutton, another Otago graduate, will undertake a doctoral degree in law at Cambridge.

ENDS

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