Disappointment over loss of student, staff voice

Disappointment over loss of student, staff voice

The Auckland University Students’ Association is disappointed with the changes made to the membership of the University of Auckland Council yesterday. The Council voted to reduce the number of elected student and staff members to three, only one quarter of the Council’s membership.

The change was prompted by the Education Amendment Act 2015, which was passed under urgency through Parliament early this year despite widespread opposition from universities, staff, and students across New Zealand. The law mandates that university councils must be between 8 and 12 members - making them among the smallest in the world. The Minister has kept their four appointees by right, while all other positions are up to each university to decide.

AUSA Vice President Will Matthews says “We’ve been stuck with a law we did not think was necessary and given the chance to make the best of a bad situation by backing students and staff to have a strong voice on the new councils.”

“Sadly, our university has failed to take that opportunity. The community was ignored by Parliament, and it has now been ignored by our own university.”

Matthews says that the overwhelming majority of people who submitted to the university-run consultation said they wanted at least a third of the new council to be students, staff and alumni representatives.

“The Council opted not to prioritise those interacting daily with students. The result is a Council where only two members are directly involved at the coalface of teaching, learning and researching. Those perspectives that make the University unique will inevitably be drowned out, and the Council will sorely miss the experience and skills that multiple academic staff bring to the table.”

“The legislation is an unnecessary ‘fix’ to a non-existent problem, and there is no evidence to suggest that it will improve university governance,” says Matthews.

“While the legislation has placed institutions between a rock and a hard place,
the result is a Council where genuine and experienced voices from within the community are removed. Students and staff are at the core of the university experience, and the University has played into the hands of the Minister by side-lining their perspective.

“These changes are out of step with international practice, and undermine the fundamental purpose of a university,” he adds.

The University of Auckland Council’s decision also places it at odds with the position of the Tertiary Education Union and the New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations. The unions campaigned for independent, democratically-elected students and staff to make up one third of council members.

Academic and student councillors voted against the proposed changes to the Council constitution.

ENDS

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