Education Amendment Bill (No 2) Factsheet

FACTSHEET

The Education Amendment Act (No 2) The government wants to remove democratically elected student and staff representatives from university and wānanga councils. It plans to pass a new law through Parliament in coming months to do this. These changes are serious attacks on independent, democratic councils that represent our local communities. We are encouraging everyone involved in primary, secondary and tertiary education is to take a simple short action to stop these changes. Make a submission to Parliament’s education select committee.

The government wants to make three significant changes to university and wānanga councils:

1. Remove elected student and staff representatives Currently councils comprise elected student representatives, elected academic and general staff representatives, four ministerial appointees, the chief executive or vice-chancellor, and seats for employer and employee representatives in the area. Under the proposed new rules the minister will appoint three or four councillors and the rest of the council will be appointed (not elected) by the council itself.

The minister has a very poor record of appointing diverse representative councils. So far, he has appointed just one Māori out of his thirty appointments, and no Pasifika. Students have elected far more Māori onto councils than the minister has appointed. Women make up just 16 percent of the minister’s appointees, but they make up 46 percent of elected staff representatives.

We believe councils should include democratically elected representatives Where possible, positions on councils should be filled through open and democratic methods. Ministerial appointments should be a last step, not a first, to ensure a balance of skills and talents on the governing body.

2. Smaller councils At the moment councils can have between 12 to 20 members, the government wants councils of 8 to 12 members There is no evidence that smaller councils make better decisions or faster decisions. There is not a single university in the world’s top 200 that has a council as small as eight. Most of the world’s top universities have larger councils than all New Zealand universities (Oxford, 23,

COUNCIL DEMOCRACY http://ProtectOurVoic.es

WHY WE CAN WIN: The government has a wafer thin majority of one vote as it tries to pass this law through Parliament.

Furthermore, it only has a short time before it closes down for the election.

These two factors mean we have a unique opportunity to prevent this bill becoming law.

WE NEED YOUR HELP: Even if you have never made a submission before, or do not feel you know much about Parliament, now is the time to take a small action – fill in an individual submission form at: ProtectOurVoic.es

Cambridge 25, MIT, 72, Harvard, 32, Stanford, 33) and all have guaranteed stakeholder representation.

We know that smaller councils tend to result in less diverse councils. That means less space for women, for Māori, for Pasifika. Councils that hear fewer voices make less considered decisions and can be too easily dominated by one way of thinking.

We believe councils should be representative of their local communities.

Tertiary education institutions represent a range of local communities, including students, staff, local Māori, alumni and the surrounding local town or city. These communities should all be able to see themselves represented on their local council.

3. Appoint council members because of their management skills and experience.

It is likely that councils could comprise almost exclusively ministerial appointees primarily from business, accountancy and the legal sector. The current tertiary education minister’s record on appointments is heavily biased in favour of business rather than education. 86 percent of his appointments are CEOs, company directors, accountants or commercial lawyers. Councils need some of these skills but they also need people who know about education and about their local communities. For instance, minister has appointed only one person with a background in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (so-called “STEM”) subjects.

We believe councils should be independent, both of government and of business.

Councils need to be visibly independent from all external influences, including government and business, so they can protect academic freedom, undertake their role as critic and conscience of society and, when needed, act as an independent voice speaking truth to power.

Make a submission To stop these law changes we need your help. We need to campaign against the bill and tell the government we want independent, democratic, councils that represent our local communities. Councils that represent people make the wisest academic decisions.

The government needs to hear our voices. Talking to MPs on the select committee dealing with the bill is one of the most important ways we can slow down the bill before the election and make government consider the implications of its actions. It also helps guide our allies in Parliament who are working to stop the law changes going through.

It’s really important that we get lots of submissions from members - and lots of people asking to speak to the committee. Write your own or a group submission. It only needs to be brief - one or two paragraphs saying who you are, where you work and why this Bill matters to you. In particular we encourage you to use real examples from your life where the changes proposed in this Bill will make things worse.

To make a submission go to our website and download our simple submission form and instructions on how to fill it in.

http://ProtectOurVoic.es

WHY WE CAN WIN: The government has a wafer thin majority of one vote as it tries to pass this law through Parliament.

Furthermore, it only has a short time before it closes down for the election.

These two factors mean we have a unique opportunity to prevent this bill becoming law.

WE NEED YOUR HELP: Even if you have never made a submission before, or do not feel you know much about Parliament, now is the time to take a small action – fill in an individual submission form at: ProtectOurVoic.es