ACT can reveal that Waikato University’s law faculty is giving students an automatic 10-day extension for assessments submitted past deadline.

A law lecturer has confirmed the policy in an email to ACT, saying a normal deadline policy “creates a burden for students.” A concerned Waikato University student has told ACT that their lecturer explained the policy was part of a wider effort to "decolonise" the assessment process.

ACT Tertiary Education spokesperson Dr Parmjeet Parmar is condemning the policy, saying:

"Instead of aspiring for excellence, Waikato University is making excuses for mediocrity. This is the kind of degradation of values that, if left unchecked, would send our universities tumbling down international rankings.

"Deadlines are a fundamental part of any professional environment, and law graduates in particular must be prepared for strict timeframes. The faculty is developing a culture that risks innocent New Zealanders being put in jail when their mollycoddled lawyers fail to submit documentation on time.

"Universities already have processes to grant extensions in cases of genuine hardship. Automatically granting extra time to everyone destroys the entire meaning of the deadline, and it disrespects the efforts of excellent students who work extremely hard to submit on time.

"Justifying lateness as a kind of decolonisation is ridiculous. It sends a message that Māori students cannot handle deadlines, which is untrue, and frankly offensive."

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