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Joyce railroads with merger
Joyce railroads with merger
09 December 2015
The community has been ignored in Tertiary Education Minister Steven Joyce’s decision today to merge Waiariki and Bay of Plenty Polytechnics.
Of the 106 submissions, only 23 agreed or strongly agreed with the proposal, eight were neutral and the vast majority - 75 - opposed.
“But Minister Joyce has decided to railroad this merger through despite widespread opposition in the community” says national student president Rory McCourt.
He says it was inappropriate for Minister Joyce to accept the revised business case, after rejecting the first one and few credible changes being made in the second.
“It looks like numbers have been plucked out of the air to get this thing to stack up. But these new predictions are baseless, except to make this merger look cheaper on paper. We’ll be keeping a close eye on whether these fantasy figures come to fruition.”
“Ostensibly it seems the institutions were told the merger was too expensive by Minister Joyce, so they changed figures here and sums there, and voilà it suddenly stacks up. But when we dig into the revised business case we see it relies on a magic $1m reduction in redundancy costs, and 140 extra international students, among other fudging.”
Waiariki currently has 1,114 equivalent full time international students who make up 20% currently of their student body. The revised proposal expects an extra 340 international students will join them.
“Where will they live, where will they work? How will the new institution attract and retain them? This is especially concerning given the recent revelations about international agents misleading prospective students about their life in New Zealand. Corners are cut when institutions are desperate to attract those students –after all there will be $12m riding on attracting these students.
Mr McCourt says there are major questions about the process. He says there was inadequate consultation with students, and a strong feeling amongst students and staff that the decision was made months, if not years, ago. Commitments have not been made to keep the range of courses where they are currently located beyond the first year.
He says the two tests for the new institution will be if local provision continues across the Bay, and if independent student voices continue to be supported. Throughout the merger process the national union has been concerned about a lack of tolerance from one of the institutions to critical student views, including allegedly censoring on-campus access to the Keep Wairaiki Local website.
ENDS
NZUSA - New Zealand Union of Students' Associations
We stand for opportunity, for all.
NZUSA is the New Zealand Union of Students' Associations, the national body that represents New Zealand's students' associations and the interests of New Zealand's 400,000 students at universities, polytechnics and in trades training.
We conduct original research, advocate to Government and through the media, and support New Zealand's students' associations to be more effective on behalf of their members. We advocate alongside Te Mana Akonga – The National Māori Students' Association, and Tertiary Women New Zealand – The NZUSA Women's Caucus.
Since 1929, we've believed in a society rich in opportunity, where anyone from anywhere can become any thing. We support accessible, affordable quality public tertiary education.
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