TEU Te Tumu Whakarae, Dr Tom Ryan, says that if businesses want to meet the needs of their communities and customers, they should change their governance structures to more closely reflect those used by public tertiary institutions.

Dr Ryan’s comments follow a story by the Education Review last week that showed that the Government was in fact considering the opposite: scaling back the diversity of polytechnic councils to reflect the failed model of private business.

“E raka ana te mauĀ« me te matau. I think it is worth asking whether we would have the levels of unsustainable private debt and economic vulnerability if more of our businesses’ boards had worker representatives, customer representatives, iwi and community representatives, on them.”

“There’s no doubt that, on the whole, polytechnic councils are delivering very good value for money given the pūtea (funding) they receive. Generally they are also working closely with their stakeholders and local community in innovative and exciting ways to give tauira real learning opportunities.”  They are working hard to drive our much needed recovery.”

NZUSA Tumuaki, Sophia Blair, has said the Government’s proposal to move away from a representative model of governance for polytechnics is alarming:

“The proposed changes to representative governance are completely at odds with the Government’s previously stated agenda in tertiary education which demands the sector be responsive to the needs of its communities, learners and industry,” said Blair. “How does the Government expect to provide appropriate education and ensure robust decision-making at the highest levels when it removes the very mechanism for ensuring this can happen?” asked Blair.

“We are deeply concerned at the manner in which this proposal has been developed – it has been secretive, appears baseless in its recommendations, and is entirely without adequate consultation. For such significant changes, this is extremely poor process and totally unacceptable”, said Blair.