Tertiary education minister, Hon Steven Joyce, announced 78 appointees to 20 polytechnic councils yesterday. His four appointees to each council, including the chair and deputy chair will assume an effective voting majority on the reduced eight-person councils from the beginning of next month.

Of the 78 appointees, 33 were existing council members and 45 new ones, with two more appointments yet to be made. Each council’s other four community representative appointees are also yet to be made – except at SIT where the current council appears to have reappointed chair, Graham Cooney, and deputy chair, Sarah Brown, thus allowing Mr Joyce a further two appointees.

TEU national president, Dr Tom Ryan, said the appointments were not representative of the sector.

“Looking through the names it appears that not one single staff member has been appointed to the council of their own polytechnic. Indeed, out of 78 names only a handful seem to be currently working as academic or general staff at any tertiary institution at all.”

Most appointees came predominantly from a business background.

“As individuals they are all skilled and respected people in their community. As a group though they do not reflect the diverse educational challenges that polytechnics face,” Dr Ryan said.

The New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations (NZUSA) was also unimpressed, saying it continued the Government’s steps in limiting community and student voices from their own institutions.

“Students will be concerned that there may be too great a focus on business and finances alone, and the student experience could lose out to so-called efficiency drives which may come at the expense of quality and the range of courses offered,” said NZUSA co-president, Pene Delaney.

NZUSA and the TEU welcomed numerous Māori appointees to the councils, but both note that only 20 of the 78 were women.

More coverage here from Radio NZ, the Otago Daily Times and the Timaru Herald.