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Students congratulate world-ranked universities

Students congratulate world-ranked universities, hit out at ‘unnecessary’ council changes

30 April 2015


The New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations (NZUSA), which speaks on behalf of the interests of New Zealand’s 400,000 tertiary students, congratulates New Zealand’s eight universities for their stellar performance in the QS World University rankings.

National student president Rory McCourt says the result shows that New Zealand’s universities are performing well despite their limited funding compared with international competitors.

“New Zealand’s open, egalitarian, state-funded university system is world-class. With some of the best academics in the world, we enable the brightest and hardest-working students to succeed. This result shows New Zealand can do battle with the best.”

“These rankings are important in many respects: they account for class sizes, the academic reputation of a university and the citation of research internationally. What they don’t show is the transformative effect tertiary education has for hundreds of thousands of Kiwis.”

“We invest in universities not to ascend abstract rankings, but to build a society rich in opportunity, discovery and debate. We invest so that everyone has a shot at changing their lives and the lives of others for the better.”

McCourt says the performance shows the Government’s unnecessary restructuring of university councils is a problem in search of a solution.

“If it ain't broke, don’t fix it. According to the QS Rankings, our universities certainly aren’t broken. Steven Joyce must be red-faced today.”

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The restructuring removes the legislative requirement to have democratically elected staff and students, and lifts the Minister’s appointments to between a third and three-eighths of the new councils. Joyce has said the changes are need to improve the performance of universities.

“Our universities are already succeeding, even if Steven Joyce isn’t backing them. And they’re succeeding precisely because they have educators and learners driving their improvement. Why would we risk that?”

“Results like this show the value staff and students bring to the council table. We build great universities through our insights and experience. I encourage all New Zealanders to submit to their local or alma mater university and speak up for keeping staff and students on Steven Joyce’s new, politically-dominated councils. ” says McCourt.

NZUSA and the Tertiary Education Union are running a campaign to keep staff and students on the new university councils, a decision taken by each council individually. You can submit here http://www.actionstation.org.nz/councils


ENDS

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