Universities New Zealand-Te Pōkai Tara launched

Universities New Zealand-Te Pōkai Tara launched

The New Zealand Vice-Chancellors’ Committee will launch its new name, Universities New Zealand-Te Pōkai Tara, and associated visual imagery at Parliament tonight. The event, hosted by Tertiary Education Minister Steven Joyce, is being held to inform the organisation’s stakeholders of the change and explain the reasoning behind the re-brand.

The combination of high demand for university places and a constrained funding environment featuring enrolment caps present New Zealand universities with a set of challenges that are unprecedented in recent times. “More than ever, now is the time for our universities to speak with a unified voice as we respond to these challenges,” says Universities NZ Chair Derek McCormack.

“The name Universities New Zealand-Te Pōkai Tara will help us to accomplish this. It offers us easier name recognition as we seek to remind the public about the vital role that universities play in New Zealand society,” he says.

University teaching and research are central to New Zealand’s future growth. Graduates enter the workforce highly skilled and prepared to take on the increasingly complex problems we face. They earn higher salaries and contribute disproportionately to government revenues.

Universities are key contributors to New Zealand’s research, science and technology sector. They employ over half the country’s research staff, have the bulk of its fundamental research capability and train nearly all its postgraduate students - the researchers and professionals of the future that the country will rely upon to drive innovation and productivity.

Beyond the significant economic returns that taxpayers get from their investment in universities, universities provide equally important social and cultural returns to the country.

The name Universities New Zealand-Te Pōkai Tara (Universities NZ) follows the convention adopted by similar organisations in other countries, such as Universities Australia and Universities UK. Over the years, the work of the organisation has grown from its original statutory roles of quality assurance in universities and the administration of scholarships to include policy, advocacy and promotional functions.

The visual imagery associated with the re-brand comes from the Māori component of the new name, Te Pōkai Tara, which represents a flock of Caspian Terns, the largest species of tern and an inhabitant of New Zealand’s shores, moving together on a journey upwards. It evokes a connection with the source of knowledge and it carries with it a sense of the awakening that university education can provide.

“While we retain the name New Zealand Vice-Chancellors’ Committee in order to exercise our statutory functions and powers, the name Universities New Zealand-Te Pōkai Tara will be our public face, as it more accurately conveys the role we play as peak body representing New Zealand’s eight universities,” says Universities NZ Executive Director Penny Fenwick.

“As Universities New Zealand-Te Pōkai Tara, we will continue to work together with the government, industry and others to make sure New Zealanders enjoy the maximum benefits – cultural, social and economic – from their investment,” Derek McCormack concludes.

ENDS

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