Wananga may face Serious Fraud Office inquiry

13 June 2012

Wananga may face Serious Fraud Office inquiry

The Maori tertiary provider Awanuiarangi may be facing a Serious Fraud Office inquiry as a result of persisting in describing itself as an “indigenous university” despite the fact that in doing so, it is breaching the Education Act.

An initial complaint was lodged with Tertiary Education Minister Steven Joyce by Ngapuhi leader David Rankin, who criticised the wananga on the basis that it was misleading Maori students. He argued that students are being told they are graduating from a university when that was incorrect. “They are being sold and paying for a university qualification but are ending up with a Wananga certificate instead,” he said.

Mr Rankin cited the UNITEC precedent a few years ago, when it was ordered to remove the word “university” from its logo when describing itself as the “university of the future”.

The Awanuiarangi case was raised with the Minister two weeks ago by Mr Rankin, but yesterday, Mr Rankin was contacted by a Ministry of Education employee – who requested anonymity – who advised him that concerns over Awanuiarangi’s illegal identification as a university were raised by the New Zealand university collective (representing the country’s eight universities) in February this year, and that the Minister’s office has known about the problem since then.

NZQA (the New Zealand Qualifications Authority) has also known about Awanuiarangi’s false claim to be a university for the past five months but is waiting for an instruction from the Minister before acting.

Mr Rankin, who chairs the Hone Heke Foundation, which provides scholarships to Northland students wishing to undertake tertiary education, has meanwhile proposed a two-part remedy for the current situation: “Firstly, Awanuiarangi should erase the word ‘university’ from all its documentation and advertising, and secondly, those students who enrolled under the false belief that they were studying at a university should be entitled to a 50 percent refund of their fees”.

Mr Rankin has promised that if the Tertiary Education Minister does not apply the Education Act to Awanuirangi with respect to its claim to be a university, he will take the matter to the Serious Fraud Office. “Urgency is now called for”, he says, “we need this issue resolved before the semester two intake of students joins the list of those students already deceived by Awanuiarangi.”

ENDS

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