The Government is to abolish the right of students and staff to seats on the councils that govern universities and wānanga within two years.
It announced today that it will go ahead with its proposal to reduce the size of the governing councils from a maximum of 20 members to between eight and 12.
Between three and four of the council members will be ministerial appointees, and there is a new requirement that Māori will be included on councils.
Tertiary Education Minister Steven Joyce says the changes will make university and wānanga councils more flexible.
The New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations has condemned the reforms as “ill-considered and unnecessary”, with president Daniel Haines arguing that councils will be left “dangerously unrepresentative of the communities that they are meant to serve”.
“It is ridiculous that under this proposal there will be no students as of right on University and Wānanga councils ... especially given that students are the stakeholder with the greatest interest in the long term performance of the institution,” he says.