Donnelly Brian: Education (Establishment of Universities of Technology) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Donnelly Brian: Education (Establishment of Universities of Technology) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:640;Page:10754] 
Hon BRIAN DONNELLY (NZ First) 
: 
 I move  
That the Education (Establishment of Universities of Technology) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. 
 At the appropriate time I intend to move that the bill be considered by the Education and Science Committee. 
In New Zealand we have a university of technology which is not a university of technology because there is no such thing as a university of technology. At the same time if we read between the lines of what the chair of the New Zealand Vice-Chancellors Committee told the Education and Science Committee as true neither is it a university—yet. This is not to malign that institution which is a fine one and which serves its students and New Zealand well; it is to point out the untidy state of affairs of the structure of our tertiary framework. This bill intends to tidy up the framework of our tertiary education system in order to future-proof it. 
The tensions in the framework arose from the decision in the early 1990s to allow institutions other than universities to teach and confer degrees; a decision I might say that Clarence Beeby had gently suggested as far back as 1956. Two factors combined to create a rapid rise in degree programmes at non-university institutions. The first factor was the “bums on seats” approach that dominated the 1990s tertiary education policy and that created incentives for institutions to rapidly develop degree programmes in a variety of areas. The second factor was the exponential growth in the sophistication and complexity of knowledge required for vocational and trade areas. 
Polytechnics and institutes of technology have come from a very different history and set of traditions than universities. Indeed the first mention of trades education is to be found in the laws of Hammurabi of Babylonia formulated around 1800BC about 1500 years before Plato developed his Academy and Aristotle his Lyceum—the forerunners of universities. Those two were very aristocratic institutions. 
In New Zealand our first university the University of Otago was established in 1869. The first lecture was given by G S Sale the professor of classics in which he claimed that education in Greek and Latin was of little value to a person whose life was to be spent in the ordinary trades or callings of a colony but they were the means to a liberal education that would enlarge one’s powers cultivate taste and refine the manner of him who obtained it. Within 5 years Parliament had passed an Act that absorbed the University of Otago as a college of the University of New Zealand. 
New Zealand polytechnics and institutes of technology can also trace their ancestry back more than a century. Although they are part of a national system of education today their roots lie not in some grand national plan but in a series of local initiatives from the 1880s to provide technical instruction for those who were among the nine out of 10 New Zealanders who went straight from primary school to work. The first such initiative was by the Wellington Education Board. When drawing became a compulsory subject in schools teachers needed to be taught to draw so the Wellington School of Design was established in 1886. 
 The point is this: society was able to function at the time with nine out of 10 young people entering work directly from primary school. It would be an absurdity to suggest that the same could happen today. That is a function of the increased complexity of our society and the greater levels of knowledge required in all fields of learning—in particular vocational learning. 
In certain fields the level of knowledge and skills required can no longer be publicly recognised with just certificate or diploma status. Degree titles are necessary. Ian Dougherty’s work  
Bricklayers and Mortarboards 
 chronicles how institutions such as Unitec have responded to that demand for developing levels of knowledge. Construction management quantity surveying and business studies in 1992 then later design nursing environmental studies engineering and landscape architecture are just a few of the areas where the level of knowledge justified degree status of the qualification in that domain. 
Nowhere is the case more clearly demonstrated than in medical imaging. Up until 1990 the school of radiology at Auckland Hospital taught students how to take X-rays. Diploma status for the qualification was justified. However medical imaging is one of the most rapidly developing areas of health treatment. Not only do graduates need to know about X-rays; they also need to know about computer tomography ultrasound magnetic resonance imaging nuclear medicine mammography and interventional radiology procedures. Clearly degree status in this field to master’s level is not only appropriate but required. 
As institutes of technology built larger and larger graduate portfolios it was inevitable they would want parity of esteem with universities for their qualifications. Therefore in 1996 both Unitec and the then Auckland Institute of Technology made application for a change of status. This led to a flurry of activity and the use of international panels to decide just what a university looked like beyond the vague definition in the Act. 
One of the criteria that was arrived at was telling. It was that a university could have only a small proportion of sub-degree programmes. That is in tune with the definition of a university in the Act which established that universities are primarily concerned with more advanced learning. The problem with this is that if an institution wants university status in order to achieve parity of esteem for its degrees it must first proportionately reduce its sub-degree programmes. This state of affairs creates all the wrong incentives. Not only are sub-degree programmes the strength of our institutes of technology but according to the recent Leitch report from Britain it is through increased participation in level 4 to 7 programmes that we create the greatest productivity gains for our national economy. Those level 4 to 7 programmes are the certificate and diploma trade and vocational programmes that are the very essence of these institutions. 
The horse has bolted on graduate programmes in institutions other than universities given that 16 percent of bachelor degrees are now taught by non-university institutions. The same could be said of postgraduate programmes but the horse is not so far out the gate. 
The submission by the New Zealand Vice-Chancellors Committee on the distinctive contributions of universities states that the Government must act to prevent further proliferation of degrees in non-research institutions. This may resolve the “bums on seats” problems but the tertiary reforms will do that. What it will not do is accommodate the pressure for recognition of increasingly complex and sophisticated knowledge in trade and vocational fields through graduate and postgraduate qualifications. What it will not do is resolve some of the gatekeeping behaviour of the universities through the 1990s. What it will not do is resolve the issue of duplication of teaching infrastructure which would result in degrees in these developing areas having to be taught by law within universities. What it will not replace is the within-institution scaffolding that is able to take place in for example the case of radiography and imaging. 
A new class of institution is needed that has the characteristics of both a university and a technical institution with significant sub-degree programmes. Degree programmes would be taught within a research-based environment but that research could be more applied scholarship and currency based than that of our current universities. A university of technology would have a different balance from that of a university as defined in the Act. 
 The argument is advanced that every polytechnic in the country will rush off and want to become a university of technology. The tertiary reforms provide the tools to prevent such a gold rush. The Tertiary Education Commission should not be allowing degree programmes that do not fill a specific need. Institutions would have to advance a clear case for any graduate or postgraduate qualification in an area of endeavour normally covered by certificate or diploma recognition. Genuine evolution of knowledge and skills could be accommodated while non-genuine claims could be rejected. Therefore this bill leading to NorthTec or Telford Rural Polytechnic becoming a university of technology could happen only if the Tertiary Education Commission was not doing its job. 
I therefore reiterate what I said at the beginning of my speech. This bill is about future-proofing our system for conferring tertiary degrees. I hope that parties in this House will see fit to support the bill through its first reading so that the issues raised can be fully explored through public submission. Thank you Madam Speaker.