Bishop Chris: Education (Restoration of Democracy to University Councils) Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBishop Chris: Education (Restoration of Democracy to University Councils) Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 02 December 2015. Volume:710;Page:8501. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CHRIS BISHOP (National): In contrast to the previous speaker David Clendon I want to make the point that this is not a well-conceived bill. This is a bill that seeks to undo something that Parliament considered only about 2 years ago and something that was advanced for very good reasons.Mr Cunliffe when he introduced this bill—in his remarks in the first reading of this bill—placed the bill and the reasons for its advancement within the general context of the policies that the Government has advanced towards tertiary education. I want to address a couple of the points that he said. What was his first major point? His first major argument was that the Government has underfunded tertiary education—well nothing could be further from the truth. Since 2008 when we inherited Government in the teeth of the global financial crisis we have increased tertiary spending by 14.4 percent. University funding is up 20 percent since 2008. So the claim by Mr Cunliffe that the Government has underfunded tertiary education is just simply not borne out by the facts. Tertiary funding and university funding in particular has increased far in excess of inflation.What was his second claim? Well his second claim was that the Government is failing students—that the tertiary system is simply failing to provide for students. Again nothing could be further from the truth. You could look at a plethora of statistics that the Government puts out on this or that the universities provide to the Government which then get published to prove this. I just want to point to two particular metrics that indicate that this is a tertiary system under this Government that is performing. For example in 2013 the university system—the tertiary system—produced the highest number of Bachelor’s degrees ever. The highest number of Bachelor’s degrees ever up 23 percent since 2010 in just 3 years.Something that I am particularly proud of is the performance of Māori and Pasifika students because they have historically underperformed both in our secondary education system and in particular in our university system. Well the gains that Māori are making are quite remarkable under this Government. For example the number of Bachelor’s degrees achieved by Māori is up 46 percent since 2010. Take a look at Pasifika—quite remarkable—up 68 percent since 2008. A 68 percent increase in the number of Bachelor’s degrees. So Mr Cunliffe’s second claim that the system is failing is simply wrong.What about his claim that the tertiary system is dependent on foreign students? You know the members opposite have a very odd attitude towards foreign students. And I have heard Tracey Martin—I missed her speech before—rail against foreign students before. Actually international students are a vital source of foreign exchange for universities but also for this country. They provide jobs; they create economic growth including in our regions; and they are extremely important. So again this is not about increasing dependence on foreign students.What else has the Government said? And in particular I want to respond to David Clendon’s remarks about the critic and conscience of society. Does this bill destroy the independence of universities? Does it take away from that important role of universities as the critic and conscience of society? Absolutely not. That section of the Education Act 1989 is completely unchanged.Does this bill increase the Government’s control of universities? No it does not. The Government currently appoints around a third of council members to universities; it will still appoint around a third of members to councils. Chris Hipkins actually in a somewhat odd contribution to the debate did make the point that the Government is an important stakeholder in universities and in tertiary education because it is the majority funder of tertiary education. Most students out there at universities will not know that the Government is funding 72 percent of their degrees on average at universities.This is not a good bill. The Government’s changes back in 2013 were all about flexibility and were all about introducing greater skills-based people for these university councils in the context of a world of massive online open courses or MOOCs as they are called and in the context of a world of increasing international competition from China from India and from other countries in the developing world. In an environment in which we want our students to be internationally connected and we want our universities to be globally connected the changes made by the Government were sensible and prudent and therefore this bill should fail.