New strategy group a positive opportunity

By Professor Grant Edwards
Chair of the New Zealand Vice-Chancellors' Committee

Universities Minister Hon Dr Shane Reti convened the first meeting of the new Universities Strategy Group (USG) this month and it was a useful starting point.

It is a new initiative by Dr Reti following the report of the Universities Advisory Group, and the USG is designed to leverage the collective expertise of its members to support the university sector and act as a coordination point.

My colleagues and I left the first meeting feeling quietly positive. As current Chair of Universities New Zealand, I was joined by the past chair (Professor Cheryl de la Rey) and the future chair (Professor Neil Quigley) as representatives of New Zealand’s Vice-Chancellors. We will be working with senior leadership of the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment and the Tertiary Education Commission in the work to come.

The group will also have independent expert members and a representative of both the Public Research Organisations and the Prime Minister’s Science, Innovation and Technology Advisory Committee.

If the first meeting is an example, the USG has the potential to provide opportunities for open and useful conversations between those of us at the coal face of the sector, the government, and those partnering us in spaces such as research and science. While a high-level conversation, it felt like there was a genuine desire to understand the situation and issues for our sector.

The Tertiary Education Strategy was top of the agenda for the meeting, along with international education and the role which universities will need to play to meet the Government’s growth targets. Each university has its own international student strategy and is working actively in the space, so it was useful to be able to consider how all the parties could work together to achieve their aims.

We talked about quality assurance in universities, and the work Universities New Zealand is doing to review and refresh how our institutions collectively ensure we are offering quality programmes and qualifications and excellent student experiences.

My conclusion after this first meeting was the USG will provide universities with a useful voice at a government table shared with independent experts, relevant sector leaders and senior officials. It also provides a chance to raise issues which are important to us as a sector.

These might include workforce planning for universities or the research and innovation sector, or how to support our early career researchers. The role and impact of the humanities, arts and social sciences and its value to society might also be a future topic.

A dedicated space for Government and the university sector to have regular dialogue, to foster understanding and build relationships, can only be constructive for us all.