Steven Joyce

Wellington, April 15 NZPA - The polytech staff union TEU has blasted a major round of appointments to polytech councils, saying no staff members have made it on to their own councils.

Tertiary Education Minister Steven Joyce announced 78 appointees to 20 polytech councils yesterday.

The councils were reduced in size by a law change last year -- from between 12 and 20 members down to eight, with four appointed by the tertiary education minister.

Of the 78, 33 were existing council members and 45 new ones, with two more to be made by the Government. Community representative appointees are yet to be made.

TEU national president Dr Tom Ryan said the appointments were not representative of the sector.

"Looking through the names it appears that not one single staff member has been appointed to the council of their own polytechnic. Indeed, out of 78 names only a handful seem to be currently working as academic or general staff at any tertiary institution at all."

Most appointees came predominantly from a business background.

As individuals they are all skilled and respected people in their community. As a group though they do not reflect the diverse educational challenges that polytechnics face," Dr Ryan said

"The minster thinks that imposing an eight member business member model board on the ITP sector is going to significantly improve outcomes. We dispute this. Our newspapers are full of stories of such business governance structures that have failed."

The New Zealand Union of Students' Associations (NZUSA) was also unimpressed, saying it continued the Government's steps in limiting community and student voices from their own institutions.

"We are very concerned that this new path the Government is taking with the governance of the polytechnic sector further isolates key stakeholders in the debate around quality," said NZUSA co-president Pene Delaney.

"Students will be concerned that there may be too great a focus on business and finances alone, and the student experience could lose out to so-called efficiency drives which may come at the expense of quality and the range of courses offered," she said.

"It is very hard to see how councils focused largely on business and efficiency outcomes will balance the minister's previous calls for enhanced and strengthened pastoral care," she said.

The union welcomed numerous Maori appointees to the councils, but said only 20 of the 78 were women.

Mr Joyce said the appointments would help strengthen the performance of the polytechnics which played a vital role in the country's educational and economic future.