30 April 1993 Lincoln Head Attacks Impediments to University Goals

Educational policy initiatives which will impede Lincoln University's ability to achieve its goals and those of the country as a whole were attacked by Lincoln University's Vice- Chancellor, Professor Bruce Ross, at today's graduation ceremony. (Fri.30 April)

Referring to "capital charging", which would see all tertiary institutions pay a levy on their capital assets for centralised redistribution later on the basis of student numbers, Professor Ross said the whole proposal was an "ill conceived concept to solve a problem which no longer existed".

Proponents of the scheme argue it will boost the efficient use of capital resources by making institutions better recognise the cost of capital.

Professor Ross said any such case could only relate to the time before 1990 when capital funds were provided to institutions separately from funds for operational use, and decisions were made about each without directly affecting the other.

"The situation today is quite different," he said. "All institutions are now given bulk funding grants to cover both operational and capital expenditures. Thus every dollar spent on capital is a dollar not available for expenditure on salaries, library books and the like.

"We have made enormous gains in efficiency since 1990 but nobody, least of all the Capital Charging Task Force, has been able to show me that a capital charge system will generate further efficiency gains."

Professor Ross attacked the impact it would have on gifts and bequests as a form of "confiscation". He also pointed out that universities, because of their research function, carried a higher level of assets per student than other tertiary institutions, and unless this was recognized there would be a draining away of resources from universities to the other institutions.

He said his blood ran cold when he learnt that the compensation policy of the capital charging proposal would be formulated by a working party of officials!

The other initiative criticised by Professor Ross in his address was the recommended change in university entrance standards from the gaining of four D grades or better in the University Bursary Examination to the gaining of three C grades or better.

He said he was "somewhat alarmed" by developments in this area.

"While few would anticipate a brilliant academic future for someone entering university with a bare four D grades, the criterion of four D grades or better includes people with, at one extreme, two As and two Ds, which I would argue is vastly better than three Cs. Yet, under the new criterion for 1994, the person with two As and two Ds would be excluded.

"It has always been recognized that students from small rural high schools can be disadvantaged in preparing for the bursary examination, and it is only when they start at university that they are able to compete on equal terms with other students and their true potential is revealed."

Professor Ross hoped that the authorities would consider the evidence now becoming available and look at ways of raising entry standards which would not exclude from university many of the school leavers who had the potential to contribute to the nation's wellbeing if they could be admitted to the appropriate education.

Ian Collins, Journalist, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand.