22 April 1994 Lincoln Head Pleads for Stable Environment for Universities

New Zealand universities must have a stable economic environment in which to operate if they are to carry out the long-term planning and the search for new and innovative ways of teaching which the Government wishes to encourage, said Lincoln's Vice-Chancellor, Professor Bruce Ross, at the University's Graduation Ceremony in Christchurch  today  (22 April).

New Zealand universities had problems with government policy because of the uncertainty as to what government policy really was, he said.

"As the economy has been reformed in recent years, much has been made of the need for government to provide a stable economic environment to enable private sector firms to undertake medium to long-term planning.

"We believe that the same need applies to the tertiary education sector where many of the bigger institutions are very large businesses likely to be making investment decisions involving tens of millions of dollars, mostly of a long-term nature."

In his address Professor Ross attacked the Government's proposed university capital levy scheme as "reflecting an understanding of the tertiary sector the way it was before 1990". He said it would provide no efficiency benefits, would be expensive to run and would be contrary to the Government's overall efficiency objectives.

He also attacked the "leaked" discussion point about students perhaps paying 70-80 percent of the costs of their education. If implemented it would have "horrendous consequences for our society and economy", he said, and would lead to a dramatic reduction in the enrolment of New Zealand students at tertiary institutions.

On the subject of the internationalisation of New Zealand education, Professor Ross said he hoped that the Government would come to appreciate the "tremendous public benefits" to be gained from it and recommend increased expenditure rather than withdraw  support for the efforts being made to promote New Zealand as an education destination.

In a future world of increasingly borderless business, more and more New Zealanders would be employed by overseas companies and work overseas, he said, and the people who succeeded in those circumstances would be those who knew how to live and work with other cultures, knew that differences were to be respected, and that basic similarities could unite all.

Lincoln, he pointed out, now had students from 42 overseas countries and their numbers made up 15 percent of the total student roll.

A record 750 students graduated from Lincoln University with degrees and diplomas at its Graduation Ceremony today (22 April). For the first time the ceremony was held off-campus, in Christchurch Town Hall, the size of the ceremony now outstripping any campus venue.

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