A new “university strategy group” will drive policy improvements and “collective decision-taking” by giving effect to New Zealand’s revamped tertiary education strategy, under plans to be announced by universities minister Shane Reti at the ɫ��ֱ�� Campus Live ANZ event in Christchurch.

The new group is expected to meet for the first time in October, at least a month before the new strategy is approved. The strategy will be “anchored” in the government’s “” agenda to accelerate economic progress, and will have a “statutory” function in guiding how the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) assesses universities’ plans and allocates funding.

Currently, a five-year-old strategy “is not aligned with our government’s priorities, especially our Going for Growth agenda”, Reti explains in a cabinet paper. “While it remains in force, it constrains the TEC’s ability to give effect to these priorities.”

The government will also replace the Performance-Based Research Fund (PBRF) – which allocates some NZ$315 million (£138 million) a year of block grants – with a new Tertiary Research Excellence Fund guided by metrics instead of labour-intensive assessment exercises.

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Metrics will include weighted citations and other yet-to-be developed indicators, while the “external research income” measure – responsible for distribution of 20 per cent of PBRF funding – will be “amended to give greater priority to user-led research”. The changes will be phased in during 2027 and 2028, applying fully from 2029.

The announcements head the government’s response to the recommendations from the University Advisory Group (UAG), which lodged its final report in April. The report and the government’s plans are now being released, along with a one-page draft of the new strategy.

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The government has also directed the Ministry of Education to review the regulatory framework for quality assurance, in accordance with the UAG’s recommendation that it devolve more responsibility to individual institutions. Wellington is also considering changes to university governance. “This work is at a very early stage,” a fact sheet stresses.

Taxpayers will not have to pay more because of the changes, with the PBRF overhaul “implemented within existing baselines” and the new strategy group’s expenses covered by the Education Ministry’s “system stewardship appropriation”. Any change to overall funding will be “considered in future budgets”, the cabinet paper adds.

The government has disagreed or largely disagreed with 17 of the UAG’s 63 recommendations, and deferred another 10 for further consideration. The main area of dispute concerns the panel’s proposal for a “NZ Universities Council”, administratively separate from the rest of the tertiary education sector, to handle “strategic policy development and oversight”.  

Its functions would include allocating funding, monitoring performance, approving qualifications, overseeing university self-audits, advising on interventions, defining the university system’s objectives and overseeing its evolution into a “more differentiated” sector.

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“New Zealand must develop mechanisms to treat the universities as a system rather than eight poorly integrated institutions,” the report says. “Current arrangements mean that the university sector does not receive dedicated consideration.”

Reti emphatically rejected this advice. “The UAG’s proposed machinery of government changes [do not] justify the disruption, delays, cost and uncertainty they would create,” he told cabinet colleagues. “Separating universities from the broader tertiary education system would not serve the national interest or help to drive economic growth and better outcomes for students.”

Representative group Universities New Zealand (UNZ) endorsed the government’s approach. “We’re pleased that the group is being formed in a way that does not undermine the autonomy of universities,” said UNZ chair Grant Edwards, vice-chancellor of Lincoln University. “We see real value in helping the minister to identify and navigate opportunities and issues in the university sector and to provide advice on these.”

The group will be chaired by Reti, with one of up to three “independent” members – including a seasoned academic with no administrative role – acting as deputy chair. Up to three vice-chancellors will be included along with numerous civil servants.

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Edwards bemoaned the government’s deferral or disagreement with most of the panel’s 10 recommendations on funding. He said a 29 per cent inflationary surge since 2018 had coincided with an increase of just 18 per cent in teaching subsidies and no boost whatsoever to research allocations.

“We are continuing to find funding challenging, in particular funding for the numbers of domestic students who want to attend our universities,” he said. “Better strategies and different measures will not be enough.”

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The panel warned that “greater investment” would “likely be needed” to ensure that New Zealand’s universities met the country’s future needs. But the government said universities’ performance was “constrained by available resources, as for all other public entities”.

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com