Salient. Newspaper of the Victoria University Students' Association. Vol 42 No. 13. June 11 1979
Merv Mumbles
Merv Mumbles
Now that the cuts in university spending are out in the open, Mery Wellington is finally coming out of his shell and offering his suggestions on how the cuts can be made. It appears however that there is considerable confusion between the views of the Minister who imposed the cuts and those bodies that actually have to implement them.
Printed below is a transcript of an interview with the Minister on Radio New Zealand last Monday.
Radio New Zealand: "The University Grants Committee estimates the cost of electricity rises this year will be 1314 'million dollars throughout the universities. This on top of the three million dollar cut announced last week means 4 out of 6 Universities will have to find ways of saving nearly a million dollars this year. While Universities maintain that the long term effects of the cuts will be drastic the Minister of Education, the Hon. M. L Wellington doesn't agree."
Mery Wellington: "Well, what I would expect the Universities to do is to look towards rationalising their courses, ah.......we already have a degree of rationalisation, there are only a number of engineering schools.....there are only a limited number of medical schools, there is only one dentistry school. We may well have reached the the time in New Zealand where we have to extend that principle across other courses."
"Well do you think there is an argument for perhaps closing some departments in some Universities?
"Where there is very little justification for maintaining those I would think it was a fair proposition to examine that yes!"
"What kind of courses would you be thinking of there?"
"Well some of the um.......perhaps Romance Languages to name one as an extreme example Susan.....the very sorts of areas where there is considerable duplication from University to University!"
"How do you retort if the Universities decided that they should restrict entry to students?""
Well that would be contrary to Government attitude and Government policy and Government philosophy and I think there has been a degree of over-reaction in recent days and I will just repeat that I believe the Universities will have to look towards rationalisation and I don't think um...... that it is an unfair exercise for them to take on board. What in fact we do have is an expenditure level of $160,000,000 a year and that for a student population of about 42,000 and the Universities really in effect are being asked to do no more and no less than other sectors of State activity and that is take a restraint for the moment."
$ 109.0 million | block grant |
$ 26.4 million | bursaries, scholarships fellowships etc. |
$ 25.0 million | buildings |
While the Minister is entitled to his views, it is not one that is shared by the universities themselves. Dr Robin Irvine, Chairman of the New Zealand Vice-Chancellors' Committee said that the Minister was incorrect, when he announced that he assumed that the saving asked for could be made in non-salary items. At Vic anyway it seems that a large portion of the cut will come from savings in the salary area, mainly through non-appointment of staff.
While the Universities are extremely reluctant to make cuts in salary items, they, if not the Minister, have realised that it will be simply impossible, without effectively ruining the universities, to make the cuts in non-salary items alone. It's hard to say if Mery has recognised this or not In one breath he states that the cuts can be made in non-salary items, yet in the next he asserts that the universities should 'rationalise' some of their courses. In governmental parlance one can interchange the two words 'rationalise' and 'eliminate'.
So Mery is asking for universities to eliminate courses - in other words make a saving by sacking staff (or that would be the inference if Mery had not already said he didn't want, or think it necessary that, the cuts to come out of salary items.)
Also in the interview Mery says that he doesn't want the universities to move to the principle of restricted entry. Yet Auckland University is currently adopting a policy that is very close to just that. Furthermore Dr Johns (Chairman of the University Grants Committee) has said that in his opinion, if long term cuts are made, the universities will have to institute restricted entry.
1. | That he doesn't think the universities should make the saving demanded of them by cutting expenditure in salary items. But that the universities should make savings by deleting entire departments and (presumably) sacking the staff formerly employed by them. |
2. | That universities should not adopt restricted entry, Even Though the UGC has said that the Minister's proposals are going to 'force' the universities to do just that. |
Do you feel confident with a Minister of Education like that?