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A lecturers’ union says it is afraid that Tertiary Education Minister Steven Joyce might shrink University Councils and stack them with ministerial appointees. The Tertiary Education Union’s (TEU) National Secretary Sharn Riggs says any changes replacing staff and student representatives with ministerial appointees would be “an attack on democracy and on academic freedom.”

In 2009, the government passed the Education (Polytechnics) Amendment Act that, amongst other things, reduced the size of polytechnic councils from a maximum of 20 members to eight and allowed the government to appoint half of them. The Minister has since appointed dozens of polytechnic council members, some of whom have been controversial.

One of Joyce’s most contentious appointments is Mary Bourke, whom Joyce reappointed as chairperson of the Western Institute of Technology in Taranaki. A letter from the Institute’s staff in March called on Joyce to sack Bourke. The letter alleged, amongst other things, that Bourke had bullied staff.

The Minister already has the ability to appoint some university council members, and his choices so far appear to reflect his desire that “universities take a more entrepreneurial approach.” ANZCO Foods chairman Sir Graeme Harrison, whose subsidiary company CMP locked out 100 workers from its Rangitikei meatworks in December 2011, was appointed to the Lincoln University council in July this year. PricewaterhouseCoopers partner and former Meridian Energy director Catherine Drayton joined the Canterbury University council at the same time.

TEU communications and campaigns officer Stephen Day told Critic that ministerial appointees had voted for funding cuts for a number of courses. He feared that if the appointments process was extended to universities, ministerial appointees could force further cuts on unwilling university communities. “At the University of Canterbury last year, when they were looking to close up theatre programmes, the council was able to engage in democratic debate. They eventually overturned the proposal put forward by the Vice-Chancellor and backed by ministerial appointees. If that vote had gone ahead without the staff and students there, then that would have been a different outcome.”

A spokesperson for Joyce did not respond to Critic’s questions regarding current polytechnic council appointments or possible changes to university councils, insisting only that any decision was “weeks away.”