New Zealand must find better ways of bankrolling courses of “national significance” that attract just handfuls of students at each university, a wide-ranging review has been told.
Universities New Zealand (UNZ) said up to 3,500 students across the country were draining institutional resources by spreading themselves too thinly.
In a submission to the University Advisory Group (UAG), UNZ identified more than 20 “potentially strategic” disciplines – including geotechnical engineering, taxation law, translating, environmental health and obstetrics – where bachelor’s student numbers at each university averaged a dozen at most.
“Possibly as many as 2 per cent of all students are in programmes that are significantly loss-making for the institution due to very low enrolment volumes,” the submission says.
New Zealand should “ensure continuation” of these courses if they are crucial to the country or to students’ employment prospects, the submission argues. It notes that Victoria University of Wellington (VUW) and the University of Otago have teamed up to teach languages, with VUW delivering German and Otago handling Latin and Greek.
The submission says all eight universities could cooperate in delivering courses with low but consistent demand. A “host university” would be responsible for developing curricula, providing support and managing assessment. It could deliver online modules or in-person classes itself, or subcontract some of the work to an “entity” with the appropriate expertise and infrastructure.
But these approaches entail extra upfront and running costs, necessitating a “dedicated fund of some sort”, along with changes to rules around the subcontracting of teaching and the provision of loans and income support to students enrolled with multiple institutions.
Low-demand disciplines are among 17 issues raised in the second consultation phase of the UAG, one of two concurrent reviews commissioned by Christopher Luxon’s government.
The UAG’s interim report was due in August, but the Ministry of Education has postponed the deadline to the end of September. The group’s secretariat said it expected the report to be published later in the year, along with submissions lodged so far.
The New Zealand Association of Scientists (NZAS) warned that an “overemphasis” on “immediate employment pathways” risked eroding demand for – and ultimately undermining – crucial but little-studied subjects. It said the success of Rocket Lab, a New Zealand aerospace company now based in California, had coincided with “the effective loss of physics as a viable major at many universities”.
Students opt for engineering because of “perceived job security” even though “their primary interest lies elsewhere”, the association’s submission explains. This saps funding, and eventually quality, from “the physics teaching that underpins their degree”.
Universities should share teaching and content instead of competing for students, the submission says. “Teaching and research in academic disciplines with low demand should be supported through national-level funding and oversight,” it insists. “Today’s low-demand disciplines may become essential in the future.”
Tertiary education consultant Roger Smyth said any funding approach must be “underpinned” by student choice. “Research shows that students choose on the basis of their interests and aptitudes as well as their perception of their desired career,” his submission says. “Attempts to manage [enrolments funding] by other mechanisms usually have unfortunate consequences.”
The Tertiary Education Union said the “financialisation” of the sector had undermined the viability of low-demand disciplines by hindering cross-subsidisation. Its submission says nationwide “committees” of academic specialists should coordinate the delivery of strategically important subjects.
