Chances are that the Government is congratulating itself for persuading universities to freeze student tuition fees. Auckland, Massey, Victoria and Otago have all agreed that fees in 2001 will be unchanged from this year. The tradeoff is a 2.3 per cent increase in their bulk-funding grant.
At one level, the Government is, indeed, entitled to pat itself on the back. Escalating fees have shut the university door on many students from lower socio-economic families, thereby robbing the country of a pool of potential talent. The brakes have now been applied to such disfranchisement. Unfortunately, however, the Government policy could lead to an equally damaging excoriation.
Auckland University estimates that the Government funding increase will, in fact, translate to a $4 million shortfall when inflation and the low dollar are factored in. It must, therefore, look to reduce spending.
High on the list of potential targets will be research programmes. Cuts in that area would, however, sit uncomfortably with the core role accorded universities in the planned knowledge-based society. The outcome, in all likelihood, would be the departure of yet more scientists and scholars to greener pastures overseas.
That flight is already commonplace. Late last year, for example, the leader of a Waikato University team researching fuel cells was lured to a company in the United States. As he left, taking five doctoral students with him, he remarked that this country would continue to lose academics until it spent more heavily on university research. New Zealand's ability to retain - and attract - top researchers clearly depends on paying them adequately and providing the chance to work on challenging projects using modern facilities.
Auckland University has a particular stake in this. It justifiably aspires to be a research-led institution of the highest international standard. An academic audit unit has described its output of research and publications as exceptional. Yet a comparison of top research-led universities showed that, in 1998, Auckland received just $7544 in Government funding for each student, compared with the Australian average of $12,235. That discrepancy obviously influences vice-chancellor John Hood's view that university funding in New Zealand should be differentiated, depending on the purpose and role of the institution.
Effectively, Dr Hood is calling for a change in the system whereby universities receive a standard amount for each equivalent full-time student. Universities which place a heavy emphasis on research would be more generously funded than those which emphasise bread-and-butter teaching. Strong logic is at work here, given the demands of a knowledge economy and the need to retain New Zealand's international competitiveness.
By enacting such a funding differential, the Government would erase one unfortunate consequence of the fees freeze. It could, however, do considerably more to help universities which wish to play a pivotal role in a knowledge economy.
Canada, a country whose brightest talent is preyed upon by its powerful neighbour, provides useful pointers. The Government there has, for example, combined with commerce to fund an arms-length organisation, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, which has the job of rebuilding the research infrastructure in Canadian universities. And to attract the world's best researchers, the Government has fully funded 2000 research chairs in universities.
Canada is far from alone in recognising the importance of the ideas that flow from a strong university research community. So far, New Zealand has merely tipped its hat to the knowledge economy. Worse still, Government action raises the risk of still more researchers being frozen out.
The Government will be shrinking from a commitment to research and development if it does not free universities, or at least those with a research heritage, from their current fix.
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