Mike Moore: Opening access to NZ education system a win-win situation

Opinion

Education, as a service industry with paying students, is now around NZ's sixth-biggest earner of overseas funds. A great export winner.

Some years ago, I was in Kuala Lumpur and met with the NZ/Malaysian Accountants' Society. One good friend of NZ explained how he came free in NZ under the Colombo Plan and got his education. He was successful, so why couldn't he send the most precious thing in his life, his daughter, to NZ to learn? He could pay for her to the UK or the US but not NZ. Why indeed?

So I fought to open up education. Teachers protested outside my house. Many colleagues opposed the idea, frightened by the politics and accusations that this was privatisation by stealth, and that some people would say these overseas students would be taking positions that should be there for Kiwis.

The opposite is the truth, of course.

It worked, it creates jobs and friends. It's healthy that Kiwi kids sit alongside and make friends of young people from our region.

I attended an emotional school prizegiving where a young Japanese student talked of her Kiwi parents and her Japanese parents. Her new Kiwi brother was going to live with her family and learn Japanese. A Hong Kong businessman told me he had bought a small hotel in my area. "Why?" I asked. He advised me that he had his two children at our local university and wanted to ensure they got a good meal occasionally and got their washing done. Besides, his wife came to the city every six weeks. It doesn't get better than this. It's the most sustainable, environmentally friendly industry possible.

A few years ago I tried to explain to a NZ minister how this idea could be taken to the next step. His eyes glazed over and he looked over my shoulder finding someone important and useful to impress and excused himself.

Long story, short. For a time I became the chairman of the advisory board of the prestigious Carnegie Mellon University, which opened a satellite campus in Adelaide, welcomed by a progressive State Labour Government. Some people still wonder why the Aussies earn 40 per cent more than us.

If someone credible wants to build a University in Oxford, North Canterbury or Cambridge in the Waikato, anywhere, they should be encouraged, monitored, held accountable, and taxed. Government should be rigorous about standards and values because it's NZ's reputation that's at stake.

I'm establishing and funding a charitable foundation, called School Aid, global partnerships through schools. The idea is that an investment fund will be created and managed by high school students who will learn about investments and markets. All the returns from the investment fund will go to schools in poor countries.

The school I've chosen represents some of the poorer kids in NZ. They will learn that being poor in NZ still makes you among the richest people in the world. Everyone wins, especially me.

I've had so much fun putting this together that I'm worried that someone in the capital will find out and stop me.

Bobby Kennedy jnr will launch the project at a gala dinner on December 16, and all the profits will top up my fund.

People understand the concept and we have some serious sponsors such as HSBC, the Herald and Air NZ.

The Auckland University of Technology get it and are sponsoring the event. They are working on how to duplicate my fund in other schools as they to roll it out through the country. Their students can learn about complex charity laws, estate-planning and the non-profit sector. Many highly motivated young people see their future in this growing area. It's a huge sector overseas.

The non-profit sector can vary from the SPCA, Oxfam, the Opera Society, to sports groups and community care. Then there are the big ones such as the Gates Foundation, which puts more money into Africa to combat Aids than all the governments put together.

Julian Robertson, who donated $100 million to the Auckland Art Gallery and built a library for Kerikeri, was monstered in our Parliament because he is an American and that suited the politics of the day. He has employed Dr John Hood as CEO of his Charitable Foundation in New York. Dr Hood, who reformed Auckland University, went on to be the first non-Briton to run Oxford University.

Many countries run specialist degree courses to prepare young people for this line of work; we, too, can run world-class courses. Our tax and charity laws, while clumsy, are now not so hostile or toxic to giving. It's a complicated area.

I was thinking of doing this in Australia, having been rebuffed at home so often, but the AUT is very progressive. It's so refreshing to talk to people who are enthusiastic and don't bring up all the possible problems before you have finished your presentation.

I'm not getting paid for this; it's costing me money and time. I point this out to stop the letter-writing killjoys.

Giving is a basic pillar of the Muslim faith and is cemented in Islamic law. I work with some universities and businesses in the Middle East; perhaps we could do a joint venture? Now it's getting interesting.

Mike Moore, a former Prime Minister and Director General of the World Trade Organisation, is the author of Saving Globalisation.

www.mike-moore.info