League tables for universities shelved

An undisclosed league table pitting New Zealand universities and polytechnics against their international counterparts will remain under wraps, ending months of wrangling between the tertiary sector and the Government.

The rankings were produced as part of a new method of funding tertiary institutes - the Performance-Based Research Fund (PBRF).

But they were blocked from publication after a court battle between Auckland and Victoria Universities and the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC).

An independent report released yesterday said: "In the absence of any compelling reasons", the comparison should never be released.

The report, by the Allen Consulting Group, said: "It is clear that if the TEC were to pursue international institutional rankings this would pose very serious downside risks for the TEC itself."

Universities and polytechnics had high levels of hostility towards TEC and did not believe the rankings were "necessary or appropriate".

The report concludes that rating institutions against an international benchmark is acceptable in some circumstances. However, the information collected through the PBRF is not "a critical source of data for such an exercise".

Kaye Turner, TEC's acting chairwoman, said the commission would follow the report's recommendations.

The information would "now add little to the discourse on the future of research" in this country, she said.

Under the Performance-Based Research Fund all tertiary institutes were given a share of Government cash based on the quality of their research.

The commission used that quality grading to compare the institutions with others overseas, without consulting tertiary institutes.

Auckland and Victoria universities won a court battle to block the comparison, arguing it was like comparing "apples with oranges" and would be detrimental to their reputations.

University of Auckland Vice-Chancellor Professor Stuart McCutcheon said the report and TEC's decision showed that "commonsense has prevailed". "We look forward to a constructive future dialogue with TEC, now that we can put this issue behind us."

Ms Turner said yesterday the report had also confirmed that international benchmarking within disciplines was a useful tool in policy and funding decisions.

The commission planned to discuss this with the sector in the next round on PBRF in 2006.

The story so far

February 04: New funding formula for universities due to be made public

March 04: Universities take legal action to block international comparison

April 04: Funding details released - without international comparison

May 04: Tertiary Education Commission calls for independent report on international comparison

February 05: Independent report recommends the comparison is shelved for good