The Ministry of Education is consulting on the topic of "Realising the potential for technology to support personalised and tailored learning in the future". Details are on their website https://preview.education.govt.nz/have-your-say/consultation-long-term-insights-briefing-topic/details. Technology is a catalyst that is accelerating the challenges facing the tertiary education system. Those challenges are not a consequence of technology and framing a Government response on a purely technocratic basis will fail to address the needs of New Zealanders over the coming decade. Read on for my submission.

Hopefully many folk in the sector have contributed to the work of the University Advisory Group established by the government to "consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector, including the role of the Performance Based Research Fund; ways to best achieve equity for all learners; and the role of international education" (https://uag.org.nz). This is my submission. Hopefully others will be made available soon also. This is a submission made personally and may not reflect the position of my employer.

Why should you care whether we have universities? A timely question given that today we are not only anticipating the irrecoverable loss of portions of numerous New Zealand universities, we are also contemplating the inevitability of wider–ranging future cuts. It is worth understanding what we are losing. And why.

The recent op-ed on Stuff by former Minister and VC Steve Maharey places the blame on the sector – I think we need to look slightly further afield and listen to the people making these choices.

I was very excited when I read the Cabinet paper by Education Minister Chris Hipkins outlining his plans for a major change, dare I say it - a transformation, of the New Zealand vocational educational system. Although aimed at the failing Institutes of Technology and Polytechnic (ITPs) and Industry Training Organisations (ITOs) this ambitious proposal has important implications for universities and for New Zelaand society as a whole.

The rest of this post is the text of my submission on the proposed review, joining the hundreds of others that have been made. One submission I found very interesting was from the Office of the Auditor General which I found very much in line with my own in raising concerns about the change process and the need for clear and effective leadership. Assuming the Minister creates a transition team as recommended by OAG the composition of that team will be an important signal of how he conceives this change occuring - I do hope it goes beyond solely the vested and established interests to find people with ambitions for the public interest in this new model.