Tax plan ‘disincentive’

Press, 27 September 1988, Page 14

Tax plan ‘disincentive’

By

JENNY LONG

Proposals to tax graduates, and to separate the teaching and research functions of universities have drawn fire from groups affected by the Hawke Report. The University Students’. Association president, Mr Andrew Little, said the greater level of private contribution through a graduate tax would be a disincentive to those groups which are already under-repre-sented at university.

To run universities as “corporations” with chief executives, and smaller councils, would undermine accountability to the community, he said. The Hawke report could threaten academic freedom, said the chairman of the New Zealand vice-chancellors’ committee, Dr' Wilf Malcolm. If the report was implemented, the Ministry of Education would be empowered to approve the charters under which universities would operate, which could threaten academic freedom, Dr Malcolm said. The Hawke Report re-

commends the abolition of the University Grants Committee, which has acted as an independent body allocating Government funding between universities. Dr Malcolm said that accountability to the community and to Government was vital. He had no objection to charters, but they must be negotiated between the universities and a body independent of Ministerial control and political interference, rather than a department of State.” Dr Malcolm said the proposal to separate teaching and research damaged the universities’

unique role, where teaching and research interacted. The New Zealand Employers’ Federation gives the report only “qualified approval.” The federation's assistant director general, Mr Ray Tyler, said that while employers would welcome reform of the whole training system, there were serious doubts as to whether the Hawke solution would meet industry requirements. The devolution recommended by the report could be at the expense of national vocational qualifications, the federation said.