Decision time for compulsory UoA paper: ACT says students deserve choice

ACT understands the University of Auckland Senate has voted to recommend that the controversial Waipapa Taumata Rau (WTR) course be made optional, following widespread dissatisfaction.

ACT Tertiary Education spokesperson Dr Parmjeet Parmar is now calling on the University Council to show respect for student choice by acting on this advice.

“The WTR course has been compulsory for over 8,000 students this year, including 1,224 international students who paid up to $5,730 each for the paper,” says Dr Parmar.

“The University of Auckland’s Senate met on Monday to consider whether the WTR course should become optional, and will report advice to the university Council for consideration next month. ACT has been clear from the start: no student should be compelled to pay thousands of dollars for a course they don’t want or need.

“An Official Information Act release from the University indicates that the five WTR courses cost taxpayers $14 million, and cost students another $14 million in fees – including nearly $7 million in fees from international students. For many students, this was a compulsory charge for a course they neither needed nor valued.

“Student feedback, now reportedly under review by the University Senate, confirms what ACT has been saying all along: the course is seen by many as politically loaded and irrelevant, particularly for those in specialist programmes.

“Students want, and deserve, choice. If the University wants to attract bright young people from across New Zealand and around the world, it should respect their time and money, and put their interests ahead of Treaty ideology.

“ACT is also concerned about the course’s impact on academic freedom. The interpretation of the Treaty and the application of tikanga to areas like science are contested issues that deserve real debate. But first-year students taking a compulsory paper are unlikely to be equipped with the context needed to scrutinise these ideas – instead, they are likely to just write whatever they think will please their professor.”

Dr Parmar has previously written to the Minister for Tertiary Education and the Vice-Chancellor raising alarm over the compulsory course, and advocating for a race-neutral approach to university opportunities. Her Education and Training (Equal Treatment) Amendment Bill is now in Parliament’s member’s ballot.