A great academic campus? But note the roof of the Concentrix building.

A Green Way?

Or was it the 1990s’-built Languages Building?

Whoops, there goes Concentrix!

Hard Yakka. Auckland’s answer to the Christchurch Cathedral

Two days before present

The Martians have landed:

One Day before present: going, going, …

Unitec Stadium and Gymnasium (and there were state-of-the-art Squash Courts with a café popular with business staff and students). Once the home of Auckland basketball and netball. And the Auckland Blues – and business staff – trained at the gym, not so long ago.

Back to today:

Ouch, from late 2006 to early 2014 that was my modern state-of-the art workplace and teaching place!

Literally the home of the Schools of Communications and Business. Over those years, I had three offices in that building, and many great memories; and sad memories, too, losing two colleagues.

Near the Carrington Campus main entrance on Carrington Road South; erasing 1900s’ as well as 1990s’ history.

Penman House; only the pine tree remains.

(Who today knows where ‘norfolk pines’ originated? Hint, it’s a place not far away which been erased from our travel maps, despite being a Unesco World Heritage site. I was lucky enough to fly there from Auckland in 2024, when it was still possible. One of these trees is the signature tree at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds.)

See this and other easily googled material about Robyn Hyde’s 1930s’ sanctuary. Fortunately, local MP Helen White was able to save a few heritage mementos from the house, just in the nick of time.

Oakridge House in June 2024 and in October 2024

Is that an oak tree? Sadly the Unitec Arboretum and Sanctuary Gardens have also gone. At least there are still oaks and norfolks in the Carrington precinct.

Oakridge House became the main sanctuary (especially 2017 to 2019) for the School of Business in the years after Unitec’s flagship business building was tenanted to IBM (in 2012, in an opaque high-level deal) and soon after was abandoned by IBM and became the Concentrix Call Centre. (I understand that the aim of the 2012 eviction was for Unitec to make money through renting out some of its key assets to lucrative high-tech tenants; the template was the University of Ballarat in Australia, with QUT Kelvin Grove being the template for a high level tertiary campus without being ‘saddled with’ heritage and green spaces which government accounts would construe as a ‘lazy asset’.)

There are very few photos of Oakridge House in the public domain; Unitec itself has been remiss in this aspect of the documentation of its past. Here is one poignant photo that I found, in an advertisement labelled “chimney demolition”.

Finally, below, is the former Childcare Centre and another former workplace. (My son attended the demolished childcare centre in the foreground. He was proud to have been a ‘Unitec student’. My 2016 office was in the former building in the distant background.)

Unitec has now formally merged with Manukau Institute of Technology. It is reputedly going to become a site for city edge tenement housing; some of it, but not all, ‘social housing’. The precinct will need schools, given that nearby schools Gladstone Primary and Mount Albert Grammar are amongst the most oversubscribed schools in the country. It takes little imagination to see that the remnants of Unitec at Mt Albert eventually will become a school (or schools), and that the ongoing Unitec presence of the new Tamaki Institute of Technology (it will probably be called something else) will be at the Henderson ‘campus’, a highrise sandwiched between the Waitakere District Court and the Henderson Library.

Q How do you acquire a small Polytech? A. Establish a large Polytech, then wait.

See Unitec’s extreme financial distress detailed in documents, RNZ, 4 September 2018. Unitec punched above its weight, when it could. Let’s hope that it has not been completely forgotten, by 2050.

And see my yesterday’s photo-essay on Scoop: Carrington: a site for sore eyes.

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Keith Rankin (keith at rankin dot nz), trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand.

Fiji’s Minister of Finance and deputy Prime Minister Professor Biman Prasad says all coalition partners in the new government have agreed to a closer relationship with the Suva-based regional University of the South Pacific (USP).

He said government would restore confidence in USP and respect the governance structure of the institution.

Professor Biman Prasad said that it was a commitment made by all coalition partners in government.

He said Fiji would now be “a real partner” with USP.

“We’re going to restore that confidence, we’re going to respect the governance structure of the university,” he said.

“This means that when the university council makes a decision, we as members in that council will respect that decision, unlike the previous government and their reps, who disregarded it because they didn’t win in the council.

“Things didn’t go in their favour; they tried to [withhold] the grant of the university through some bogus claim that there should be more investigation.

“None of that was true, none of that was reasonable.”

Vice-chancellor ban already lifted
He said the ban on vice-chancellor Professor Pal Ahluwalia, who was forced to become based at USP’s Samoa campus after being deported from Fiji in 2021, had already been lifted.

“As you know, the Prime Minister has already lifted the ban on Professor Pal Ahluwalia who was deported in the middle of the night,” he said.

“That was a sad thing for this country — it was an attack on democracy, it was an attack on academic freedom.

“So we are very pleased that our government has been able to remove that and we look forward to a very cooperative relationship with the University of the South Pacific and indeed with all other universities in the country because we believe that empowering the universities, giving them academic freedom, giving them autonomy is good for our students, good for our staff, good for the country.”

Professor Prasad said the government would work closely with tertiary institutions in the country.

“This government is going to work closely with the universities and other tertiary institutions to make sure that we empower them, we use resources at those universities to help government to work in policy areas, analyse data.

“As a government, we are going to be very, very liberal with the academic community in this country because we want them to know that this is a government which is going to be open, which is going to help them do research because we will not be afraid of critical research being done by academics, whether they are in Fiji or from outside.

“They will have access to data wherever possible. They will have access to the processes and the support to do research in critical areas.

“That will be very, very important for the government.”

#Fiji plans to ‘restore confidence’ in USP partnership, says Professor Prasad #AsiaPacificReport @fijitimes @bimanprasad #FijiPol #education #academicfreedom @USPlibrary @pal_vcp @ShailendraBSing @USPWansolwara @shrek45 https://t.co/MHM0kTlr2k pic.twitter.com/tXybbQwXkz

— David Robie (@DavidRobie) January 3, 2023

Half century of innovation
Pacific Media Watch reports that the University of the South Pacific is one of only two regional multinational universities in the world — the other is in the West Indies.

USP is jointly owned and governed by 12 member countries — Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

The university has campuses in all member countries with Fiji having three campuses.

For more than a half century, USP has been leading the Pacific with distinctive contributions in research, innovation, learning, teaching and community engagement.

Rakesh Kumar is a Fiji Times reporter. Republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

A group of students from West Papua, the Melanesian Pacific region in Indonesia, are fearful about their futures in New Zealand after their scholarships were cut off.

A group of about 40 students have been studying at different tertiary institutions in New Zealand, but in December received a letter from the provincial government of Papua saying their living allowances, travel and study fees were stopping and they had to return home because their studies had not met expectations.

Auckland-based West Papua student Laurens Ikinia is part of a group advocating for the students. He said some students had gone home, but about 25 remained at Auckland, Waikato and Canterbury universities, as well as Palmerston North polytech UCOL and the tertiary institution IPU New Zealand.

“The reason the government used was because we were not making any progress on our studies. We have actually requested from the provincial government about how did they come up with that?

“All the students on the list are halfway through completing their studies. All the information they put in is completely wrong.”

Ikinia said the letter had been a shock and many of the students were uncertain about whether they could stay in New Zealand.

Many were struggling without the scholarship, unable to focus on their studies and “mentally and emotionally unstable”.

Plea for help
The group had asked Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi and the Green Party for help.

Roy Towolom, 21, came to New Zealand in 2016 from Tolikara and attended Awatapu College in Palmerston North.

He is one of 11 Papuan students in his carpentry course at UCOL and he has about a week left before he completes his studies. UCOL and his church have been supporting him since his living allowance stopped.

Towolom said the affected students were confused about being asked to leave and the government letter did not make sense and was out of date.

“It was pretty shocking. There was no specific reason why the funds were cut. We didn’t know what the reason was.”

His student visa expires next month, but he wants to stay in New Zealand and is thinking about becoming a builder. He hopes to get a work visa.

Run by provincial government
A spokesperson for the Indonesian Embassy said the scholarship programme in New Zealand was run by the provincial government of Papua and 593 students were receiving the scholarship.

The decision to repatriate some Papuan students overseas was “based on evaluation regarding academic performance, the time allocation of the relevant scholarships”.

“It is also important to highlight that only those who have exceeded the allocated time of the scholarship and those who cannot meet the academic requirements are being recalled.”

The spokesperson said most scholarship recipients had been studying in New Zealand since 2015 and were yet to finish their tertiary education as planned.

“The decision to repatriate certain students does not impact on those students who remain on track with regards to their studies abroad.

“The assessment is also conducted to ensure that other eligible students from Papua province also obtain the same opportunity in pursuing their studies.”

The embassy had been in contact with the affected students.

Encouraged to leave ‘voluntarily’
A spokesperson for Immigration Minister Faafoi said students who did not meet requirements to stay in New Zealand would be encouraged to leave voluntarily.

None of the students were at risk of being deported and Immigration New Zealand had discussed the situation with them.

“Students who do not meet requirements to stay in New Zealand will be encouraged to depart voluntarily.”

The Papuan provincial government would cover their repatriation costs, the spokesperson said.

A UCOL spokesperson said the institution was supporting the 15 students at UCOL with living costs.

The University of Canterbury’s international partnership and support manager Monique van Veen said the university’s student care team was working with the affected students.

“It has definitely created hardship and stress for these scholars. We have been in touch with Education New Zealand to let them know what’s going on.”

A spokesperson for the University of Waikato said they were unable to comment due to privacy reasons.

IPU and the University of Auckland did not respond to a request for comment.

The Papuan provincial government has been contacted for comment.

George Heagney is a Stuff reporter. Republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz