University of Auckland Council Meeting 2024-12-09
Mon Dec 09 2024 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)
Transcript
Note: transcription and dioarization are automated and may contain errors.
00:32 Speaker 1: The election. Right. Yep, that's right. Okay, we'll vote that far. Thank you.
00:39 And
00:40 Speaker 1: I'll move that those disclosures be noted. I'll get Gemma to second that. Thank you very much, Gemma.
00:46 All
00:46 Speaker 1: right, then we're in the Council Minutes. We have the Minutes of Part A there. We're up to the end of Part A, which is the part open to the public.
00:55 We
00:55 Speaker 1: have the Minutes of Part A. Are there any comments
00:58 around
01:03 Speaker 2: I do have a comment. I think we could have used Section 18 of the Council appointment process procedure not to seek expressions of interest
01:17 when
01:18 Speaker 2: we reacquired to the current alumni member but I don't think we did.
01:22 So
01:23 Speaker 2: where are you in the minutes?
01:30 Speaker 1: Page 16.
01:36 Speaker 1: Page 16.
01:38 Speaker 1: It's
01:39 Speaker 1: We
01:40 Speaker 2: have to look at the
01:40 Speaker 3: page.
01:43 Speaker 2: Page 14.
01:45 Speaker 2: Yeah.
01:47 Well,
01:47 Speaker 2: what I'm saying is we put it in the should've, but I don't mean that we did.
01:51 Speaker 2: Ah,
01:52 right,
01:53 Speaker 2: yeah.
01:53 Speaker 2: Okay.
01:55 Speaker 2: That is something just as a matter of rise. I'm
01:58 with
02:01 Speaker 2: Wendy's support looking into that
02:02 and
02:03 Speaker 2: we'll complete that when Wendy is back and leave.
02:08 Speaker 1: So it will be in January. Thank you for raising it.
02:12 Right,
02:12 Speaker 1: so we should add that as a matter of rise.
02:28 Yeah,
02:29 Speaker 1: I'm with you, I'm with you, Julia. Yep, okay. Then I will, with that amendment, I will move that the minutes be taken as read and confirmed, and I will ask
02:45 the
02:46 Speaker 1: Vice-Chancellor just to second those.
02:51 Thank
02:51 Speaker 1: you very much.
02:55 Speaker 1: All right, we'll move to the November, the e-meeting that was done by email.
03:03 Are
03:03 Speaker 1: there any questions around those minutes?
03:07 All
03:08 Speaker 1: right, I will move that they
03:09 be
03:11 Speaker 1: taken as read and confirmed. And Julia, perhaps I could ask you to second those. Thank you.
03:21 Okay,
03:22 Speaker 1: we have the matters of, we have no
03:25 Speaker 1: So there's no matters horizon where the matters horizon that we will have added
03:27 there. Okay,
03:30 Speaker 1: we are now at the confirmative degrees. So by the authority vested in me by the University of Auckland, I, Cecilia Tarrant, Chancellor, hereby vest the degrees that are listed for the confirmative degrees in the papers.
03:50 Take
03:50 Speaker 1: those as
03:51 conferred.
03:55 So
03:55 Speaker 1: then we're going to the Vice Chancellor's report.
03:59 You're
04:00 Speaker 4: a Chancellor, thank you. So I'll take the report as read,
04:03 as
04:04 Speaker 4: usual. I will just provide an update
04:07 and
04:08 Speaker 4: I won't rehearse everything that we've been talking around the
04:11 two
04:12 Speaker 4: external reviews, the Science System Advisory Group review and the new AG review,
04:16 except
04:17 Speaker 4: to say that, for now we know that some elements of the Science System Advisory Group
04:23 paper
04:24 Speaker 4: have been
04:25 Speaker 4: and we're aware that some of those conversations have been taken with our research leads
04:30 and
04:32 Speaker 4: particularly implications are now being announced for things like the Marsden
04:36 which
04:37 Speaker 4: impacts the
04:38 research
04:39 Speaker 4: grant funding for art social science and humanities that is the open only openly contested
04:46 fund
04:47 Speaker 4: available in New Zealand and so there are concerns about
04:51 what
04:52 Speaker 4: that's going to mean specifically for our really highly
04:55 Speaker 4: RANKARDSI:
04:57 And
04:57 Speaker 4: we're now thinking about what we do in order to make sure that we continue to support
05:03 those
05:04 Speaker 4: disciplines beyond the work that we've already done through the
05:07 bringing
05:08 Speaker 4: together arts and creative industries and education in one faculty, which has helped at least bring the scale and concentration together and to provide the support in the background for this work to go forward.
05:25 Speaker 4: Minister has also indicated that future funding will be directed to incentivise graduates from hard sciences and STEM
05:33 with
05:34 Speaker 4: benefits to the New Zealand economy, particularly around high-tech and sciences. And whilst the decisions around
05:42 the
05:43 Speaker 4: discipline mix and how that mix will be funded in the future are still to be understood, there is talk in the meeting last week, Vice-Chancellor's with the Minister, around
05:55 Speaker 4: differentials and particularly driving existing funding, no extra funding, driving existing funding towards STEM disciplines, which of course will mean that we need to think carefully about anything that sits outside of that
06:10 in
06:10 Speaker 4: the university as a comprehensive university and one which understands the value of our comprehensiveness to societal issues around tech, AI and such demands.
06:24 Speaker 4: So quite a lot of work to do around that. On the UAG work, the UAG is actually coming into the university this week. They'll be meeting with the Chancellor and myself on Thursday.
06:36 I've
06:37 Speaker 4: already met with a number of people to talk through funding mechanisms and are meeting with some committee chairs. But that work has slowed down a little bit. It was due to report in February when we met with Peter Lutton last week.
06:52 It
06:53 Speaker 4: looks like it's not going to report at least before March, probably later. And the Minister has to make some decisions before then.
07:02 So
07:02 Speaker 4: once she's got the Cabinet paper off the table, and free speech legislation at the end of the year,
07:10 she'll
07:11 Speaker 4: be moving to prioritise PBRF funding,
07:14 which
07:15 Speaker 4: we're keen to make sure we understand. We are very aware that 4% funding that we were given
07:22 Speaker 4: for two years, 23 and 24,
07:25 was
07:26 Speaker 4: not something we could bank on at the end of 2025. And we've had confirmation that we need to not factor that in
07:35 beyond
07:35 Speaker 4: 2025.
07:37 So
07:38 Speaker 4: some quite dark challenges for us ahead of the two reviews really coming to fruition, still
07:46 waiting
07:47 Speaker 4: to understand what some of the detail of that really means.
07:52 I
07:53 Speaker 4: would like to just also acknowledge the fact that it's been such a big year for the universe. You've been hearing some of that in briefings. Highly successful year
08:03 in
08:04 Speaker 4: many ways and that's difficult
08:05 to
08:06 Speaker 4: actually portray those messages internally externally when we're dealing
08:11 with
08:12 Speaker 4: some quite challenging media and some cutting through with the evidence of how we've maintained and sustained
08:22 Speaker 4: in fact improved our rankings
08:24 over
08:25 Speaker 4: the last year as a world-class university in research and in teaching and learning
08:30 and
08:31 Speaker 4: to cut through some of the misinformation and the disinformation that's out there around this and of course our comms and marketing strategy is working hard with this
08:41 but
08:42 Speaker 4: the excellence in teaching and research has been really highly recognized
08:46 and
08:47 Speaker 4: can I commend all of our academic colleagues and all of our professional staff in fact the
08:52 Speaker 4: community on helping us to achieve these significant outcomes. Again, year on year, we took early action, we continue to take early action. That is not without effort on everybody's part. And it means that we have to take some tough decisions and we're adding
09:11 before
09:12 Speaker 4: we're yet able to remove some of those things that we need to transit
09:16 out
09:17 Speaker 4: of and so it's
09:18 tough
09:19 Speaker 4: times.
09:20 And
09:21 Speaker 4: that's for me an opportunity
09:22 Speaker 4: here around the council table to thank everybody in the community
09:26 for
09:27 Speaker 4: helping us get to this point again.
09:30 A
09:31 Speaker 4: couple of other things I think just to note are
09:33 a
09:34 Speaker 4: hugely successful launch of the rec centre, a thousand people through in the first hour
09:40 and
09:41 Speaker 4: I'm seeing people march up and down Simon Street on their way to and from the rec centre and sometimes they're not going actually to use the gym, they're just going to be
09:52 Speaker 4: in there in that environment to use the facilities and it's a really fantastic environment
09:57 for
09:58 Speaker 4: people and particularly our students to be in
10:01 and
10:02 Speaker 4: we've seen a number of changes across the campus this year that have really enhanced
10:06 the
10:07 Speaker 4: student experience including our library learning services across a range of those
10:12 different
10:13 Speaker 4: including beta one of course which is now so densely populated that we need to rebuild it but not say that too loud and you know exciting
10:24 Speaker 4: I just want to comment on this I've mentioned a few times at this council table that we really need to get our heads around how it's going to change the whole sector not just elements of the sector and I've just come from the world AI summit which took place in Hong Kong but it brought together leaders from across 55 countries to really focus on a consensus of
10:52 Speaker 4: and how we're going to work together on AI collaboratively
10:56 as
10:57 Speaker 4: a suite of universities to ensure that our students, our researchers and our communities get the best outcomes from the education that they receive and are part of or contribute to in our institutions. And they're all top 100 universities, all at varying degrees, doing different things. That's very exciting opportunities for us to think about our futures here with optimism.
11:22 Speaker 4: I'll leave it there and I'm happy to take comments or questions. Most of what's in the report will be provided to you but of course the whole team are here if you've got questions related to any of those four problems. Questions, obviously
11:37 Speaker 1: we've had a pretty good discussion around the strategic priorities and that sort of thing in the briefings but are there any questions specifically for Dawn on your report?
11:52 Speaker 1: If possible around, I guess I noted one of the e-research strategies, five categories, and how they will be operationalized by next year.
12:05 I'm
12:06 Speaker 1: wondering, are we
12:06 framing
12:08 Speaker 1: that strategy with a dedicated team? Yeah. So Frank's
12:13 Speaker 4: reshaped his portfolio. So we saw that Frank's done that. He's created three portfolios. One of those portfolios is responsible for the e-research strategies.
12:22 Speaker 4: Research Strategy.
12:23 Speaker 1: Okay, great. So we're not asking existing to do more. It's an exit. It's a whole team of people working on the research strategy. Thanks for that.
12:32 Just
12:32 Speaker 1: one other comment with respect to AI.
12:36 I
12:36 Speaker 1: wrote a guest article, I was asked to write a guest article for the Institute of Directors
12:39 publication
12:41 Speaker 1: coming out this summer on how
12:42 governors
12:43 Speaker 1: can
12:44 look
12:45 Speaker 1: at AI questions coming through. And one of the areas that I noted that we're really deficient in in New Zealand
12:52 are
12:53 Speaker 1: training courses for executives and professionals. So I cited in the article to come to the University of Auckland because we have a couple here.
13:00 Is
13:00 Speaker 1: there a perspective or is there a plan, I think, for enterprises, particularly in New Zealand,
13:05 where
13:06 Speaker 1: we could offer, you know, one, two, three, four courses for executives to actually
13:11 go
13:12 Speaker 1: through? Because no one's offering them really here. This sits in the working professional space.
13:19 Speaker 4: So in the working professional space, along with Auckland Online,
13:53 Thank you
13:55 Speaker 1: Dawn and I think we should thank you for all the work that you've put in this year and the rest of your executive and senior leadership team.
14:04 So
14:04 Speaker 1: thank you very much. It's been a hard run and I know you're still running to the finish.
14:12 Oh
14:12 Speaker 1: that's a finish. The finish of the year. Finish of the year.
14:22 Speaker 1: Thank you very much. Look, I'm going to move that the Vice-Councillor's report be noted and Candice ask you to second that. I do. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, now moving to the Finance Committee. Obviously, this is the
14:33 minutes
14:34 Speaker 1: of Part A of the Finance Committee. And are there any questions around the minutes of Part A of the Finance Committee?
14:43 One
14:44 Speaker 5: add, we have a big budget report in our pack. And I am assuming...
14:50 Speaker 1: We do and it's in Part B.
14:53 Speaker 5: I'm assuming that the Finance Committee thoroughly
14:56 reviewed
14:57 Speaker 5: that. I guess I should ask in Part B.
14:59 Speaker 1: You should ask in Part B, exactly. When you get to it.
15:02 Speaker 1: When you get to it, yeah.
15:03 Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a good answer.
15:04 Speaker 1: Okay, right here. Okay, we'll move that the Finance Committee minutes be no... I'll move that they be received, and Rob, you can second that.
15:12 Speaker 1: Sure.
15:13 Speaker 1: Thank you. So then we'll go to the Audit and Risk Committee minutes. And any questions on those?
15:21 Speaker 1: Right, Jonathan, I'm going to move that they be received. You can second that. Thank you.
15:28 And
15:29 Speaker 1: then we're in the Capital Expenditure Committee. Are there any questions around the minutes? That's just the part A minutes, the Capital Expenditure Committee.
15:38 I'll
15:38 Speaker 1: move that those be received. And, Bob, perhaps you'd like to second those.
15:45 Thank
15:45 Speaker 1: you. So we're now at the Equity Leadership Committee, and we have Kathy here.
15:51 and
15:52 Speaker 1: you have the report there from the Equity Leadership Committee report as Cathy said. Lots of good detail in there. Thank you very much Cathy. I think we should take the report as read. Are there any questions for Cathy specifically around the report?
16:21 Speaker 4: gender paper mentions talking to some of the communities about maybe some of them. I appreciate their systemic issues.
16:29 Speaker 3: Beyond talking to those communities on their own reflections, what other work are you doing? Because I appreciate the other ones, you know,
16:35 besides
16:36 Speaker 3: the
16:37 paper.
16:38 Speaker 3: Like what's the approach to try, think about how to approach that. Quite complex issue. You're right. It is very complex. And so already the analysis we've done have given us a bit of insight into where to target
16:51 Speaker 3: efforts because the gender pay gap numbers, as you know, are just really big forward indicators. And so it tells us that despite all the good work that we've been doing for many years, there are still going to be pockets
17:02 in
17:03 Speaker 3: some parts of the organisation where
17:05 improvements
17:06 Speaker 3: can be made. And so one of the things, for example, that we've found is that HR has already undertaken a project to look at transparency around performance pay. So that the people who are making the decisions about that, then the area of
17:21 Speaker 3: responsibility can see their own patterns of decision making.
17:27 Speaker 3: We know from overseas research in particular that just making it visible,
17:34 Speaker 3: their own pattern of decision making really helps people understand if they might have some unconscious biases
17:39 Speaker 3: that are skewed in one way or another. So that's the work HR are doing.
17:44 Speaker 3: And to be fair, most of the initiatives to tackle this will be led by HR informed by this report.
17:50 So
17:51 Speaker 3: we're fortunate in that there's some really good quality evidence bases around
17:56 what
17:57 Speaker 3: types of initiatives are most likely to be effective once you've correctly diagnosed what the underlying issues are. And so there's no one big thing that you can just do and magically it all comes right. So a lot of the hard work that's been done this year and is planning for next year is to continue a really detailed understanding of
18:16 where
18:17 Speaker 3: are the issues.
18:18 At
18:18 Speaker 3: what point is it in the way we advertise
18:20 Speaker 3: Is it career progression? Is it more flexible work policies? Is it more flexible leave? There's a range of things that we can set up. At the same time, we also engage in the communities to understand what their experience is, so that when we think we've identified
18:43 a
18:44 Speaker 3: specific issue, we've got some good evidence-based intervention that we'd like to
18:51 Speaker 3: We can collaborate with key communities involved to see what does that look like a sensible approach and how would you like to put us on that. So it's going to take a while. It's going to take 140 years to get here. But it's the only way I
19:08 take it.
19:09 Speaker 1: Thank you
19:10 very
19:13 Speaker 1: much, Cathy. I'm going to move with that report we've received and Gemma asked you to second that. Thank you very much.
19:20 Speaker 1: Okay, now we're on to the report of Senate. I don't know whether, Vice Chancellor, whether there's any comment you want to make of the papers that are in our
19:30 Speaker 4: pack?
19:30 Just
19:31 Speaker 4: two comments before any questions and
19:33 others
19:34 Speaker 4: can comment.
19:36 We
19:36 Speaker 4: have committed to going back to
19:38 the
19:39 Speaker 4: Senate meeting in March
19:40 with
19:41 Speaker 4: two pieces of work that we were going to do. One was in revisiting work from the CFT to look at transdisciplinary
19:50 Speaker 4: to think about that in a bit more detail, the regulations that we've gone through, but also to look at Wipe Up the Time After Row and actually one or two other areas where
19:59 we
19:59 Speaker 4: realise that we need to think about things like flexible learning choices, the enhanced learning options, and to have an extended Senate that day to really help people to get across and understand inside out some of those issues. Because we've had a lot of people turn up to Senate that weren't actually at the Senate when those were.
20:20 Speaker 4: Papers went through and to try and bring people up to speed on where we're at to get some debate going.
20:25 The
20:25 Speaker 4: second thing was about free speech. That's actually going to probably be curtailed because free speech legislation, even though we've done all this work on policy,
20:34 is
20:35 Speaker 4: going to go through Cabinet before the end of the year. And so we're likely to have to think about what that means for us
20:41 rather
20:42 Speaker 4: than developing a policy of our own.
20:44 So
20:44 Speaker 4: the challenge for that meeting, where we put that on schedule again, I think
20:50 Speaker 4: It will then be unravelling what the legislation looks like and trying to understand the implications in terms of our own
20:56 work
20:58 Speaker 4: that we've been doing and how we apply it. And I don't know how much detail it's going to go into, but I do know that
21:04 there
21:04 Speaker 4: is going to be an expectation that there's going to be transparency and regular monitoring on a yearly basis for legislation and
21:11 for
21:12 Speaker 4: implementing it. So that's probably enough from me. So we've got an expanded meeting of Senate on the 3rd of March.
21:20 Speaker 4: and that report and the work of that will come to the council meeting.
21:25 I
21:25 Speaker 4: don't know if there's anything Bridget or anybody you want to add or any other questions.
21:33 Are
21:33 Speaker 1: there any questions on the senate papers that are in the pack?
21:40 I
21:41 Speaker 1: think we should all note the names of the new faculties.
21:44 Speaker 1: Yes, we have the Faculty of Arts and Education who are acknowledging they are the A&E faculty.
21:49 Speaker 1: and the Faculty of Engineering and Design.
21:55 Okay.
21:56 Speaker 1: All right.
21:56 Speaker 1: I'll move that.
21:59 Speaker 1: I'm moving that the recommendations in Part A of the Report of Senate be adopted and Parts B and C be noted.
22:05 Speaker 1: Cathy, I'll ask you to second those.
22:08 Speaker 1: Thank you very much.
22:09 Speaker 1: Okay.
22:10 Speaker 1: Then we're down to the delegations to the PBC Global and Graduate Research.
22:15 Speaker 1: And so I think this is really
22:16 sort
22:17 Speaker 1: of a name change, isn't it?
22:19 Speaker 1: We're going from the Dean of Graduate Studies to the Pro Vice Chancellor of our Global and Graduate Research.
22:25 Speaker 1: Because Frank's restructured the port, we now need to be
22:29 Speaker 4: with a delegation.
22:30 Speaker 1: Okay, and that those, so it's essentially a name change and a sub-delegation.
22:36 Speaker 1: Are there any questions about Poseidon?
22:38 No?
22:39 Speaker 1: Okay.
22:40 Speaker 1: I'm going to move that this be approved and I'm going to ask Julia Arnott-Neynay to second that.
22:45 Speaker 1: Thank you very much.
22:48 Speaker 1: And then we have no correspondence in Part A, but we have
22:52 matters
22:52 Speaker 1: for where the seal
22:55 has
22:56 Speaker 1: been affixed. We have a list of documents that the seal has been affixed to. I'm going to move that that list be noted and ask Julia Tomei to second that. Thank you very much.
23:08 And
23:09 Speaker 1: now we'll move to the elections. We have elections to the Assemblyman Council. Welcome, Far.
23:15 So
23:16 Speaker 1: I'm going to move.
23:18 Speaker 1: that Mr Fa'afu'i'afia be appointed as the student representative on council for one year term from the 1st of November to the 31st of October 2025. And it's a year because this is the second half of Hullar's term.
23:33 Okay, move
23:35 Speaker 1: that and ask John to second that.
23:37 Speaker 3: Yeah.
23:39 Speaker 1: Thank you. And then we just have there for noting, you'll see the meeting and graduation dates for 2025.
23:48 Speaker 1: Is anybody looking for a leave of absence
23:49 for
23:51 Speaker 1: the first meeting next year, which is the 17th of March?
23:55 If
23:55 Speaker 1: you do, so Wendy is unwell at the moment. So if you do need to communicate, I would say, I'm not sure when she's coming back, Rewani, so maybe if somebody has, they should send a message. If they're emailing Wendy, they should copy you as well. Yeah, that's the thing to do. No, but note it is St. Patrick's Day.
24:14 It
24:14 Speaker 1: is.
24:17 Speaker 1: So I'll have to make sure I keep to time. Yeah, there we go. Yeah, yeah. Oh, we'll just have to make sure that there's a Guinness Street afterwards or something. Okay, and now,
24:29 right,
24:31 Speaker 1: okay, now I'm moving, actually I'm moving into part B with the public exclusions.
24:39 Yes,
24:39 Speaker 1: and I think I've already got, actually, I've got two resolutions here around the public exclusions and one having Matt stay twice.
24:48 So
24:49 Speaker 1: yes, I'm moving that due to the role of a pair of consulting them to provide independent advice to the council that Matt Stanley be permitted to retain in part B of meeting. And then I'm moving the public be excluded from part B other than Matt and the various members of staff that are saying because of their knowledge of the matters that are going to be discussed. I'm going to move that.