NEW ZEALAND: British reformer completes her mission

When British-born Janice Shiner leaves New Zealand's tertiary education funding agency at the end of July, she brings to an end a period in which all three of the government's main education bodies were headed by women. Shiner took over the Tertiary Education Commission in mid-2005 when it was still a relatively young organisation. She restructured the agency to help it implement government reforms of the tertiary education sector and justify its place in the world.

Female leadership is not unusual in New Zealand's public sector - this is, after all, a country led by a woman prime minister. But with women thin on the ground in tertiary institution leadership roles, it was notable that within months of Shiner's arrival, women were appointed to lead both the Ministry of Education and the quality assurance and qualifications body, the New Zealand Qualifications Authority.

Shiner came to New Zealand with a long track-record in Britain's tertiary education and civil service. Variously a business studies lecturer, college principal and senior inspector, she was also, before her Kiwi sojourn, Director General of the Lifelong Learning Directorate of the Department of Education and Skills.

None of which prepared her for the public scrutiny she would encounter as Chief Executive of the Tertiary Education Commission, responsible for distribution of some NZ$3 billion (US$2.2 billion) in tertiary education funding each year.

Shiner took over the commission just a few years into its existence. It had suffered a loss of confidence among government ministers owing largely to blow-outs in spending on low-value courses. It was also in the midst of implementing a package of reforms covering the entire tertiary sector from industry training through to universities.

To make Shiner's life more difficult, the opposition National Party repeatedly suggested the commission was over-staffed, spent too much on consultants and had no useful purpose. At one point, the party queried a $40,000 (US$30,000) performance bonus earmarked for Shiner.

That sort of personal scrutiny came as a shock to Shiner, as in the UK it is the Minister who cops the political flak. Most of all, however, she worried about the impact the criticism might have on her staff.

"I have been a public servant for a lot of my life in different guises, and nobody ever noticed me really, and yet I was responsible for all of post-16 education in the UK," she told University World News.

Nevertheless, it's likely that Shiner will look back on her New Zealand experience with some satisfaction. For a start, she undoubtedly won the confidence of the government. When it was revealed last year that Shiner would depart in mid-2008, Deputy Prime Minister and then-Minister of Tertiary Education Dr Michael Cullen publicly declared that Shiner had performed so well, he would get down on his knees and beg if thought it would persuade her to stay.

More importantly, Shiner has restructured the Tertiary Education Commission and helped refine the government's tertiary education reforms to ensure they achieve their intended goals. The commission's primary role is to negotiate with the tertiary education providers - eight universities, 20 polytechnics, three Maori tertiary institutions and several hundred private providers - as to what they will offer and how much government funding they will receive in exchange.

At the heart of the system are "investment plans" which set out each provider's place in the tertiary education system and how they are meeting regional and national skill needs and the needs of their stakeholders. Funding is capped and no longer does the government subsidise as many students as enrol. Instead, providers must agree with the commission on how many students will receive funding.

As a result, there have been big changes in the polytechnic sector, with institutions abandoning courses they ran on one another's patches, and shifts for the three Maori tertiary institutions or wananga.

Shiner returns to the UK in August. Quite what she'll do next is unclear. Three years ago, she had intended that the Tertiary Education Commission role would be her last "big" job. And now?

"I'm going away not sure," she said, adding that she intended to consider her options until Christmas. "It will be the first time I've been unemployed in 40 years."

* John Gerritsen is editor of NZ Education Review.

john.gerritsen@uw-news.com