The appointment of Grant Robertson as Vice-Chancellor of Otago University has raised hackles – and questions – among academics. Robertson’s credentials for the job is one issue. The appointment process is another. University of Auckland economics professor Rob MacCulloch has posted these three articles in the past few days on Down To Earth Kiwi…
- Rob MacCulloch writes –
Vice Chancellor Grant Robertson? He’s not qualified and does not deserve the job
Big Media are reporting that their mate, former Finance Minister Grant Robertson “will retire from Parliament next month as he becomes the vice-chancellor of his alma mater Otago University”.
What an outrage. Vice Chancellors are meant to be distinguished scholars. Meant to have a PhD. Meant to have had a lifetime of researching & teaching at the highest level.
Our former Finance Minister has done none of those things. It took me 15 years to train for my job at Auckland University. It is impossible for a guy like Robertson to have a clue about what it takes to publish an academic paper, teach a great course, or attract the interest of a major business or philanthropist in one’s field, without having been through that 15 year learning process.
Does Otago think it is an extension of the NZ Labour Party? That the academic ideal of a search for the truth doesn’t matter? That education is so politicized it’s best to have a politician running it?
Otago already became politicized when it got close to Labour via folks like Michael Baker supporting the Ardern-Hipkins-Robertson Covid elimination “strategy”.
Hang on. Robertson has said in a Press Conference he is qualified because he “had once been a student at Otago”. It’s a national embarrassment.
What is this game of former members of parliament getting jobs they are not qualified for?
What kind of message does it send our young people studying hard at school and in tertiary institutions? It doesn’t matter how much you study or how smart you are?
Better to become a politician if you want the top job at a University paying $500,000?
Research is a waste of time?
It’s who you know, not what you know, if you want status and to earn big bucks?
If you know people in Wellington then people will employ you hoping you can use your networks there for them?
We’re no longer a meritocracy?
The University of Otago Council should resign. The whole lot of them.
By the way, here is a small part of the CV of the Vice Chancellor of Melbourne University, the main competitor of places like Otago and Auckland in our region of the world:
Professor Duncan Maskell
Professor Maskell holds a Master of Arts and a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Cambridge. He is a research specialist in infectious diseases. Professor Maskell’s career also includes the University of Oxford, Imperial College London and Wellcome Biotech. In addition to academic & university leadership roles, Professor Maskell has enjoyed an active entrepreneurial career, co-founding four biotech companies among his accomplishments, including Arrow Therapeutics, which sold to biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, and Discuva, which sold to Summit Therapeutics.
Sources:
It’s mates rates: keeping our education system in the Labour Party Extended Families Association. Your children will be the poorer for it.
Our Worst Finance Minister Ever Grant Robertson (the one who created the cost-of-living crisis) wrote on his Facebook Page that “Chippy (Labour Leader Chris Hipkins) is my mate first and foremost. I worked out the other day I have known him for nearly 25 years. I was best man at his wedding”.
And what do mates do for one another? Here’s what: the government appoints four members to Otago University’s Council, which in turn chooses the Vice Chancellor.
On 23 December 2021, then Labour Education Minister Chris “Chippy” Hipkins appointed former Labour Party Cabinet Minister, Clare Curran, to the University of Otago Council. Yesterday, on 20 February 2024, it was announced Chippy’s mate, Grant Robertson, had been chosen by that same Council to be the next Vice Chancellor (VC), on a salary of $629,000 – Otago’s first ever non-academic VC in its 155 year history.
Few Vice Chancellor’s in the world come from non-academic backgrounds – NZ has selected several in the past, including the VC of Waikato, former UK Labour Party politician, Bryan Gould, who once ran for the Leadership of that Party (he was brought up in NZ), and Steve Maharey, a former Labour Party Minister who was VC of Massey.
Seems they’re all part of the Labour Party Extended Families Association which gets “mates rates” – which in Labour’s case means higher, not lower, rates paid by you, the taxpayer, to fund their own.
Politics is about the pursuit of power; business the pursuit of money; universities the pursuit of truth.
It’s a shame Otago University, with its proud history, has rejected the truth in favour of power and money.
There should be a judicial enquiry into this scandalous use of public funds used to support a retiring politician who doesn’t have the energy to go on in politics (in his own words, “doesn’t have much left”), but is taking a job that requires far more energy than being an Opposition MP, at least to do it properly. Let’s wish him a happy semi-retirement (as Vice Chancellor).
Sources:
https://insidegovernment.co.nz/appointments-to-university-of-otago-council/
Otago University’s Unusual ‘Global’ VC Job Search
So here’s the puzzle. On 14 June 2023, Otago University announced that Professor David Murdoch had resigned as Vice-Chancellor (VC), after being on sick leave since March. The university said Helen Nicholson would continue as acting Vice-Chancellor until a permanent replacement was found following a “global search”.
It appears, however, that the global search did not begin in haste. It wasn’t until September 21 that The Otago Daily Times reported, “Uni’s search for new vice-chancellor begins“.
There’s a link to the job ad below. It says: Application Deadline: October 20, 2023, & states that an “inspirational servant leader of high intellectual standing, ideally obtained through experience in an academic environment” is sought.
By the ads own wording, the “ideal” candidate was never to be found, former Finance Minister Grant Robertson, who got the job, having never worked in such an environment.
You can make your own deductions – here are my queries: if the above evidence is correct, isn’t a global job search for such a huge position paying $629,000 per annum that begins & ends in little over 4 weeks short?
Was it a coincidence that the closing date was fixed at six days after NZ’s 2023 General Election (on 14 October).
Did Robertson put in his application between Election Day on 14 October & the closing date of 20 October when he knew he would not be returning as Finance Minister?
Wouldn’t that make sense – since how could he have applied earlier? Doing so would have meant that a sitting Minister of Finance who was involved in funding the university was at the same time applying to run it. Did Otago time its VC application closing date to enable Robertson to apply after he knew the election result?
Since Otago is a public university funded by us, shouldn’t we know what has gone on there? After all, the taxpayer is coughing up $3.1 million for this five year contract. Shouldn’t we know whether Otago had a preferred candidate even before their job search began, despite in their own words that candidate not being “ideally” suited?
Sources:
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/campus/david-murdoch-quits-otago-university-boss
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/uni%E2%80%99s-searh-new-vice-chancellor-begins
https://ucareers.com/jobdetail-195240-vice-chancellor
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Robert MacCulloch, who holds the Matthew S. Abel Chair of Macroeconomics at Auckland University, blogs at Down To Earth Kiwi.
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