The Annual Report of Massey University 2005
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MASSEY UNIVERSITY Vice-Chancellor Professor J. Kinnear University Registrar Mrs A. P. Cleland Palmerston North Campus Massey University Private Bag 11 222 Palmeston North Phone: (06) 356 9099 Fax: (06) 350 5603 Albany Campus Massey University Private Bag 102 904 North Shore Mail Centre Auckland Phone: (09) 443 9700 Fax: (09) 443 9704 Wellington Campus Massey University Private Box 756 Wellington Phone: (04) 801 2794 Fax: (04) 801 2692 Website www.massey.ac.nz Contents 1 MISSION STATEMENT 3 REPORT FROM THE CHANCELLOR 5 REPORT FROM THE VICE-CHANCELLOR 9 YEAR IN REVIEW 14 2005 COUNCIL 16 2005 OFFICERS OF THE UNIVERSITY 17 DIRECTORY 18 FINANCIAL REVIEW 2005 21 SUMMARY FACTS AND FIGURES 22 STATEMENT OF RESPONSIBILITY 23 AUDIT REPORT 25 STATEMENT OF ACCOUNTING POLICIES 30 STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE 31 STATEMENT OF MOVEMENTS IN EQUITY 32 STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL POSITION 33 STATEMENT OF CASH FLOWS 35 NOTES TO AND FORMING PART OF THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 49 MASSEY UNIVERSITY MISSION 49 STATEMENT OF SERVICE PERFORMANCE 159 APPENDICES: 159 STUDENTS 163 STAFF 168 RESEARCH AND OTHER CONTRACT FUNDING Massey University is driven by a spirit of community relevance and engagement, while maintaining intellectual independence. MASSEY UNIVERSITY Mission Statement Massey University is committed to meeting the needs of New Zealand and New Zealanders, enhancing access to university study for diverse populations, preparing students for life-long learning, and meeting international standards of excellence in research and teaching. Massey University is an integrated multi-campus institution of higher learning that creates new knowledge and understanding; synthesises, applies and disseminates knowledge; develops advanced learning and scholarly abilities for a national and international student body; and promotes free and rational inquiry. We offer high-quality learning experiences that empower people and their communities to prosper in an increasingly knowledge-dependent and technologically advanced world. Massey University is driven by a spirit of community relevance and engagement, while maintaining intellectual independence. We will use our multi-campus structure to meet the needs of our constituent regional communities, while our fl exible delivery and distance (extramural) education capabilities give a national and international reach to our educational programmes. Massey University recognises and respects the signifi cance of mana whenua within its regions and the range of Mäori organisations contributing to Mäori development and advancement. We have demonstrated our commitment to Mäori development by providing Mäori academic leadership, research opportunities and educational qualifi cations that assist in the achievement of Mäori aspirations. Our integrated academic structures and organisational arrangements enable and support interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary research and academic programmes. We pride ourselves on the relevance of our programmes; on our openness to students of diverse backgrounds spanning age, geographic location, educational background, ethnicity and culture; on the support we provide for our students; and on the relationship we have built with our alumni. 1 2 REPORT FROM THE Chancellor The year 2005 may be regarded in the future as a year of paradox and irony for Massey University. The year saw the vigorous beginning of the implementation of a strategy to further raise the quality of the University’s teaching and research services, by identifying and growing domains of excellence. These domains include research areas of signifi cant value to the future of the New Zealand economy, such as the biological sciences, the survival of small and medium sized enterprises, the University’s vast commitment to agricultural research and its research-driven distance education programme. In validation of this contribution, 2005 also saw a decision by the government to give Massey University leadership in two new Partnerships for Excellence: an industry-driven research venture with Lincoln University, and a new equine research centre, in partnership with the equine industry. So it was paradoxical indeed that in December of 2005 the Tertiary Education Commission declined the University’s application for an exemption to the Annual Fees Maxima, in its fee setting for 2006. By way of background, the University’s fees, already amongst the very lowest in the country, were not increased for the 2005 year: Massey was the only New Zealand university to shoulder a nil increase. Our application for an exemption to the fi ve per cent limit noted the substantial negative impact of the nil fee increase, compounded by the effects of the Government’s Fee Stablisation policy from 2001 to 2003 and the subsequent introduction of the Fee Maxima policy. It is important to observe that as a result of this sequence, the University’s fees were frozen in 2001 at the lower end of the spectrum for universities. Subsequent fees policies did not allow for such retrospective and well-intentioned fee anomalies to be addressed. The University’s application for an exemption was thorough and robust. By our reckoning it ably met the TEC’s criteria for exceptions. Nonetheless, it was rejected. I regard this as a serious, short sighted and misguided decision. If we are to continue to meet the needs of our students, staff, the Government and the country we need to be appropriately funded. The TEC decision has already impacted on the University’s ability to deliver. In turn this puts at risk the government’s own economic ambitions for New Zealand, by inhibiting and restricting one of its key providers of research and new knowledge. 3 The TEC decision vividly highlights the need for a complete rethink of the way in which universities are funded. In this regard we welcome signals during 2005 that the government is giving serious consideration to a new funding model based on differentiation and acknowledging that universities require and deserve special funding arrangements, where appropriate and where the potential for value for money is perceived. I look forward to the action that must, at least in this case, follow the rhetoric. I also note with interest indications that the government is looking again at the centralised system of administration of the tertiary education sector, with reviews of the Tertiary Education Commission, the New Zealand Qualifi cations Authority and the Ministry of Education. It is too early to celebrate such signals. It is the right time, however, to emphasise the importance of constructive change to the future funding of universities, and to urge the government, as strongly as possible, to move forward in the interests of students and more focused and well informed national growth. In the meantime, we report a fi nancial surplus for the 2005 year of $3.5 million, a substantial reduction on the $14.8 million reported for 2004. This reduction is largely the result of the impact of the government’s present funding policy, compounded by our restriction to a nil fee increase for the year. The decline in international student enrolments, experienced throughout the New Zealand tertiary education sector, and fl at growth in domestic EFTS, have also contributed to the less favourable result. Despite this, and to create a more positive note on which to end, the University has resolved to continue to provide quality facilities, resources, teaching, and research, the excellence of which was again acknowledged during 2005 with the University’s high ranking against international benchmarks. We will, however, proceed with caution and selectivity, setting our priorities with care. It is in the government’s and New Zealand’s great interest that we are supported in this process, and that there are no losers along the way. Nigel Gould Chancellor Massey University 4 REPORT FROM THE Vice-Chancellor 2005 was marked from the beginning as a year of transformation for the University, with a broad-brush strategy of ‘focused excellence’. This important process has included the closer alignment of resources to high achieving and strategically-relevant research centres and the development of positioning strategies for all three of our campuses, translating our broader strategies into avenues that refl ect the strengths and opportunities that exist in each location. In such an endeavor Massey University is unique amongst New Zealand universities; it must achieve such strategic focus while maintaining excellence and market relevance in the wider sphere of extramural teaching, an area in which some other universities have made a tentative entry. By May of 2005 we were suffi ciently advanced with planning for this transformation process to be able to invite staff to a series of presentations at all three campuses. It is notable that all three presentations attracted strong attendance by staff: in each case there was standing room only. I believe this represented a fresh commitment to the University by its staff, and a greater awareness of the importance of individual contribution. This fl ow of focus followed well-communicated moves over the previous 12 months to better defi ne the distinctiveness of Massey University, including the special qualities and contributions of our three campuses. As part of that important process, we agreed that the University could not continue to be all things to all people and that it must focus on our domains of excellence and emerging excellence. I believe that during 2005 this concept – or agenda, if you like – fully engaged staff and prompted constructive debate. The advent of the Performance Based Research Fund has also had an impact on the University. The outcomes of the PBRF, after all, are in line with the goals and mission of Massey, as a leading research university whose distinctive mission is research training coupled with research-informed teaching. The focus and directions outlined at the May presentations included positioning Massey as: • An institution with international recognition and one that is clearly differentiated from non-university providers. • An institution that attracts and retains high-quality staff who deliver quality research training and teaching in a research-led environment.