U. of New Zealand Comes Under Attack

The president of New Zealand’s largest postsecondary institution defended it last month against politicians who have accused it of widespread corruption and financial irregularities.

Te Wananga o Aotearoa, whose name translates as “the University of New Zealand,” was already the subject of a routine government inquiry into its 10-campus operation, which enrolls the equivalent of some 34,000 full-time students. Aotearoa, whose programs are tailored to the country’s indigenous Maori people, receives the second-largest amount of public financing among colleges in New Zealand.

About two-thirds of Aotearoa’s students identify themselves as Maori. The institution, which bills itself as a global model for indigenous higher education and maintains academic links with a number of similar colleges in North America, also offers a variety of programs to immigrants.

Last month, however, the official inquiry into Aotearoa’s academic caliber and use of the word “university” in its name became mired in scandal after a number of politicians accused university officials of extravagance and wasteful spending. They also raised a raft of questions suggesting that the university was home to nepotism and fraudulent accounting.

In a written statement, Rongo H. Wetere, Aotearoa’s president, described the accusations as either misleading or incorrect. The country’s auditor general is expected to make a decision shortly on whether to widen the current inquiry.

http://chronicle.com Section: International Volume 51, Issue 27, Page A46