ITI Articles

The Wanganui District Council, the Universal College of Learning (UCOL), and the local Wanganui business community have joined forces to preserve a glass design and production course, with a view to creating a new private tertiary education provider.

UCOL management had announced that the glass department was not financially viable, and would therefore be closed by the end of 2009.

UCOL is the only tertiary institution offering hot, warm and cold glass training in New Zealand. Victoria Rodgers, Wanganui Glass Group member and former Glass Department Artist in Residence, notes that, “Many students who come and complete the course stay on, and Wanganui has become a very small town with a vibrant art/glass community that attract other artists to settle here.”

As an immediate step towards preserving the course, the Wanganui District Council and Wanganui Gas will underwrite the shortfall in funds from 2007–2009. This will allow current enrolled students to complete their studies.

In a further innovative move, the Council, in association with the students and staff of UCOL, intends to set up a private training establishment – the Whanganui School of Glass – in 2008. Mayor Michael Laws also intends to ask the Prime Minister to be patron of the new school.

Laws says that, “UCOL has already been in touch with the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) and has been given every indication that approval will be granted to offer the glass diploma through the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA)… It will assist the council to establish the Whanganui School of Glass and obtain the necessary approvals from NZQA and TEC where practicable.”

The Association of University Staff has expressed concern about the decision, quoting a spokesperson from The Association of Staff in Tertiary Education (ASTE) as saying “If it is not feasible for UCOL to run the course under current funding arrangements, it is hard to imagine that farming it out to a PTE would provide a satisfactory answer.”

But the collaboration between UCOL, the local community, the District Council, and Wanganui Gas shows a commitment to creating a PTE that Laws says will be “unique in New Zealand – a significant centre of excellence for glass… It will complement and expand the existing glass industry in Wanganui.”

The solution proves, once again, how PTEs are able to be responsive to the needs of the communities they serve, and that they are uniquely placed to create viable partnerships with business and local government.