September 07, 2020
Waikato University tackles racism charges
Power couple Sir Wira Gardiner and Hekia Parata have today started a review of claims of structural and systemic racism at the University of Waikato.
The allegations were contained in a 13-page letter to the Education Ministry by some of the university’s most high profile Māori academics Sciences.
Chancellor Sir Anand Satyanand says the pair will also review the university’s progress in meeting its Treaty of Waitangi obligations, its programmes to support Māori students, and its efforts to attract and retain Māori staff.
Sir Wira is a former Te Puni Kōkiri head while Ms Parata was education minister under the previous National government.
The complaints reflect grievances that have simmered since the university announced plans two years ago to fold the faculty of Māori and Indigenous Studies into a school within Social Sciences.
The reviewers have been told any recommendations for improvements in policy and practice should be consistent with advancing the national and international standing of the University and the resource constraints under which the New Zealand university system currently operates.
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