The University of Auckland is set to abandon compulsory Treaty of Waitangi and te ao Māori courses for first-year undergraduates, following complaints from students and staff that the requirement undermined academic freedom.
The university’s senate voted this month to recommend the Waipapa Taumata Rau (WTR) papers become optional, just one semester after they were introduced. The governing council will consider the advice next month and is expected to confirm the change.
The courses were rolled out this year as mandatory components for new students across all faculties. They were designed to give undergraduates a grounding in the Treaty and aspects of te ao Māori.
A university spokesperson had earlier defended the courses as being tailored to different faculties and relevant to students’ studies. However, feedback from both students and staff suggested many felt the compulsion was misplaced, particularly for those pursuing specialist programmes.
Act Party leader David Seymour welcomed the reversal, saying it serves as an important step in protecting choice within higher education. “This is, again, just a massive victory for people to be able to use reason and logic to get through their lives and make up their own mind,” Seymour told Herald NOW.
While acknowledging the value of Māori culture, Seymour argued against compulsory instruction. “It’s important to a lot of people, but I oppose compulsion in all its forms. And when you say this is mandatory, it’s actually counterproductive.”
He had previously criticised the university for imposing a requirement across all degrees, describing it as “a perversion of academic freedom” and “a form of indoctrination.”
Act’s tertiary education spokeswoman, Dr Parmjeet Parmar, said the university should “respect [students’] time and money, and put their interests ahead of Treaty ideology.”
She pointed to student feedback now under review by the senate, which she said showed many saw the courses as “politically loaded and irrelevant, particularly for those in specialist programmes.”
According to Parmar, giving students freedom to choose is essential if the university wants to continue attracting top talent from New Zealand and overseas.