The autonomy and governance of New Zealand universities

Although many of the proposals in the White Paper have been shelved, they have certainly not been buried. Indeed, it is very probable that some of them will find their way back onto the policy agenda, perhaps within the context of the next round of reviews. With this in mind, the following paper analyses and assesses the degree of autonomy enjoyed by New Zealand universities under both 'Leaming for Life' and the policy regime envisaged by the White Paper. In order to undertake this task, we first explore the meaning and nature of university autonomy and, building on the work of Lane (1981) and various other scholars, outline the different kinds of autonomy that are relevant to the academic context. The paper also seeks to compare and contrast the autonomy of New Zealand universities with their counterparts in other similar jurisdictions.