Mike's Minute: NZ universities - Take stock of the rankings and be better

Universities are a bit of a minefield at the moment.  Grant Robertson has gone to run Otago, Auckland has introduced a Māori-related compulsory course which has received surprise and push back, and AUT has been giving out free points in a race-based travel rort, where if you're Māori you get a better chance at travel funding than if you're not Māori.  So when the latest international university rankings were released yesterday the fact Otago is at its lowest ranking ever will come as a good chance to offer a decent serve to old Grant "can't run an economy, can't run a university" Robertson.  Auckland was another who fell out of the top 150 for the first time. So, once again, a chance to have a crack.  There are other rankings and depending on which ones you look at depends on how they are judged. Overall, you can argue we are not particularly high up in global terms.  Auckland as our top facility outside the top 150 doesn’t sound very encouraging, because it isn't.  Otago is so far down the list they don’t even rank them specifically. It's just a band and they have gone from the 301-350 band down to the 351-400 band. They might be 399th in the world. Surely there's some reputational work to be done?  I note Otago defended themselves by saying they were disappointed, but no New Zealand university had improved, sort of in a "well we are all a bit useless then, aren't we?", kind of way.  Having had a bit of experience with universities these past few years —two of our five have, or are, attending and a third is about to go— the unmistakable reality that smacks you in the face is the wokeness of it all and the stench of indoctrination about the place.  They are there to fill your head with the stuff they believe to be correct.  You think their way or you are wrong. A lot of it is race-based and it's unappealing.  Mind you, I'm older. Maybe young kids lap it up, or think they lap it up, until they mature a bit.  But even the teaching brigade at some of these places have voiced their concerns around freedom of speech and when you add the concerns to the rankings, the overall picture painted is not flattering.  Because they are so woke my fear is a ranking like this will not be seen as a reason to change, or improve, but yet another reason to dismiss those who can't possibly know what they're talking about. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.