Section 276 of the Act establishes the requirements that councils must have a total of 8, 9, 10, 11, or 12 council members, comprising:

• 4 members appointed by the Minister by written notice to the council (for a council comprising 10, 11, or 12 members): or
• 3 members appointed by the Minister by written notice to the council (for a council comprising 8 or 9 members); and
• enough members appointed by the council by resolution, in accordance with its statutes, to bring the membership up to that total number.

University councils must include the elected representatives of the staff and students in their appointments.

In 2015, as part of a reform of the governance of universities and wananga, all those councils developed new constitutions that were agreed by the Minister and published in the Gazette.

Amending a constitution is relatively straightforward

Under Schedule 11 clause 2 of the Act, if a university or wānanga council recommends that its constitution be amended, and the amendment complies with the requirements, the Minister effects this change by publishing a notice in the New Zealand Gazette. The Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) works with each council amending their constitution and will provide advice to the Minister about the amendment.

The process normally takes only a few weeks; the steps in the process are:

Read a text version of the diagram

For more information please contact governance@tec.govt.nz