Dialogue: Payback time for alumni as universities go broke

Graduates who gained much from their tertiary institutions owe them something in return, writes ROBERT SOLOMON*.

University financing is in a state of crisis. So there could be no better time to encourage a new way of thinking about our relationship to higher education.

In particular, we need a change of attitude in the relationship between students and their university, both while they are students and after they have graduated and gone off into the larger world.

What I find somewhat shocking here at Auckland is the thinness of that relationship.

At home in Texas (and in the United States more generally), it is taken more or less for granted that students owe a debt of gratitude to their educational institutions.

Even while they are at the university they are very clear about the fact that if they succeed in life, they will, in turn, support the institution that gave them so much - not just the education and the tools to succeed in life but an identity that they will carry proudly through life.

Indeed, it is not unusual to find graduates of the university who, as alumni, exhibit a great deal more school spirit than they did as undergraduates.

I have always made it a point (of respect) not to judge New Zealand or New Zealanders by the customs and standards of the US. I find a great deal in New Zealand that Americans would do well to emulate, which is why I keep coming back.

But on this particular point, and because of the financial crisis that threatens to seriously damage tertiary education, and with it the prospects for prosperity that come with a high-powered, knowledge-based economy, I feel no qualms about urging this one cultural consciousness change on you.

To put it simply, the relationship between students (and former students) and higher education, and the very way of thinking about this relationship, should change.

When I first came to Auckland, in 1968, students were given a Bursary by the Government, in effect paying them to study. The view then, as it should be now, was that a better-educated populace made for a better democracy, a better economy, a better society.

I don't have to tell you what has happened since. Student fees at the university are more than $3360 (and as much as $9646) a year, and many students have to go into serious debt to finance their studies.

Former students have fond memories of those years, and obviously learned a lot (even if they no longer remember how to spell Nietzsche). And they have done very well for themselves.

So here's the pitch: high education in New Zealand can no longer afford the luxurious attitude of "it will be taken care of."

Those of us who have benefited from the university - as I have in all of my years of contacts with students and staff - owe it something in return. Especially does this apply to those of us who can afford it.

I, therefore, intend to provide scholarships to help a small number of University of Auckland philosophy students with the burden of their fees. What I have done, I hope, is to set an example, just a small and not very offensive instance of Yankee imperialism.

The message is that the excellence of New Zealand education is not just a function of government. It is the duty of every concerned and successful alumnus and alumna.

I feel strongly that there is no good substitute for Government funding of higher education. What the Government pays for it also endorses and encourages. And when that Government is "of the people" it is the populace as a whole that is seen to endorse and encourage education.

Government resources may be limited, but one thing that the Government could certainly do would be to provide tax incentives for such gifts from citizens by way of a thoughtful amendment to the tax code.

* Robert Solomon was a visiting professor in the department of philosophy at the University of Auckland.