The Minister of Education, Hon Anne Tolley, wants to reduce the number of members of Councils for Polytechnics and Universitys in New Zealand.
See - http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/2674805/Polytechs-top-brass-to-be-axed-leaked-memo
What are the possible effects of such action? It depends upon which side the arguement you wish to take. Under the previous government Councils were allowed to grow to numbers up to a maximum of 20. This includes all sorts of representatives from different stakeholder divisions.
In order to work out how these changes may affect the ITP sector, one must first have a clear understanding of what Governance's role is. By determining the role then we can decide what the best way of achieving those desired outcomes are.
A very simplistic way of defining governance's role is - Steer, Strategy, Stability. Management also provide these factors but at an operations level c.f. the strategy and governence level.
Governance can be effective with a few or many members. Likewise governance body's can be ineffective with a few or many members.
It is the quality of the members not the number of the members that counts.
