Decision to exclude the PGSA from the proposed Student Success Committee
Andrew Tipton made this Official Information request to Victoria University of Wellington
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From: Andrew Tipton
Dear Victoria University of Wellington,
For a number of years, the university has had a Student Experience Committee (the "SEC"), which is an advisory committee whose purpose is "to advise the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Students), Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Māori) and Assistant Vice-Chancellor (Pasifika) on matters relating to students (as relevant to their portfolios)."
The Postgraduate Students' Association (the PGSA) has a representative on the SEC, and this is set out in the Terms of Reference for the SEC.
Recently, it has been proposed to transform the SEC into a Student Success Committee (the "SSC") and expand its remit as well as delegate some decision-making authorities to the Committee. As part of this work, a proposed Terms of Reference for the SSC were drafted and presented to Academic Board for its 24 February 2026 meeting.
The proposed Terms of Reference for the SSC had removed the PGSA representative from the Committee.
Against this background, I wish to make an Official Information Act request for information relating to the proposed Terms of Reference for the SSC and, more specifically, the decision-making process that led to the PGSA being excluded from the proposed Terms of Reference.
(For completeness, I note that Academic Board has now chosen to approve the proposed Terms of Reference with an amendment to restore the PGSA representative as a member of the committee. Therefore, this request is simply seeking to obtain insight into how and why the original proposal ended up not including the PGSA as a member.)
The information that I seek about this decision might be contained in documents such as working drafts of the proposed Terms of Reference, in the minutes of meetings related to either the Student Experience Committee or the proposed Student Success Committee, or in email and/or Teams messages.
I would also like to request copies of any correspondence with the PGSA or with VUWSA regarding the proposed Student Success Committee. This would include, for example, correspondence where either of these students' associations were consulted on the proposed changes to the membership of either the SEC or the proposed SSC.
Yours faithfully,
Andrew Tipton
From: OIA Requests
Victoria University of Wellington
Kia ora
Thank you for your email.
If you are making a request under the Official Information Act 1982 (OIA),
the University will be in touch to acknowledge your request and discuss
further if necessary.
Please note that the OIA statutory holiday period is 25 December 2025 to
15 January 2026 (inclusive), and any requests made during this period will
have a decision due date of 13 February 2026.
The University is currently experiencing high volumes of OIA requests.
Accordingly, we would be grateful if you could please instead consider the
following alternative methods to answer commonly requested information:
* If you are a prospective student seeking information to apply to study
with us, please contact the University’s Student Success Advisers for
admissions advice:
[1]https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/study/apply-enrol...
* If you are a student seeking advice on studies, student
administration, support services, and student life in general, please
contact Tîtoko—Centre for Student Success:
[2]https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/students/tools-an...
* If you are seeking grade distributions or copies of test papers,
please contact your course coordinator or lecturer. Contact details
can be found on the relevant course page, which you can search for on
the University’s website here:
[3]https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/study/programmes-...
* If you are seeking agendas and minutes from the University Council,
you can find these on the University’s website as follows:
* Meeting dates and agendas:
[4]https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/about/governance/...
* Minutes:
[5]https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/about/governance/...
* If you are seeking agendas, papers, and minutes from the University’s
Academic Board, you can find these on the University’s website here:
[6]https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/about/governance/...
* If you are seeking other key University documents, such as our Annual
Report, Ki te râ—Student Wellbeing Outcomes Framework, Strategic Plan
and more, you can find these on the University’s website here:
[7]https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/about/governance/...
If you have found the information through any of the alternative means,
please confirm by email if you would like to withdraw your OIA request.
Otherwise, if we do not hear back from you, we will proceed with your
request as normal.
Thank you.
Ngâ mihi
OIA Team
Te Herenga Waka - Victoria University of Wellington
References
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1. https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/study/apply-enrol...
2. https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/students/tools-an...
3. https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/study/programmes-...
4. https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/about/governance/...
5. https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/about/governance/...
6. https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/about/governance/...
7. https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/about/governance/...
From: OIA Requests
Victoria University of Wellington
Kia ora
I am writing to acknowledge receipt of your Official Information Act 1982
(OIA) request of 25 February 2026.
We will endeavour to respond to your request as soon as possible, and not
later than 25 March 2026, being 20 working days after the date your
request was received.
If you have any questions or concerns relating to your request in the
meantime, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Ngā mihi
Kayana Shaw (she/her)
Senior Advisor, Official Information and Privacy | Legal Services
Te Herenga Waka - Victoria University of Wellington
[1]www.wgtn.ac.nz | 0800 04 04 04
show quoted sections
From: OIA Requests
Victoria University of Wellington
Kia ora
I am emailing in relation to your Official Information Act 1982 (OIA)
received on 25 February 2026 for information relating to the Student
Success Committee as it relates to the PGSA.
The OIA requires that we advise you of our decision on your request no
later than 20 working days after the day we received your request.
Unfortunately, it will not be possible to meet that time limit and we are
therefore writing to notify you of an extension of the time to make our
decision by 35 days, to 18 May 2026.
This extension is necessary because:
o your request necessitates a search through a large quantity of
information and meeting the original time limit would unreasonably
interfere with our operations
o consultations necessary to make a decision on your request are such
that a proper response cannot reasonably be made within the original
time limit.
You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman of
this decision. Information about how to make a complaint is available
at [1]www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or freephone 0800 802 602.
If you wish to discuss any aspect of your request with us, including this
decision, please feel free to contact us.
Ngā mihi
Kayana Shaw (she/her)
Senior Advisor, Official Information and Privacy | Legal Services
Te Herenga Waka - Victoria University of Wellington
[2]www.wgtn.ac.nz | 0800 04 04 04
From: OIA Requests <[VUW request email]>
Sent: Thursday, 26 February 2026 8:24 am
To: Andrew Tipton <[FOI #33852 email]>
Subject: Acknowledgement: OIA 021 Tipton (PGSA) - PGSA and Student Success
Committee
Kia ora
I am writing to acknowledge receipt of your Official Information Act 1982
(OIA) request of 25 February 2026.
We will endeavour to respond to your request as soon as possible, and not
later than 25 March 2026, being 20 working days after the date your
request was received.
If you have any questions or concerns relating to your request in the
meantime, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Ngā mihi
Kayana Shaw (she/her)
Senior Advisor, Official Information and Privacy | Legal Services
Te Herenga Waka - Victoria University of Wellington
[3]www.wgtn.ac.nz | 0800 04 04 04
show quoted sections
From: OIA Requests
Victoria University of Wellington
Kia ora
Please find attached a response to your Official Information Act 1982
request of 25 February 2026.
Ngā mihi
Kayana Shaw (she/her)
Senior Advisor, Official Information and Privacy | Legal Services
Te Herenga Waka - Victoria University of Wellington
[1]www.wgtn.ac.nz | 0800 04 04 04
From: OIA Requests <[VUW request email]>
Sent: Wednesday, 25 March 2026 3:55 pm
To: Andrew Tipton <[FOI #33852 email]>
Subject: Extension: OIA 021 Tipton (PGSA) - PGSA and Student Success
Committee
Kia ora
I am emailing in relation to your Official Information Act 1982 (OIA)
received on 25 February 2026 for information relating to the Student
Success Committee as it relates to the PGSA.
The OIA requires that we advise you of our decision on your request no
later than 20 working days after the day we received your request.
Unfortunately, it will not be possible to meet that time limit and we are
therefore writing to notify you of an extension of the time to make our
decision by 35 days, to 18 May 2026.
This extension is necessary because:
o your request necessitates a search through a large quantity of
information and meeting the original time limit would unreasonably
interfere with our operations
o consultations necessary to make a decision on your request are such
that a proper response cannot reasonably be made within the original
time limit.
You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman of
this decision. Information about how to make a complaint is available
at [2]www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or freephone 0800 802 602.
If you wish to discuss any aspect of your request with us, including this
decision, please feel free to contact us.
Ngā mihi
Kayana Shaw (she/her)
Senior Advisor, Official Information and Privacy | Legal Services
Te Herenga Waka - Victoria University of Wellington
[3]www.wgtn.ac.nz | 0800 04 04 04
From: OIA Requests <[4][VUW request email]>
Sent: Thursday, 26 February 2026 8:24 am
To: Andrew Tipton <[5][FOI #33852 email]>
Subject: Acknowledgement: OIA 021 Tipton (PGSA) - PGSA and Student Success
Committee
Kia ora
I am writing to acknowledge receipt of your Official Information Act 1982
(OIA) request of 25 February 2026.
We will endeavour to respond to your request as soon as possible, and not
later than 25 March 2026, being 20 working days after the date your
request was received.
If you have any questions or concerns relating to your request in the
meantime, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Ngā mihi
Kayana Shaw (she/her)
Senior Advisor, Official Information and Privacy | Legal Services
Te Herenga Waka - Victoria University of Wellington
[6]www.wgtn.ac.nz | 0800 04 04 04
show quoted sections
Things to do with this request
- Add an annotation (to help the requester or others)
- Download a zip file of all correspondence (note: this contains the same information already available above).
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Andrew Tipton left an annotation ()
It is interesting that this relatively straightforward request is requiring so many of the university's resources to answer. What is really going on here?
Link to this