Published on 22 October 2025
The PGSA is a student association for PhD, Masters, and other postgrad students at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington. The goals of the association are to further advocacy for those groups - which have pretty different needs than undergrads or staff - and to organize events and prizes.
Yesterday, the PGSA had a general meeting to discuss constitutional changes. First, we voted on letting the committee in principle change parts of the constitution related to quorum for executive members, designating a Māori ex officio seat to the general student assocation at the university, VUWSA, and for removing advocacy as one of our main goals and instead delegating that to VUWSA. In return, VUWSA has promised to give us funding for a full staff member - 30 hours a week for advocacy, 15 hours for admin - so that the society can function. Currently, the society has been allocated a skeleton budget by the university. None of the executive positions are paid or given honorariums, and there’s no funds for even a part-time executive assistant.
We voted on the constitutional changes: they all passed. And then we voted new members in. We now have a new president, the fourth or fifth in a year, a new VP, and a few new executive members.
The coming year is going to be difficult for PGSA. Without funds to do a ton of events, it’ll struggle to justify itself for more funding to the university. With advocacy delegated to another organization - itself a competitor for university funding, which comes from a finite pool that officers must put in bids for - it’ll be difficult to justify funding the PGSA for advocacy in the future. And without remuneration for officers, all of the work will be volunteer, by people who already do not have a ton of time (postgrads).
I think it’s possible for things to get better, through assiduous effort, keeping VUWSA accountable on the advocacy front, and through working with the university to get access to the 5,000 postgrads at the university. Part of every postgrad tuition goes to the university with the express purpose of funding VUWSA. I think it’s a shame that more students don’t know this, and I think that the university should work with PGSA to help ensure that our rights are met as part of that.
Of course, for things to get better, there needs to be a strong executive committee. I wish I could say “Good luck to them!”, but it would seem oddly self-serving, because I threw my own hat in the ring to help.
So, here we go. I’ve added a new page to the homepage about my involvement.
If you’re a postgrad at VUW, reach out whenever. If you’re a member of a student association elsewhere, I’d probably like to pick your brain on how to help keep the plane flying.