Further Reflections on Ako Aotearoa Defunding 2025: Teaching Without a Centre

“Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold.”

— W.B. Yeats, The Second Coming

What happens to excellence, care, and cultural memory when the National Centre disappears—and what might rise in its absence?

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The Silence After

In May 2025, the Budget delivered a decision few expected: the disestablishment of Ako Aotearoa, New Zealand’s National Centre for Tertiary Teaching Excellence.

For many, it came as a shock. Quiet. Sudden.

A single bullet point in a long document — and just like that, a national anchor point was gone.

The public reaction?

Muted.

Media coverage?

Minimal.

Even among those directly impacted, there was—understandably—a kind of stunned stillness.

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But Something Did Stir

I wrote about this in Reflections on Ako Aotearoa Defunding 2025: When the State Forgets Its Tertiary Teachers.

The piece was quietly shared across the sector. It signalled that this moment wasn’t just administrative.

It was emotional. Symbolic. Worth pausing for.

And while many remained silent, a few key leaders made space for reflection—and that mattered.

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What Gets Lost Without a Centre?

Without a Centre, we lose:

• A place where care and culture were centred in tertiary practice
• A home for initiatives that weren’t just operational—but aspirational
• The memory of what worked, what failed, and what mattered

Without a Centre, excellence risks becoming scattered—distributed into projects and pockets, but no longer stitched together by narrative, by stewardship, or by institutional memory.

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And Yet…

When the centre dissolves, something else becomes possible.

What if we stopped waiting for the State to re-centre teaching?

What if excellence didn’t need a centre—because it had a field?

What if we could build something distributed, intelligent, and alive?

A network of adaptive, reflective, culturally grounded systems that don’t replace the Centre—but evolve it.

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I’m Not Making a Pitch. Not Yet.

I’m not offering a product.

I’m not selling a solution.

What I’m doing is listening—and watching what rises in the absence.

Because something will.

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The Centre Cannot Hold. So What Does?

If you’ve felt this shift… if you’ve wondered what might come next…

If you’re part of a tertiary institution that wants to remember what mattered and reimagine what’s possible—then maybe this moment isn’t just an ending.

Maybe it’s a signal.

And maybe it’s time.

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