The Tertiary Education Commission is worried about a potential privacy breach after a briefcase containing sensitive information on the performance of the nation's academics was stolen from one of its members.
The briefcase belonged to a member of the Commission's performance-based research fund panel, which assesses research by university staff and allocates about $250 million dollars of funding annually.
Commission deputy chair Colin Webb says the information in the briefcase - which went missing from an Auckland University of Technology campus cafe -- shouldn't be released into the public domain.
Mr Webb says that police are investigating the theft.
