Massey University has contacted us to say there were some errors in the Manawatu Standard story upon which we based our Tertiary Update story yesterday: Vice-chancellor Steve Maharey has made the following statement to staff at the university: The living wage: The university has taken no position on this issue.  During an interview on Radio NZ National, to discuss the living wage concept I indicated that it was a very [...]

Long term under-funding of tertiary education since 2009 is taking away opportunities to learn from students and future students, say TEU national secretary Sharn Riggs, upon hearing news that the tertiary education budget will stagnate more than $400 million below than 2009 funding levels. As one example of these cuts, despite estimating that student numbers will remain relatively steady, [...]

Tertiary Update Vol 16 No 15 Massey University will likely be next to follow The Warehouse by offering its workers a “living wage” according to the Manawatu Standard earlier this week. University spokesman James Gardiner told the Standard the university would meet tertiary union representatives at the pay negotiations table with an offer to match [...]

Guest article from Prof. Jack Heinemann University of Canterbury branch president: In his weekly article in the Christchurch Press (14 May), Chris Trotter makes the important point that persistent underfunding of fundamental New Zealand assets – its universities and polytechnics – diminishes the country, threatens its reputation, and leaves a legacy liability of future underperformance. But [...]

The passing of the marriage equality act last month reflects not only a change in New Zealand’s legal attempts to address discrimination against LGBTI people, but also a growing acceptance among a majority that ‘homophobia and gender identity discrimination is not acceptable. However many LGBTI workers still face discrimination in the workplace, including tertiary education [...]

When the budget is released this afternoon TEU will be responding to it with a media release and analysis at this webpage. In the meantime the CTU’s economist Bill Rosenberg argues that the government’s austerity programme is being increasingly discredited as a way to get out of the current and ongoing international recession. The government has [...]

TEU analysis and coverage of Budget 2013 We will update this page over the next few days with TEU’s analysis and comment on Budget 2013, as well as links to coverage of tertiary education-related and employment-related Budget news. Opportunity not austerity – TEU media release TEU media release – Long term under-funding of tertiary education since 2009 [...]

Here’s TEU’s response to the essay cheating issue that has been in the media over the weekend: Cheating is not a widespread problem as far as we know. No academic would willingly turn a blind eye to this sort of cheating (or any cheating). It is central to their professional integrity that they oppose cheating [...]