Tertiary Update Vol 15 No 41 TEU members are holding protests and meetings at polytechnics around the country today to convince the government to put more money into foundation studies education at polytechnics. The protests coincide with media coverage (from Auckland’s New Zealand Herald to Dunedin’s Otago Daily Times) of the millions of dollars the government has [...]

Academics at Open Polytechnic walked off the job in a lightning strike yesterday to protest at their employer’s attempts to cut research and development time in their collective agreement in half. The staff voted at a union meeting to go on strike immediately, then proceeded to the office of their chief executive to inform her [...]

A delegation of Wellington-based staff at the Open Polytechnic presented a petition to their chief executive Caroline Seelig yesterday, saying they did not want to see their research and development time cut in half.  The polytechnic is seeking, through employment negotiations, to cut its research and development time provision from 30 days a year down [...]

Newstalk ZB reports that TEU members at the Open Polytechnic of New Zealand have voted to take industrial action. It comes after the polytechnic wanted to cut academic staff research and development time in half, from 30 to 15 days. Union organiser Phil Dyhrberg says lecturers want to be experts in their field, and cutting [...]

Lecturers at the Open Polytechnic of New Zealand have voted to take industrial action, after their employer tried to cut their research and development time in half. TEU organiser Phil Dyhrberg says union members are not telling the polytechnic what type of industrial action they will take yet, but it could include things like withholding [...]

Figures supplied to the Otago Daily Times by the New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations (NZUSA) show New Zealand’s public tertiary institutions spent $31 million on advertising last year. The tertiary institution – including polytechnics and other providers – which spent the most overall was Unitec, which spent $4.8 million, followed by the Open Polytechnic, [...]

Send an email petition to the Open Polytechnic of New Zealand telling it you want to retain thirty days of research and development time in the collective agreement. When you fill in this form we will collate your signatures and submit them collectively to the employer’s lead advocate. Remember to keep your message polite and [...]

Research and development time could be slashed in half at the Open Polytechnic of New Zealand if managers get their way in employment negotiations. Employers at the polytechnic are wanting to cut academic staff research and development time from 30 days to 15, saying they believe the entitlement is ‘overly generous’ and out-of-kilter with the [...]

Minister for tertiary education, skills and employment, Steven Joyce, has continued to appoint people to multiple polytechnic councils. Malcolm Inglis, who is the current deputy chair of UCOL council will now also take on the role of deputy chair of the WITT council for a four year term. Malcolm Inglis is a management consultant providing [...]

Education Minister Anne Tolley has announced the ten new Trades Academies, which are to open around New Zealand from 2012, providing practical skills training for secondary school students while allowing them to study for NCEA credits and tertiary qualifications. Mrs Tolley also announced this week that Christchurch is to have a new Trades Academy, and [...]