Minister for Tertiary Education Skills and Employment, Steven Joyce, says he has attended a number of meetings with Metro ITP representatives at which someone from the private lobbying firm Saunders Unsworth was also present. The Metro Group is a peak body representing six public polytechnics; Unitec, CPIT, Wintec, Otago Polytechnic, Weltec and MIT. Saunders Unsworth [...]

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 [...]

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, [...]

Unitec foundations studies lecturer Susan Wātene says foundation students’ programmes are coming under increasing pressure from reviews and restructuring.  Foundations studies students need more pastoral care and support but often that pastoral support is not specifically funded which means it is done by staff who already have other jobs. “If positions for pastoral support are [...]

A lobbying disclosure bill that is to be debated by parliament could impact tertiary institutions that currently pay lobbying agencies to influence politicians.  Last year Tertiary Update revealed that private lobbying and consultancy company Saunders Unsworth lists among its past and present clients Massey University, Otago University, the six metro polytechnics, Victoria University of Wellington, and the Industry Training Federation. [...]

Some polytechnics are reporting strong enrolments and say relatively high unemployment is continuing to drive people into tertiary education according to Radio New Zealand According to Radio NZ tertiary institutions in New Plymouth, Wellington, Porirua and Auckland say enrolments are between 5 percent and 40 percent higher than at the same time last year. “However, [...]

Tertiary Update vol 14 No 42 TEU members at Unitec finally have a collective agreement again, after nearly a year on individual employment agreements. Members at Unitec voted to ratify their new collective last Friday. “This is now the second collective agreement that TEU has settled coming out of the old ITP MECA that dissolved [...]

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 [...]

The employers at the five Ready2Go polytechnics (Whitireia, Wintec, BOPP, Unitec and NorthTec) have now finally agreed that they are indeed ‘ready to go’ and have agreed dates to negotiate with their respective TEU members. The first, Whitireia begins negotiations tomorrow (Friday) and the last gets underway on 3 August. Weltec has joined these five polytechnics in [...]

7th July 2011 Office of the Ombudsman PO Box 10 -152 The Terrace Wellington   Dear Sir/Madam On 6th May 2011 the TEU wrote to chief executives at five institutes of technology/polytechnics with whom we have been engaged in bargaining for a multi-employer collective agreement [Northtec Polytechnic, UNITEC, Bay of Plenty Polytechnic, Winted and Whitireia [...]