CTU President, Helen Kelly said “The Ministers of Labour and Women’s Affairs have told us that new legislation is not needed because workers can already find out pay information by asking a Labour Inspector to investigate a complaint. We do not believe inspectors have the capacity to do this role and think that if workers are able to have the information first – then complaints to the inspectors will be based on knowledge of pay inequality rather than relying on the inspectors in the first instance to inspect all workplaces. However the Minister has said the current system will work and we are going to test it!”

“We’re not aware of anyone ever using the mechanism that the Ministers say exists – but that needs to be demonstrated”.

Tomorrow is the last day to submit petitions. So far TEU branches at Waiariki Institute of Technology, the University of Otago and the University of Waikato have all submitted petitions. If TEU members at other branches wish to submit a petition, either individually or as a group they should contact their branch women’s representative.

The universities themselves are both supporting the respective breakfasts at Lincoln and Victoria, with the vice-chancellor at Lincoln funding the entire breakfast, and the vice chancellor at Victoria funding half of the breakfast.

A central issue for women commemorating Suffrage Day this year is the upcoming referendum on MMP.

“Suffrage wasn’t something that happened just once, a hundred years ago,” said TEU women’s vice president Alexandra Sims. “It’s an on-going process to ensure women have fair representation and participation in all aspects of politics. MMP has given more women a voice in Parliament – that’s why it’s a suffrage issue this year.”

When MMP was introduced the number of women in Parliament rose immediately from 21 percent to 29 percent and has subsequently remained over 30 percent ever since.

“Across the world women are better represented in parliaments with proportional voting systems. If we want to protect and grow our political voice women need to vote to retain MMP at this year’s referendum,” said Associate Professor Alex Sims.

Ministry of Education statistics show the average surplus as a percentage of revenue at public tertiary education providers climbing dramatically from 1.9 percent in 2006 to 5.2 percent last year.

In 2006 public tertiary education providers made a combined surplus of $66 million on revenue of $3.5 billion. Last year the same institutions made a combined surplus of $280 million on revenue of $4.4 billion.

Public tertiary institutions are supposed to meet a benchmark surplus of 3 percent of revenue each year. By exceeding that benchmark by a further 2.2 percent last year the institutions pocketed nearly $100 million dollars more than they were required to.

The large surplus last year does not seem to be a one off aberration according to TEU National Secretary Sharn Riggs. “They have grown steadily each year since 2006.”

The public institutions that have generated the largest surpluses as percentages of revenue include Waiariki (16 percent) Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi and SIT (13 percent each), WITT and UCOL (12 percent each), the Open Polytechnic, CPIT and Bay of Plenty Polytechnic (11 percent each).

“While we commend these institutions on careful and prudent management, we need to remember that surplus money is money that could have been spend saving jobs, teaching students and protecting quality education,” said Ms Riggs. “Too many good people have lost their jobs, gone without pay rises or been told to turn away students because of tight fiscal circumstances. It is galling to see that those circumstances were not so tight after all.”

Also in Tertiary Update this week

1. Negotiations across the nation
2. Voluntary student membership unlikely before election
3. Sleepover workers reject government offer

Other news

“Wanted: casual teaching staff. Postgraduate qualifications essential, PhD preferred. Minimum three hours work per paid hour; hours to be advised. No office provided. Three months work available; chance of more next year, after four months unpaid break.” Doesn’t sound very enticing, does it? But such is the lot of the sessional tutor — 70,000 in Australia, the NTEU estimates - The Melbourne Age

Two-thirds of English universities will have a maximum fee level of £9,000 and a third of them will charge the full fee for all courses. UCU said today that it was not surprised that all universities’ tuition fee hikes had been approved, leaving England as the most expensive country to study for a public degree – University and College Union

Almost a quarter of Australia’s universities expect to be over-enrolled by more than 20 per cent this year. And more than two-thirds of institutions began the year planning to take on extra students without any federal teaching subsidy to offset the cost. Australian universities are jockeying for position in next year’s demand-driven market. From next year, universities are promised teaching subsidies for every place they can fill – The Australian

Welsh ministers have been handed proposals for cutting the number of universities through mergers. A blueprint from the body that funds higher education would cut the number of universities in Wales from 11 to six. Education Minister Leighton Andrews, who last year said universities must “adapt or die”, is backing the proposals - BBC

—

TEU Tertiary Update is published weekly on Thursdays and distributed freely to members of the Tertiary Education Union and others. You can subscribe to Tertiary Update by email or feed reader. Back issues are available on the TEU website. Direct inquiries should be made to Stephen Day.

A group of students studying the institution’s Diploma in Interior Design contacted the Daily Post late last week after being told the diploma they had spent thousands of dollars to work towards would not be going ahead. The students had completed a Certificate in Interior Design and were going on to the diploma.

One of the students, Kim Wilson, who has studied part-time towards the diploma since 2009, said she went to class on Wednesday afternoon where nine students were handed resources for the course.

She said the head of the department arrived and told them he was the bearer of some bad news and that the course was not going ahead as there were not enough students.

A meeting was arranged between chief executive Dr Pim Borren and the students on Friday, after several of the students sent letters to him expressing their displeasure at the course being canned and the late notice with regard to the cancellation.

Dr Borren said the course should never have been be scrapped. He said there was a new director of the school of computing, technology and communication and a new head of the arts department, and there was confusion among staff there.

“They got confused between cancelling a class as opposed to a course… Somewhere we all got wires crossed… It was a simple mistake. We have apologised.”

Polytechnics and one wānanga were big losers in this year’s Government’s Student Achievement Component (SAC) funding for the tertiary education sector.

Figures released last year from the Tertiary Education Commission show that eight polytechnics will receive less SAC money this year than last. The figures reveal that Bay of Plenty Polytechnic, UCOL, NMIT, Northtec, SIT, WITT, Waiāriki and Te Tai Poutini all receive funding cuts this year. Te Wānanga o Raukawa also lost a million dollars of funding this year.

Universities on the whole did better, with a $56 million, or 5 percent increase in SAC funding – although $10 million of that relates to funding that last year went to Telford Rural Polytechnic and this year is moved into Lincoln University’s budget due to a merger of the two institutions.

Industry Training Organisations (ITOs) were the hardest hit by the commission’s funding announcement with 31 of 37 receiving funding cuts. Overall ITOs lost $28 million of funding.

The polytechnics and wānanga that are the worst hit by funding cuts are all outside the major urban cities.  Waiāriki Institute of Technology, for instance, faces a 6 percent reduction in its SAC grant this year.  That is $1.5 million, or over $400 for every equivalent full time student.

Overall, the total funding increase to the SAC grant (2 percent) does not quite match the 2.2 percent price increase that the commission says is included in its calculations – in other words there is an overall funding cut for the institutions, which is particularly given the significant roll growth that tertiary institutions are experiencing.

Also in Tertiary Update this week:

1. PM claims better results for less money
2. Will new trade agreement let foreign universities sue NZ?
3. Education International’s first global women’s conference
4. Early childhood cuts won’t heal

Other news

Professor Harlene Hayne has been appointed as the new vice-chancellor of the University of Otago and becomes the second woman vice-chancellor of a New Zealand university, following Judith Kinnear who left Massey in 2009. TEU’s Otago university branch welcomed Dr Hayne and looks forward to working constructively with her.

The number of Equivalent Full Time Students aged 18 – 25 years engaged in formal tertiary study increased by 15,648 (13.5%) between 2008 and 2010 – TVNZ

The Labour Party has announced a new Tertiary Education spokesperson, Darren Hughes, will replace Grant Robertson. Mr Hughes takes on the entire Education portfolio including tertiary and compulsory education – Labour Party

“I take issue with an underlying assumption in the report that academics and institutions aren’t very good at career planning. Academics work with their institutions to set out clear career plans – the problem is the rules of progression and attainment for academics are being set by managerial approaches to tertiary education, which have been in continual flux for more than two decades” – Sandra Grey

Dame Margaret Clark, who has worked at Victoria University for more than three decades, says it is not the lifestyle choice it used to be. “I think the future is a lot tougher than my past was. I think that universities were much more gentlemanly, much more relaxed, much less judgemental,” she said. The pressure has also increased in her department, where student teacher ratios are 1:47, when they should be 1:15 – TVNZ

The Government is cutting support for teaching in higher education by 80 per cent, and forcing universities to charge up to £9,000 per year. With the median wage in the UK at £22,000, the majority of the UK population will be unable to pay some of the highest fees in the world –Open letter from academics in the Time Educational Supplement

The Dutch coalition government has announced cuts of up to EUR500 million (US$681 million) a year for higher education, penalties for students and universities if they fail to complete their degree after four years, and the abolition of grants for masters students. University rectors and the mayors of university cities warned that the cuts would “push the Netherlands out of the world’s top 10 knowledge economies” – University World News

—

TEU Tertiary Update is published weekly on Thursdays and distributed freely to members of the Tertiary Education Union and others. You can subscribe to Tertiary Update by email or feed reader. Back issues are available on the TEU website. Direct inquiries should be made to Stephen Day.

The paper reports that the review is the result of government funding cuts.

The government cap on student numbers means entry requirements at Waiariki will be tightened next year. Waiariki’s Mokoia campus currently is home to about 3000 domestic full-time students, but chief executive Pim Borren says that is expected to shrink to 2700 next year.

The number of new places available at the institute will drop from 2000 to 1400 and those wishing to study are being advised to enrol before Christmas so they don’t miss out.

Students will be required to pay their fees in full before their course starts and those who pay early will be given priority. Course entry requirements will become stricter, as Waiariki looks at ways to restrict the number of students.

After previously having few or no entry requirements for most courses, students with the best academic results now will  take precedence.

Dr Borren told the Daily Post that he believes such harsh capping during a recession is short-sighted of the Government.

“[They] should have been more lenient with the cap.”

Dr Borren said the Government should have been focusing on upskilling. When the economy picked up the unemployment rates would drop and the country would be faced with a skills shortage, he said.

Some courses would be cut which in turn would lead to staff losses, although that wasn’t something yet being discussed, Dr Borren said.

Ministry of Education senior manager Ben O’Meara said that under a capped funding system there was a possibility some people would not be able to enrol in their first choice of study.

However, he said expenditure and the number of Government-funded student places had actually increased during the recession.

Thanks to TurningTide Photography @ Flickr for the image

Tertiary education minister Steven Joyce wants to cut the government’s student loan bill by removing access to the scheme for students who fail or drop out.

The minister told the” Weekend Herald that over 40 percent of New Zealand’s tertiary education budget goes on student loans and allowances, compared with an OECD average of only 17.6 percent.”  He plans to ‘rebalance’ costs by cutting access to loans for those who fail more than half of their courses. The New Zealand Qualifications Authority is also considering restricting the current open entry into tertiary education for students aged over 20.

“I’d like to see more money going into actually training EFTSs and I’m looking around for opportunities to deliver that in 2011,” Mr Joyce said.

“There is also student support. We want to make sure that is well-targeted. We are not going to change the interest-free loans, but we have to do some work on whether all the money is being spent as well as it should be.”

“We have an unusually high level of student support and people are taking advantage of that, so we are looking at ensuring that the student is making academic progress while they are taking up the loans.”

Unitec chief executive Rick Ede supported the principle of tying student loans to achievement, but NZUSA co-presidents David Do and Pene Delaney were critical.

“We are concerned that moves to restrict entry for over-20s will limit access to those who missed their first opportunities for tertiary education. This would disproportionately affect Māori, Pasifika, and second chance learners,” said Mr Delaney.

Also in” Tertiary Update this week:

1. Taskforce calls for more certainty for CRI research funding
2. Employment key to recovery
3. Wilkinson wants less red tape to dismiss workers
4. Search and Surveillance Bill

Other news

A self-made millionaire and the key architect behind National’s rise to power recently was named the Government’s top man for the tertiary sector. In his” first interview with student media since taking over from Anne Tolley earlier this year, Steven Joyce talks to OUSA’s” Critic about his road to politics and his plans for, well, all of us.

Over a fifth of the New Zealand population aged between 25 and 64 has attained tertiary education at a degree level or above, according to” Ministry of Education data. This represents a doubling of”  the proportion of New Zealanders in that age group with a degree or above in the decade 1997 to 2007.

Hundreds of students are being turned away from Waiāriki Institute of Technology, prompting a call from its chief executive for the Government to raise the caps on student numbers. -” Rotorua Daily Post. And a 35 percent increase in enrolments has Unitec turning students away for the first time -” In Unison

A British university professor who resigned in protest at the ‘dumbing-down’ of degrees was treated unfairly when examination students he had failed were remarked to pass, the UK Court of Appeal has ruled -” the Telegraph

New Zealand’s apprenticeship system is in for a major shakeup, after evidence that only a fraction of young people are starting apprenticeships, and most of those who start then drop out -” The New Zealand Herald

An American author, whose book on the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima has been controversially dumped by its publisher, does not hold a doctorate from Victoria University as he claims, the university says. -” The Dominion Post

—

TEU” Tertiary Update is published weekly on Thursdays and distributed freely to members of the Tertiary Education Union and others. You can subscribe to” Tertiary Update by” email or” feed reader. Back issues are available on the” TEU website. Direct inquiries should be made to Stephen Day, email:” http://scr.im/stephenday

Noeline Lewis & Onny Holdaway have been the TEU Waiariki branch co-chairs for the last two years. Our branch has been lucky to have been operating in an overall positive atmosphere over the past year and this atmosphere was no more obvious than at Waiariki’s mid-year party. We would like to acknowledge the efforts of the CE, Pim Borren, and the Waiariki management staff who have “turned Waiariki around” and created a focused and productive place to work, with a lot of new opportunities for staff.

We are pleased to say that our branch has continued to enjoy open dialogue with our employer, represented by the HR Manager, Richard Bird. This has included meetings to share current issues and joint work on projects such as Health and Safety, T2 progression, pay equity and the upcoming Collective Agreement negotiations.

While there are a lot of positives at Waiariki, it is our duty to speak out where we see areas for improvement and during the year we have supported members through a variety of challenges including workload issues, working conditions, student complaints, pay equity matters, disciplinary matters, reviews and redundancies. Fortunately, these have been few, and I thank those people concerned for stepping forward and speaking out so that the issues have had less chance of being repeated.

Communications

Regular updates to members continue and the member’s list is updated.

The organizer, Paul Haley, is notifying of new members and branch exec are contacting.

Exec monthly meetings have continued and minutes are put on the e-campus site.

Notices from TEU National Office are on e-campus and urgent ones circulated.

A special TEU day and BBQ was held with branch exec, organizers and national president Tom Ryan, outgoing chair Sharon Stevens and UW organizer, Megan Morris.

Monthly liaison meetings with HR Director, Richard Bird and with the TEU Organizer(s) continue.

Quarterly liaison meetings continue with Waiariki Council reps. Thomas George and Mereheeni Hooker and with the CTU’s rep on Council, NZEI’s Rose Hallam.

Collective Agreement Negotiations

The claim underway.

T2 Progression Working Party

Talks have concluded with the new performance based pay scale for T2 increases.

Workload Working Party

No progress and this has been referred to the collective bargaining round.

PAEE Ministry of Education and Pay and Employment Equity Unit

In abeyance.

Health and Safety

A number of issues have been raised and acted upon, including staff facilities on two campuses and international student welfare.

Thank you

Thank you to the exec members who have worked hard on your behalf: Co-chair Noeline Lewis, Secretary and H&S Rep Rika Otto, Treasurer Yvonne Rika, Recruitment Officer Sandy Macdonald, Women’s rep Marie Hutchison, Te Uepu rep Bryce Murray, as well as all the school and campus reps. They have all contributed to raising the awareness of TEU and have brought your concerns and ideas to the table.”  Congratulations to the new Recruitment Rep, Juliet Lux.

I would like to express a special thank you to Paul Haley who is a wonderful support to us at Waiariki on all campuses in the absence of Jenny Chapman. Paul is an expert in the field of Health and Safety, and we are lucky to have him as our field officer.

Requests

We would like to encourage you all to speak to someone on your TEU branch exec or to Paul directly if there is something about your working conditions that does not seem right. Your union can only act on your behalf if you tell us what the problem is. This is particularly the case for workload issues.”  Also, please make sure any new staff members in your area have received a TEU enrolment pack or the TEU URL, and have filled their application form in.

To finish, our CE has said he aims for Waiariki to be the best ITP in the country with the best-paid staff. We are confident you are doing your best for Waiariki so we look forward to the completion of the negotiations. Good luck to the negotiating team!

Onny Holdaway

Co-chair, ASTE Waiariki Branch 2 September 2009

First PaEE review reports!

I have now received completed PaEE review reports and action plans from Otago Polytechnic and Tai Poutini Polytechnic. Well done to both! I also expect to receive reports from UCOL and NMIT this week, and Telford and Waiāriki next week. Once these reports are in we will begin the process of collating information and looking for any ITP sub-sector themes.

Te Wānanga o Aotearoa are also very near completion.

Contents

1. News!
2. TST steering group update
3. Wānanga update
4. Universities update
5. Update from ITPs
6. Project managers’ corner
7. Key dates

Closure of the Pay and Employment Equity Unit in the Department of Labour

On 13 May the Government announced plans to disestablish the PaEE Unit in the Department of Labour as at 30 June 2009. “The Pay and Employment Equity Unit (PEE) will be disestablished as part of the reprioritising of Government spending” Kate Wilkinson, the Minister of Labour said.

What does this mean for the tertiary sector?

We’re going to complete what we started. Each institution has put an enormous effort and commitment into its PaEE review, and the focus of the next couple of months will be ensuring that we can capture that and present a reasonable picture of the most common equity issues in the tertiary sector. There are currently 15 ITPs which are completing PaEE reviews, one wānanga, and one university. The first tranche of 9 ITPs and Te Wānanga o Aotearoa are working hard to complete their review reports and action plans by 30 June. The 6 ITPs in the second tranche are also being asked to identity their key issues and actions by this time. Here in Wellington we have begun work on developing the report and are working to collate information from individual PaEE reviews as it comes in. A draft tertiary sector PaEE review report will be completed by the end of July, and finalised by the end of August.

TST Steering Group update

The steering group met on 5 May. The focus of the meeting was the development of the Tertiary Sector PaEE Review Report.

Wānanga update

Te Wānanga o Aotearoa (TWOA) have had peer review on their PaEE review report, and are in the process of finalising it. 2 | P a g e

Universities update

The university sub-sector group for PaEE reviews has been established. The role of the sub-sector group is to identify a preferred approach to undertaking PaEE reviews in the tertiary sector, and to tailor the tools and templates required for this task. The sub-sector group is aiming to develop generic tools so that they will be available to any and all universities also wishing to undertake a review. The sub-sector group is seeking pan-agreement to this approach from all universities.

Members of the university sub-sector group are: Melinda Derbidge PSA Alan Davis Massey University Suzanne McNabb TEU Aaron Mills Victoria University Prue Toft Auckland University Rae Torrie provides support to the sub-sector group.

A draft PaEE survey for the university sub-sector has been developed by the group, and is being circulated to HR Directors for feedback. Massey University is working on preparation tasks associated with running PEEAT, such as job classification.

Update from ITPs

The expected PaEE review completion dates for ITPs are summarised below.

* These ITPs are asked to forward their key issues and actions to Rae by 30 June, even though the full report can be completed later.

Project managers’ corner

Role of the Project Manager, PaEE Reviews in the Tertiary Sector (Rae’s role). A number of you have asked what the closure of the Unit means for Rae’s project management role. This role will cease at 30 June, but Rae will continue to be around as she will be working on the tertiary sector review report through July, and shepherding it through its review process during August.

Project managers’ teleconference

The next teleconference will be Wednesday 3 June from 10-11am.

Some help in developing your action plans As you are developing action plans it can be helpful to see what others have done. Committee members can refer to information on the PaEE Unit website to see the actions taken by organisations which have previously completed reviews. DoL have full response plans from three government departments on their website – see link below:

http://www.dol.govt.nz/services/PayAndEmploymentEquity/resources/response-plans/default.asp

They also have copies of case studies from other organisations, which also contain some of the actions:

http://www.dol.govt.nz/services/PayAndEmploymentEquity/resources/case-studies.asp

The PaEE Unit also have a draft set of Actions for Managers that they have made available. This information is provided as an attachment to this UPEERTS. Also, as noted in the last UPEERTS, it is important to keep an eye out for factors that contribute to gender inequities that may not be within the power of the organisation to change but which may have some implications for the sector as a whole.

Examples of these factors may be the labour market, collective agreements, or funding. If these seem to be important issues contributing to your gender pay gap or other gender inequities, we are keen to know. Keep your eyes open for these and do report on them.

Developing the review report

Rae is available to provide peer review on your draft PaEE review report. If you would like that support, send Rae a copy at the same time as it goes to committee members. The purpose of Rae receiving it is to assist with quality assurance, and if sent to her, only she will see it.

Releasing the review report

It seems to be a common feature of organisations that they feel a bit nervous and exposed as they get to the point of drafting and then releasing their review report and action plan. I think it’s important to remember that there is a national gender pay gap, and a national under-representation of women in many occupations and in senior positions, so it is more likely than not that these patterns will be reflected in some way in your institution. The expectation is that you will find some gender equity issues, but how they manifest in your place and what you need to do about it, will be particular to you. The sorts of comments we hear from people are along these lines: “The review has reinforced (through an evidence-based process) that what we thought we needed to do we genuinely need to do”.

Practical stuff

When you send Rae the review report, your ITP is then eligible to receive the second instalment of $4,500. You should develop an invoice to this affect and make it out to: Kristine Kilkelly, Deputy Secretary People and Business Capability, Ministry of Education, PO Box 1666, Wellington.

Remember that the $4,500 is GST inclusive.

Communications

For those institutions still in the early stages of the review, remember that it is important to keep staff and management ‘warm’ about the PaEE review. Things you can do include using the ‘quiz’ Rae sent out to project managers recently, providing an update on PaEE across the tertiary sector, accessing information from the Department of Labour website:

www.dol.govt.nz/services/payandemploymentequity

General

Remember to send your completed gender profile to Rae (those who haven’t already done so!). She is willing to provide feedback to assist your gender analysis. Those institutions which have previously received some gender analysis feedback on their data have reported that they found it useful to feed into their committee discussions.

Key dates

• Wednesday 3 June Project managers’ teleconference
• Wednesday 17 June ITP sub-sector meeting
• Tuesday 21 July (TBC) TST Steering Group meeting.

The six categories that ITPNZ awards prizes for are ‘working successfully with other education providers, the community or industry’, ‘widening access to learning and supporting students’ success’, ‘improving the relevance of learning to community and industry needs’, ‘quality assurance processes that demonstrably improve student success’, ‘preparing New Zealanders to live and work in the wider world, or supporting the development of education in other countries’, and ‘recognising innovative non-teaching support services’.

Other finalists include: Tai Poutini Polytechnic, for its plan to recognise overseas miners’ skills without retraining for Pike River Coal’s new mine on the West Coast; UCOL for its collaborative venture with private education providers in the Whanganui region; Unitec for its Te Noho Kotahitanga marae providing a focal point for students and staff on campus and a place for celebratory and ceremonial gatherings; and Waiāriki for its iwi radio journalism training programme run in partnership with Te Whakaruruhau, the federation of iwi radio stations, and supported by Te Māngai Pāho.

Many of the awards focus on ITPs’ attempts to meet the needs of local businesses, such as Wintec’s nomination for its programme advisory committees that give industry partners opportunities to influence what is taught in the classroom, so that training is relevant and graduates are work ready.

TEU is hoping for the introduction next year of a new award category recognising collaborative and progressive relationships with workers and their union.