Tertiary Update Vol 14 No 17

TEU has won another significant legal decision against the five polytechnic employers who are refusing to negotiate site based collective agreements.

Last month a full bench of the Employment Court ruled that Northtec, Unitec, Wintec, Bay of Plenty Polytechnic and Whitireia were required to negotiate site based collective agreements in good faith according to TEU’s initiation notices. After losing this decision, the employers decided they wanted it appealed and sought a stay that would allow them to refuse to begin bargaining until a decision had been made as to whether or not the appeal would be allowed by the Appeal Court. The Court of Appeal heard the case on Tuesday 17 May and we await the decision.

The Employment Court heard the application for a stay last week and ruled, yet again, in favour of TEU.

On behalf of the full Employment Court, Chief Judge Colgan said:

“To now stop the collective bargaining that the judgment permits, based on the union’s bargaining initiations, would be to delay, perhaps significantly, the settlement of collective agreements. This would not accord with the statutory objectives of orderly bargaining and the prompt settlement of collective agreements.”

Justice Colgan also strongly recommended that the employers cooperate with the TEU to begin the process of bargaining and to explain to staff the on-going litigation and its effects.

Also in Tertiary Update this week:

1. Wintec management pockets student cash
2. University of Auckland’s ranking at risk
3. Opportunity the big tertiary education issue for the budget

Other news

In a letter sent to the Waikato Times, Management School Dean, Professor Frank Scrimgeour, advised staff he ”proposed to disestablish all senior tutor and tutor positions within the faculty.” The letter said it was still at proposal stage and staff had until 6 May to respond with ideas. The letter said the tutor positions were not consistent with the University’s commitment to research-led teaching and did not provide an adequate career track for new academic staff. – Waikato Times

“Is he aware that changes to the student loan rules that take effect next year has caused the Inland Revenue Department to shelve its new student loan software project after spending $21m; if so, when did he first become aware of the problem?” – David Shearer to the Minister for Tertiary Education (16 May 2011). An answer is due 24 May.

The Tertiary Education Commission is recovering up to $4.3 million from 18 ITOs, which have claimed more funds than they are entitled to in 2009, based on numbers of trainees and the status of trainees. “The money that is being recovered relates to funding claimed for trainees where there is no clear record of eligibility for government funding,” says Tertiary Education Minister Steven Joyce.

“This is why, for all my libertarian tendencies, I support strong public options. Public roads, public healthcare, public safety and public education. Education is perhaps the most important. The better educated someone is, the less likely they are to use other public options like healthcare or prison beds. So an investment now in education pays off many times over down the road.” – Forbes

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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.

Wintec’s ministerially appointed council has awarded pay rises to itself of between 17 and 131 percent, but management has only offered Wintec staff a $700 lump sum payment in the last three years. Indeed, in the last six months it has been making a small number of staff redundant on the basis that it does not have enough money.

Strategy undermines second chance opportunities
Staff resilience key factor in earthquake recovery
Academic intellectual property rights on trade agenda

Other news

A new poll showing the public back MMP affirms that voters want to retain a real choice in how they elect their representatives, MMP campaigners say. “New Zealanders clearly want to retain a real choice in how they elect MPs. They don’t want their votes to be wasted, as they were before the public switched to MMP” - Dr Sandra Grey, Campaign for MMP spokesperson.

In a pre-Budget speech, Mr Key said his Government would reduce the KiwiSaver member tax credit – the subsidy of up to $1043 a year or $20 a week for each worker – as it seeks to reduce the $1.1 billion a year it spends on the scheme. Individuals and employers would be forced to make up the difference with higher contributions - New Zealand Herald

“Well I’d hate to get into a flaming row with one of our academics but he’s offering his view… He’s one academic and, like lawyers, I can provide you with another one who will give you a counter view.” – Prime Minister John Key dismisses academic criticism of his government’s environmental record.

A foundation bankrolled by libertarian businessman Charles G. Koch has pledged $1.5 million for positions in Florida State University’s economics department. In return, his representatives get to screen and sign-off on any employees for a new program promoting “political economy and free enterprise.” -St Petersburg Times

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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.

Tertiary Update Vol 14 No 15

A change proposal at Waikato’s Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences that was initially forecasting 17 or 18 redundancies has now been called off with nearly all staff keeping their jobs. After consultation, submissions from a range of interested parties, including TEU, and a few voluntary redundancies, the faculty was finally proposing last week to cut just 1.5 full time academic positions; a half time place in the School of Religious Studies and a senior lecturer from the School of Geography.

However, last Thursday TEU advised the three senior geography lecturers and their colleagues in the wider faculty that the union would be challenging aspects of the university’s review because of the recent Massey University v Wrigley and Kelly employment court decision. TEU’s deputy secretary, Nanette Cormack, suggested that Waikato University not proceed with its selection of one of the three lecturers for redundancy, as the decision was unlikely to comply with the recent employment court ruling.

Later the same day the dean of the faculty advised the three lecturers he had decided not to proceed with the planned selection process and the interviews scheduled for this Tuesday would be cancelled.

Instead, the dean is considering other possible ways in which the faculty and the geography/tourism programme can make savings.

Ms Cormack says it is an exciting victory for union members and shows how two union members’ victory in one part of the country can help others in a different city.

“The result is many people still have their jobs, and Waikato retains some valuable and experienced staff. We’re still working to save the one remaining job under threat, and we are hopeful we can,” said Ms Cormack.

Also in Tertiary Update this week:

1. Five ITPs continue to resist their obligation to bargain
2. AUT profit at expense of students and staff
3. NatColl strike kick-starts negotiations
4. Rosette furore at Auckland graduation

Other news

“Likening academics who advocate for change based on their rigorous and well-executed research to a lobby that is protecting their economic interests is an attack on academic freedom. Impugning academics’ credibility in this way is a worldwide problem that is convincing many academics that it is not worth their reputation to speak publicly on their area of expertise.” TEU national president Sandra Greytakes a public stand in favour of academics taking public stands.

Student loan repayments have increased $2.5 million since Kiwi graduates living overseas were urged to support the Christchurch earthquake. Inland Revenue’s March figures showed a $2.5m increase in loan payments on the same period last year. About 1,000 additional debtors made payments - The Press

The faculty at the University of Illinois at Chicago filed paperwork Friday with the state’s labor relations board to become one of only a handful of research universities where professors engage in collective bargaining. Friday’s announcement represents the first major victory for a partnership between the American Federation of Teachers and the American Association of University Professors. The two unions have started a campaign to focus on organizing faculty members at research institutions - Inside Higher Ed

The link to last week’s zombie story was so popular that we have another this week. Two academics were arrested in London last week for attempting to hold a “Zombie Wedding” in Soho Square scheduled to coincide with William and Kate’s royal wedding breakfast, before moving on for a “Zombie Fertility Rite” at the Eros statue in Piccadilly Square. - Times Higher Education Supplement

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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.

Tertiary Update Vol 14 No 14

University of Auckland students are helping organise a rally tomorrow aiming to convince the vice-chancellor not to remove key working conditions from the academic collective agreement.

Student president Joe McCrory says students are supporting TEU because they want to be taught by the best. “So what is important to lecturers and tutors is also important to students. For us, the university’s ability to retain and attract people is important.”

“Teaching and learning is going to affect everybody,” says Mr McCrory. “In five years’ time the lecturers and academics might not be there – they will be overseas.”

The rally which is scheduled to take place tomorrow at 12.30pm beside the old commerce A building on the city campus, will also be well attended by TEU members from all four of the university’s campuses, as well as a number of other supporters. Transport will be available for members from Grafton, Epsom and Tamaki.

TEU has informed management that it will be holding a stop-work meeting during this time so all TEU members will be legally entitled to attend.

The students’ association and the union are organising music, entertainment, food and drink.

McCrory will be among the speakers at the rally making a call for an end to the vice chancellor’s proposals. He is hoping the management will reconsider what they are offering to staff.

“We want to see something on the table that lecturers can work with.”

Also in Tertiary Update this week:

1. Minister faces air-force query
2. TEU’s legal victory creates a stir
3. English wants tertiary education to end welfare dependency
4. Australian tertiary union to push boundaries on climate change

Other news

The US for-profit higher education industry spent $8.1 million on lobbying activities in 2010, up from $3.3 million the year before, according to an analysis by The Huffington Post of data from the Center for Responsive Politics. The Huffington Post emphasised the sharp increase in such spending at a time of proposals to increase regulation of for-profit colleges – Inside Higher Ed

The number of domestic students studying at Australian universities has surged by 50,000 in the past two years, a trend the government says will help meet the growing demand for skilled staff. But the growth has sparked warnings from universities that the Gillard government’s expansion agenda could stall unless more infrastructure money is made available for new classrooms and maintenance – The Australian

The number of foreign students coming to Christchurch has fallen significantly, tertiary education minister Steven Joyce says. The February earthquake, which caused dozens of foreign student fatalities in the CTV building collapse, appeared to have hit Christchurch student numbers hard. A survey by Education New Zealand last month found more than 50 per cent of the international agents reported students headed for Christchurch had diverted to another region, and 25 per cent reported cancellations – Stuff

It’s close to midnight and something evil may be lurking in the dark. But anyone worried about the prowling undead can rest a little easier in the knowledge that the Zombie Institute for Theoretical Studies at the University of Glasgow is on the case – Times Higher Education Supplement

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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.

Tertiary Update Vol 14 No 13

The Western Institute of Technology at Taranaki (WITT) and TEU members have ratified a collective agreement that will give the union members a 0.75 percent pay rise effective from December last year, a further 2 percent pay rise from February this year, a pro rata lump sum payment of $400, and then another 1.75 percent pay rise on 1 December this year. The agreement, which expires in November 2012, will be the first of a series of site-based agreements at the six ex-MECA institutes of technology which had previously been mired in industrial action, legal cases and unsuccessful negotiations.

TEU members will receive the back pay and new salary rate on 3 May.  WITT has also agreed to a delay of three months from 3 May before passing this salary increase on to non-union members, and a further three-month delay again for the 1 December 2010 pay rise.

WITT and TEU also agreed to establish a working party to assess the current WITT salary scales with similar sized polytechnics.

TEU members at the five other polytechnics – Unitec, NorthTec, Bay of Plenty Polytechnic, Whitireia and Wintec – have taken hope from the quick, amiable and efficient way that WITT managed to conclude negotiations with TEU members.

TEU national industrial officer Irena Brorens says the settlement shows WITT values its union members and the contribution they make the institution.

“Having seen the good result at WITT members at the other five ex- MECA polytechnics are excited about the opportunity of working together to negotiate new collective agreements at their branches too,” said Ms Brorens.

Also in Tertiary Update this week

1. TEU wins major case for restructured academics
2. 20,000 new students with no extra funding
3. Industrial action at Natcoll today
4. Govt crackdown on older students
5. International education bill will need to consider kiwi students too

Other news

TEU TV sends twins Janine and Joan out to find out if joining the Tertiary Education Union is value for money – YouTube

The Chair of the Board of Commissioners at the Tertiary Education Commission, Sir Wira Gardiner has welcomed the appointment of Belinda Clark as the Commission’s new Chief Executive. “Ms Clark is currently the Secretary for Justice and Chief Executive of the Ministry of Justice, and I am delighted that the Board has the opportunity to appoint such a high quality Chief Executive,” said Sir Wira.

“Soaring prices from the GST increase plus steep increases in some necessities like food and fuel are another blow to workers already suffering from stagnating wages, high unemployment and attacks on their rights at work. They highlight the unsustainability of low wage levels in this country” said CTU President Helen Kelly in response to this week’s announcement of a 4.5 percent increase to the Consumer Price Index.

On the day of the deadline for British universities to submit their proposed new tuition fees, the University and College Union (UCU) said the clear trend to charge the full £9,000 or very close to that figure, proved the government’s higher education funding policy is in disarray. The government claimed that only in ‘exceptional circumstances’ would universities charge more than £6,000 a year. But, to date, a survey of 71 institutions found that at least two-thirds of institutions want to charge the full fee for all or some of their courses, as they look to plug the funding gap created by huge cuts to teaching budgets.

Poor university entrance rates among Pacific Island pupils have prompted calls for a national strategy to address their under-performance. NCEA results show that the number of pacific islanders who achieved university entrance in year 13 last year was lower than in 2009 – Dominion Post

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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.

Tertiary Update Vol 14 No 12

TEU members at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa are dismayed that their employer is offering them less annual leave than members of both the wānanga’s in-house union, TUIA, and kaimahi on individual agreements.

Kaimahi at the wānanga are entitled to the legal minimum of four weeks annual leave. But kaimahi who are members of TUIA, or on individual agreements and do not belong to a union, are entitled to a further three days of annual leave to use between Christmas and New Year, so long as they have 12 or fewer  days annual leave accrued.

TEU Te Pou Tuarā, Lee Cooper, who is currently involved in negotiations for a new collective agreement, says TEU members feel that the wānanga is not being a fair employer and it is treating kaimahi differently because of their union membership.

“It seems just because TEU members choose to belong to an independent democratic union the employer at the wānanga is offering them three days fewer holidays than their peers. This simply isn’t fair.”

In most tertiary education institutions five weeks, rather than four weeks leave, is the standard, so our members’ claim is not excessive.

In a letter to TEU the wānanga has confirmed that it has made a deliberate choice to “maintain some differences in its collective agreements”.

“Why would an employer decide that one group of kaimahi is allowed to spend more time with their whānau just because of which union they choose to belong to?” asked Mr Cooper.

Also in Tertiary Update this week:

1. Minister criticises academic
2. Weltec staff worry about being locked in to Rimutaka
3. Auckland  vice-chancellor feeling the pressure
4. Minister supports six week teacher training course
5. Aoraki to offer high speed trades-training
6. Don’t leave Christchurch to train trades on its own

Happy Pink Shirt Day

Pink Shirt Day aims to show that bullying is not OK and we will not tolerate it. By encouraging the people of New Zealand to wear a Pink Shirt on 14 April 2011 we can help to raise awareness of bullying and show the massive number of people who support taking a stance against bullying and believe that bullying should not be tolerated anywhere no matter what the reasons or circumstances are. We often think of bullying as a school problem, but it is also far too common in workplaces.

Other news

TEU members at Western Institute of Technology at Taranaki (WITT) have ratified a new single employer collective agreement.

The Education Amendment Bill (No. 4), which last night passed its first reading in Parliament, brings changes to the oversight of private training establishments (PTEs) involved in export education, says tertiary education ministerSteven Joyce. The bill aims to give NZQA stronger powers to monitor, investigate and enforce the compliance of PTEs and raises the threshold for PTE registration.

Helen Kelly, President of the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions provides a comprehensive account of one of last year’s most contentious industrial disputes, the Hobbit film dispute between Warner Brothers and actors who belonged to Actors Equity union.

La Salle University has suspended Jack Rappaport, a statistics professor at its business school, amid an investigation of allegations that he hired strippers to perform lap dances during an extra credit seminar he held on “the application of Platonic and Hegelian ethics to business,” – Inside Higher Ed

Malawian authorities have indefinitely closed two campuses following protests by students and lecturers aimed at pushing for the restoration of academic freedom. The action has seen three academics fired and 17 students arrested – University World News

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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.

Tertiary Update Vol 14 No 11

Academics at the University of Auckland have been flocking to join TEU since the vice chancellor at the university first began his attempt to remove important conditions from TEU’s collective agreement and place them instead in policies where they can change without members having a say.

In November when the vice-chancellor made his offer of a 4 percent pay rise in return for stripping out key rights there were 805 academic members of TEU at the university. Over the traditionally quiet months of December and January, membership grew by another 45 people. Then in February and March after members voted to begin a campaign to oppose the changes and to take industrial action, a further 40 new members have joined the union. With 890 members, 11 percent bigger than it was before the vice-chancellor tried to strip members of their collective agreement conditions, the union has now set itself a new growth target of 1000 academic members by May Day.

Yesterday the TEU and employer negotiation teams met again in mediated bargaining at the Department of Labour.

After much discussion, TEU proposed that union members retain the key conditions in the Academic and Faculty of Education collective agreements, receive the 4 percent increase and the additional annual leave. In return for this TEU would engage in a working group, during the term of the collective agreements, with representatives nominated by Senate and representatives nominated by the vice-chancellor. This group would try to reach agreement on any changes to the key conditions that the vice-chancellor identified, and to reach agreement on the various issues that have arisen in this controversy. Should the group reach agreement, any agreement would go to Senate to deal with, and to TEU members to vote on as a variation to the collective agreements.

For any proposed changes to be incorporated into the collective agreements, it would require a ratified agreement by TEU members; that is, the majority of TEU members who vote on the proposed changes would have to agree.

The employer advocates have said that they will take this TEU proposal back to the vice-chancellor.

Also in Tertiary Update this week:

1. Otago Polytechnic considers trimesters
2. Too many mothers suffer workplace stress
3. Global campaign for education focuses on women and girls
4. New agency to promote international education

Other news

The effect the Christchurch earthquake will have on enrolments at Massey University next year remains uncertain. In the aftermath of the February quake, Massey University was among seven tertiary institutes accepting Canterbury students either temporarily or permanently - Manawatu Standard

Labour Party Leader Phil Goff has appointed David Shearer as the party’s new tertiary education spokesperson and Sue Moroney will take on Hughes’ education portfolio. Mr Shearer said the new role was a logical fit with his current research, science and technology responsibilities. Mr Goff seemed confused about exactly what role he had given Mr Shearer though, telling TVNZ “Sue and David will be strong, effective advocates for parents and children throughout the country.”

Infrastructure Minister Bill English announced yesterday that he is commissioning New Zealand’s first public-private partnership (PPP) schools. If there were viable bids to build the schools, a primary school would open for the 2013 school year and a secondary school in 2014 at Hobsonville Point, northwest of Auckland. Mr English admitted the financial savings from the new schools would be “relatively small” but gains would grow with more PPP schools. - Dominion Post

The SIS Amendment Bill opens the possibility of the SIS creating an extensive army of informants immune from criminal and civil prosecution; NZCTU President Helen Kelly told the Intelligence and Security Committee yesterday. The CTU is recommending several significant amendments to the bill and calling for an independent assessment of the electronic surveillance empowered by it – CTU

Tertiary Update Vol 14 No 10

NorthTec is looking to make three carpentry and electrical engineering trades tutors redundant. The redundancies are a very possible result of an on-going review of the area, as NorthTec tries to cut budgets and save money.

Tertiary Education Union organiser Chan Dixon says it is saddening that NorthTec is looking to axe teaching staff from construction and engineering at the same time as Immigration New Zealand has revealed there are immediate skills shortages for these trades in Auckland and the upper North Island.

“With the Christchurch earthquakes and the recent disasters in Australia everyone knows we need more skilled trades people. And yet NorthTec is looking to make the very people who teach those new tradespeople redundant and is taking away opportunities for young Northlanders.”

Ms Dixon says cutting the number of trades tutors is part of a wider trend among polytechnics to cope with severely constrained budgets.

NorthTec already decided in February not to renew its contract with the Electrical Industry Training Organisation, with the result that all Northland apprentices now have to travel to Auckland for block courses which are integral to their training.

“NorthTec is responding to short-term funding constraints. But, by doing so, it’s undermining one of its main purposes – its job is to respond to future regional and national skills shortages.”

NorthTec will conclude its review and make a decision late next week.

Also in Tertiary Update this week:

1. Changes to compulsory student services levies
2. Staff and student voice fades from polytechnic councils
3. No ‘nice-to-haves’ in austerity budget
4. Tertiary Education Commission defends performance funding

Other news

Unions affected by a planned restructuring of the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology say they have not been given enough time or information to put forward counter-proposals. The consultation period for the proposal, which would involve cutting management positions and combining IT support services with Otago Polytechnic, ended yesterday – just 11 days after the scheme was announced. If it goes ahead, up to seven jobs could be cut - Nelson Mail

A campaign by a top scientist urging overseas student loan debtors to repay their debts to help Christchurch has the backing of politicians, educators and the Reserve Bank governor. But one student has described the scheme as a “guilt trip” that will have little effect – Dominion Post

The government’s changes to the Employment Relations Act (ERA) and Holidays Act come into effect tomorrow. TEU has already negotiated agreements with a number of employers that state that many of these new provisions will not apply to TEU members employed by those employers.   It is also working with the Council of Trade Unions (CTU) to repeal these laws and replace them with fairer employment legislation.

The effects of the Christchurch earthquake are being felt in the export education industry as students cancel plans to study in New Zealand. A survey involving education agents in 20 different countries suggests New Zealand has already had a small downturn in the number of international students wanting to come here – New Zealand Herald

Australians will have direct access to the thoughts of some of the country’s brightest minds through a new independent news and information website, The Conversation. The not-for-profit service is backed by Australia’s leading universities, providing information, analysis, commentary and research news from their researchers and academics – The Herald Sun

Thanks to haydnseek @ Flickr for the photo http://www.flickr.com/photos/haydnseek/32803608/

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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.

Tertiary Update Volume 14 No 9

With less than two months to the Budget, Tertiary Update takes an extended look at what we can expect from the 19 May Budget and what we might need to see to ensure that our excellent tertiary education system is able to flourish.

In this week’s Tertiary Update:

1. Previous budgets
2. Earthquakes and austerity
3. Some big numbers
4. Specific issues:
   • Trades training
   • Student loans
   • The Tertiary Education Strategy
   • Tertiary education’s role in the recession
5. Other news

Previous budgets

For tertiary education the three defining features of the current government’s previous budgets have been::

• cuts around the edges of funding to programmes that the government has not valued;
• a commitment to the previous government’s capped EFTS policy leading to a failure to fund the number of people who would like to study; and
• the introduction of greater amounts of performance-based funding.

Inevitably, pressure has seeped from government funding cuts through into employment negotiations, with sustained attempts to diminish pay and conditions for those working in the sector.

After two and half years in office the government has put in place most of its stated policy framework for the tertiary education sector, so there are unlikely to be significant policy-driven changes coming from this year’s budget.

However, there could well be further capping of funding compared to the number of potential students. The government is preparing New Zealanders for an austere budget, but it has several times indicated that it will spare the Vote Education budget line from the worst of the cuts.

Earthquakes and austerity

Just before the second major Christchurch earthquake the minister of finance, Bill English said:

“The Budget this year will reduce new operating spending to around $800 million to $900 million a year, from the current allowance of $1.1 billion. We will prioritise new spending on health and education and set a path to meaningful surplus in 2014/15 – a year earlier than forecast.”

One month and one major earthquake later, the Prime Minister John Key said the government was abandoning plans to spend an extra $800 million in this year’s Budget because of the cost of the Christchurch earthquake.

Mr Key said the government still expected to increase funding to health and education but warned that money would now have to come from cuts in other areas, rather than through new funding – and the increases would not be as big as earlier indicated.

The Prime Minister has effectively said there are now two pools of money for the budget. One, education and health, will get between $600-800 million in new spending. The other, everything else, will suffer $600-800 million of cuts to pay for new spending in health and education.

Some big numbers

So what does $600-800 million of new spending mean for the health and education vote appropriations? The most recent Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) released in December last year shows education spending increasing from an actual expenditure in 2009 of $11.5 billion to a forecast $11.8 billion in 2010, up $324 million.

BEFU forecasts spending to grow a further $200 million this year and then remain relatively stagnant – at about $12 billion – until at least 2014.

Currently the government spends about $4.1 billion of that $12 billion on tertiary education. Most of that remaining $8 billion goes to compulsory education with early childhood education receiving much of the remainder. The budgeted increase for the entire education budget of 2.8 percent roughly keeps pace with inflation if GST is not accounted for.

The health budget is also roughly $12 billion and BEFU also forecasts that it increased in both 2010 (by about $770 million) and 2011 (by about $900 million).

However, the situation is not as good for tertiary education. BEFU currently forecasts that tertiary education funding will fall every year between 2009 and 2014. Most of this reduction is due to a tightening in eligibility for student loans, but it also includes falls in funding for tuition and other tertiary education spending. This BEFU is predicated on student numbers remaining at record high numbers, but not growing, due to the government’s EFTS cap funding policy.

Indeed, in cabinet papers relating to last year’s budget tertiary education minister Steven Joyce noted:

“The recession has increased demand for tertiary education in 2009 and 2010, and the increased demand is forecast to remain high in 2011 and beyond. At the same time the current funded baseline of places at ITPs and universities decreases from its current level in 2011.”

This was in contrast to public statements that high student numbers were a temporary circumstance that the sector simply needs to weather.

Therefore, the current BEFU see health and education receiving over a billion dollars of new spending this year and next and yet both sectors cope with inflation. It also forecasts that tertiary education, which sits within the larger education budget, will still face significant budget cuts.

Now the government is suggesting that new spending for health and education will be 20-40 percent less than forecast by Treasury, but that student numbers will continue to grow.

Specific issues

Trades training

Following the earthquakes there has been significant focus on whether there are enough qualified trades people to help rebuild Christchurch. Ironically, up until the earthquake the government seemed be waging a vendetta against trades training, with large cuts to industry training and polytechnics forcing many trades departments to make trades tutors redundant and to increase class sizes.

Earlier this week though Mr Joyce announced that there would be an increased focus on trades at polytechnics to cope with higher levels of demand during the rebuild of quake-stricken Christchurch.

The minister told NZPA the boost would involve re-prioritising courses toward the trades and an increase in funding. Expect the minister to provide greater detail about what this new funding and focus might mean in the weeks leading up to the Budget. If it is a feel good measure to placate concerns about how quickly Christchurch can be rebuilt, it will be a one-off targeted payment to mostly Canterbury based trades training providers. If it is genuine attempt to address concerns about a long standing skills shortage it will be an-going nationwide funding package that looks to strengthen existing capacity in polytechnics and industry training providers.

Student loans

The government has repeatedly said that the current interest-free student loans policy is fiscally unsustainable, should not have been introduced, and is preventing the government from being able to balance the books as it would like. It has however, also repeatedly affirmed its pre-election promise that it will not remove interest-free student loans. Some in the tertiary sector, such as Universities NZ have lobbied the government to redirect funding for student loans and support spending going tertiary education performance funding.

There are two useful points to make here. The first is that student loans are not directly a tertiary education funding issue – they are actually a tax issue. Student loans operate as a tax on education, and, because of the way they are designed, are a regressive tax that means the poorest students and graduates pay the most tax on their education.

The second point is the government is stuck with interest-free student loans, but it is likely to use the Budget to propose further changes to reduce eligibility to those loans. The danger for those working in tertiary education is that if any changes to eligibility are too restrictivestringent it may increase either the perception, or the reality that tertiary education is unaffordable or unattainable.

Expect to see the government sell changes to the public in much the same way as the recent welfare reform debate, with students portrayed as ‘bludgers’, and funding cuts described as ‘closing loop-holes’.

The Tertiary Education Strategy

Last year the government released its Tertiary Education Strategy 2010-2015 which guides its tertiary education policy until 2015. The Ministry of Education largely developed this document under former tertiary education minister Anne Tolley, and subsequently it has the look of a document that was developed mostly by ministry officials without the close fiscal oversight that one might expect from the current minister.

Thus, it lists among its key priorities increasing the number of young people (aged under 25) achieving qualifications at levels four and above, particularly degrees, increasing the number of Māori and Pasifika students enjoying success at higher levels, improving the educational and financial performance of providers and strengthening research outcomes.

Worryingly for the government it would struggle to show how its current funding and policy choices are meeting any of those goals. Last year roughly 9000 would-be students missed study places due to the cap on EFTS. Changes to funding models mean that pathways courses to get students who would otherwise not enter tertiary education into study closed in favour of funding for postgraduate study for students who have already succeeded. Polytechnics, collectively down about $50 million in funding, are cutting staff and raising class sizes to stay financially viable. And MāoriMāori and Pasifika students are facing the brunt of decisions that are aimed at making tertiary education more costly and exclusive.

The government will face an interesting test later in the year when the Ministry of Education measures tertiary education against the priorities the government set in its strategy. The government may need at least a few small examples of new spending, particularly around access for students that would otherwise miss the opportunity to study in this year’s Budget to demonstrate its commitment to its own strategy.

Tertiary education’s role in the recession

Good tertiary education is not just about jobs, training and the economy. It serves a broader social purposes that strengthens our communities, our democracy and our health. But currently it is no surprise that the economy is a dominant topic for many people as the Budget approaches.

TEU has repeatedly argued that tertiary education has a crucial role to play in supporting New Zealand to climb out of the global financial crisis. New Zealand has a world-class tertiary education system with world-class people working in it. With the right support our tertiary education system can give people who would otherwise miss out on new skills and qualifications, it can kick-start and change the direction of our economy, and it provides top-quality research that shows a way forward.

Many other countries, including Australia see increased funding and access to their tertiary education system as an investment rather than a cost. New Zealand can also make this choice, but the current ideology around funding – of austerity and cuts – will not make it easy.

Other news

A survey released by Statistics New Zealand, in association with the Ministry of Science and Innovation (MSI), shows that universities undertook $802 million worth of research and development (R&D) in 2010, a third of the nation’s total R&D spend. The biennial Research and Development Survey measures the level of R&D activity by the private sector, government departments and agencies, and universities. Since the last survey in 2008, university R&D increased by 23% from $653 million to $802. New Zealand’s total R&D expenditure increased 13% during this period – Universities NZ

As Japan struggles to contain radiation leaking from a damaged nuclear-power plant, some universities have postponed the start of their academic year, while administrators worry about the long-term impact of the disaster on recruitment of foreign students and faculty members – Chronicle of Higher Education

A swindle involving a Perth university employee charging Indian students thousands of dollars for fake English test results stretched across the country, with one student flying from Queensland to obtain dodgy marks – The Australian

Canadian higher education leaders on Tuesday praised their federal government’s budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year, which would significantly increase spending on higher education and research. The 2011 budget would spend tens of millions of new dollars to create research chairs and invest in brain research, and provide additional funds for student financial aid and study abroad. “[T]oday’s budgetary commitments to higher education are in line with a growing consensus among Canadians that Canada’s research universities play an integral role in advancing our economy and improving the social and economic well-being of all Canadians,” said Stephen Toope, president of the University of British Columbia – Inside Higher Ed

Private colleges in Swaziland have been given until the end of May to register with the ministry of education and training or face closure. Minister Wilson Ntshangase announced that the ministry has decided to register all private tertiary institutions in the country – Swazi Observer

Largely unaccredited US universities that purport to give students “career training” are charging upwards of US3000 but the students working at Wal-Mart and 7-Eleven – Chronicle of Higher Education

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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.

Tertiary Update Vol 14 No 8

New Zealand tertiary institutions are relying too heavily on casual and temporary labour for jobs that should be permanent says TEU national president Dr Sandra Grey.

The growth of casual labour in tertiary education is a growing problem. Dr Grey cites as an example for change the Templin Manifesto; a document developed by the German education trade union Gewerkschaft Erziehung und Wissenschaft, which states that researchers working towards their doctorate should enjoy adequate conditions of employment, rooted in collective bargaining. The manifesto also states that academics need reliable career prospects that facilitate a permanent future in higher education and research, and that higher education institutions need to create enough permanent positions for staff to do that institute’s professional work.

Dr Grey says that it is unacceptable that staff doing permanent jobs should be on fixed term or temporary employment agreements with lesser terms and pay.

“It’s not just academics like the ones the Templin Manifesto focuses on. General staff are affected by casualisation too. It is particularly galling when you consider the experience, qualifications and training that many of those employees have. They have invested in their future and their career, but their employer refuses to do the same.”

Dr Grey says that the problem is particularly bad for women who are more likely to end up in these temporary or fixed term positions.

“If people are employed on a fixed term or in a casual job but the work is actually on-going they should join TEU.”

Also in Tertiary Update this week:

1. EIT Tairāwhiti merger secures extra govt funding
2. Should pay increase match inflation?
3. Course fees unchanged since 1992
4. Auckland only 144 places behind Harvard
5. India hikes spending on higher education

Other news

CPIT plans a staged return to its city campus over the coming weeks once the institution’s Madras Street campus is clear of a civil defence cordon established after the 22 February earthquake. The vast majority of CPIT’s city campus buildings were cleared by two structural engineering assessments. We are now awaiting final clearance from Civil Defence – CPIT

It was 25 years ago this week that Parumoana Community College was officially opened by Governor General Sir Paul Reeves as the tertiary education institute that became Whitireia Community Polytechnic. It was a significant launch of an initiative to change the social outcomes for the area. The first year opened with 48 nursing students and 60 secretarial students studying on the Porirua Campus, on the edge of Parumoana harbour – Whitireia

Up to seven management and computer support jobs will go if a scheme aimed at cutting costs at the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology goes ahead. NMIT chief executive Tony Gray says the proposal would involve cutting management positions and combining IT support services with the Otago Polytechnic -Nelson Mail

The international Scholars at Risk Network, a group of over 250 higher education institutions in 30 countries fighting to protect endangered academics, researchers, and intellectuals has just launched a Norway Section. The Norway Section will organiseorganise and coordinate Scholars at Risk activities in Norway, including public awareness campaigns, talks and lectures by endangered scholars speaking about their experiences, advocacy projects on behalf of scholars who are imprisoned or otherwise silenced, and temporary academic positions for professors, lecturers, researchers and intellectuals suffering persecution in their home countries – Scholars at Risk

The IHC has appealed to the Supreme Court against a decision that could cost it $176 million in back pay for workers on overnight stays, despite three courts ruling against them. The Court of Appeal ruled last month that overnight stays fitted the legal definition of “work”, and that workers should be paid the minimum hourly wage for those stays – Dominion Post

Suppose someone were to describe a small country that provided free tertiary education, transport for schoolchildren and free healthcare – including heart surgery. You might suspect that such a country is either phenomenally rich or on the fast track to fiscal crisis. But Mauritius, a small island nation off the east coast of Africa, is neither particularly rich nor on its way to budgetary ruin. Nonetheless, it has spent the past decades successfully building a diverse economy, a democratic political system, and a strong social safety net – Joseph Stiglitz

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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.

Tertiary Update Vol 14 No 7

The on-going saga around the ITP multi-employer collective agreement will head to court one more time.

TEU has applied to the Employment Court claiming it should not be required to continue to bargain with the six ex-ITP MECA employers (WITT, Bay of Plenty Polytechnic, Unitec, NorthTec, Whitireia and Wintec) for a new multi-employer agreement because its members have already voted in a ballot that they don’t want such an agreement. In response, the six employers claim that TEU has illegally cross-initiated for six collective employment agreements, one at each of the institutions.

The Employment Relations Authority determined yesterday that the matter should proceed straight to the court, rather than being heard by the authority first.

The ITP MECA has been in turmoil for two years now while employers have tried to remove core conditions from union members. Union members have resisted these attempts but have missed pay rises and the chance to negotiate a timely agreement because of the employers’ intransigence.

TEU members told Tertiary Update that they are astounded that these employers are continuing to push for a multi-employer collective agreement that nobody wants, and that they, the staff, just want to get on with negotiating a collective agreement at their own workplaces.

Also in Tertiary Update this week:

1. Canterbury staff should be excused from PBRF
2. Auckland VC’s refusal to negotiate leads to PBRF strike
3. No place for would-be Otago students
4. Women’s Day highlights growing pay gap
5. TEU tells govt it needs to change its policy
6. Trade ministry too busy to answer questions

Other news

“This is a dispute that need not happen, should not happen. It baffles me, and I know it baffles people at all levels in the university as to why the CEO has taken this confrontational route. I hope, and so does the university community as a whole, that common sense prevails and we move on to the real challenges facing our university - Dr Haworth’s opinion piece in this morning’s New Zealand Herald.

The University of Canterbury believes it has lost only a few hundred enrolments as a result of last month’s earthquake. Vice-chancellor Rod Carr says that so far the equivalent of 14,200 full-time students have enrolled for the year. Dr Carr expects the roll will be only 3% below normal - Radio NZ

Waikato University is again being criticised over art and social sciences faculty redundancies. The university has since disestablished 8.7 fulltime positions through voluntary redundancy and retirement, and is considering another 2.5 (two senior lecturers and one part-timer). The university said five positions originally proposed for redundancy had been taken off the table after “extensive consultation”. But TEU says withdrawal of the five positions shows the university plans, by implication, went too far -Waikato Times

The battle between Republicans and labour unions in Ohio, Wisconsin and other states is ostensibly about public workers’ pay, benefits and bargaining rights. What is really at stake, however, is not labour’s income. It is labour’s influence – not just in the American workplace but also in American politics -Washington Post

More universities in England could be put at risk of bankruptcy as a result of cuts and changes to funding, the National Audit Office (NAO) has warned - BBC

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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.

Tertiary Update Vol 14 No 6

Over 250 academic TEU members attended a stopwork meeting at the University of Auckland last week and began a ballot on a campaign of escalating industrial action to retain important terms and conditions of employment in their collective employment agreement.

This action will cover a range of activities from writing individual letters to the chancellor and demonstrating at public events, to non-compliance with PBRF reporting.

The final ballot result will be known by Friday. However, cumulative results to date show an overwhelming majority of academic TEU members have voted in favour of industrial action.

The first public event to be targeted by academic staff will be the Alumni Awards Dinner on Friday evening.

Academics will invite alumni to ask the vice-chancellor why he is determined to remove the security of key academic conditions from their collective employment agreement and why he will not negotiate with TEU on these matters.

For many years the academics’ employment agreement at the university has ensured that entitlements to research and study leave, the academic criteria for promotion, discipline procedures and outside professional activities can only be changed by mutual consent.

“We will be telling them that the vice-chancellor wants these conditions removed from the collective agreement in pursuit of ‘administrative efficiencies’ and put into policy where they could be changed without negotiation,” said Professor Jane Kelsey. “We will share with them our deep concern that the removal of these conditions will adversely affect education and research at the university.”

The vice-chancellor did not attempt to negotiate any changes to these conditions during six months of bargaining with the union from August 2010 to January 2011.

Instead, he made an offer to non-union members while bargaining was in progress (the offer included a 4 percent salary increase contingent upon the removal of the above key conditions). He then put that offer to the union and made it clear that it was not negotiable.

TEU has been forced to file legal proceedings with the Employment Relations Authority and to launch a campaign of escalating industrial action to encourage the vice-chancellor to negotiate genuinely with the union.

To find out more read why Professor Nigel Haworth calls the university’s offer risible.

Also in Tertiary Update this week:

1. Tertiary education community rallies after earthquake
2. Weltec staff retain hours of work and win pay-rise
3. Interest-free student loans a victim of the quake?
4. Another attempt to increase SIS powers
5. Staff at Macquarie stop to for job security

Other news

Aoraki Polytechnic’s outdoor education programme has been saved. It got off to a rocky start when 40 second and third-year students arrived to find their four tutors on sick leave. But TEU, management and the council in a joint statement last week said: ” have worked together constructively to resolve concerns regarding the outdoor education programme. Aoraki Polytechnic is pleased to welcome the staff back. We know that our students enrolled on the outdoor education programme will have a productive year and achieve their desired qualifications.” – Timaru Herald

The University of Canterbury will install an additional 8000 square metres of buildings on the University Oval within the next eight weeks to assist with the progressive restart of the university.The sixty 12 x 12 square metre open plan spaces will be available for lectures, seminars, study groups and open plan offices for staff – University of Canterbury

Tainted money, allegations of plagiarism and surrender to the demands of angry student occupiers: the London School of Economics’ links to Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of Libyan leader Mu’ammer Gaddafi, has become an ethical and public relations quagmire – Times Higher Education Supplement

Meanwhile, As Libya’s dictator Muammar Ghadaffi continues to murder and terrorise his people in an attempt to cling onto power, surely Education Minister Anne Tolley will sometime soon – but don’t hold your breath – move to annul the deal she signed with the Ghaddafi regime last October, on behalf of the New Zealand government. This deal – reportedly worth $30 million annually – entails Libyan students coming here to study, and would make New Zealand one of only five countries accepting students officially selected and assisted by the Ghaddafi regime – Gordon Campbell

Ahead of sweeping changes to uncap the supply of government university places next year, Australia’s tertiary education minister Chris Evans is warning universities to keep growth “sustainable” and ensure quality isn’t sacrificed – The Australian

Tertiary Update Volume 14 No 5

As details of Tuesday’s horrific earthquake continue to emerge it seems that hundreds of TEU members and their families have seen their workplaces and homes shaken or destroyed

TEU national president Sandra Grey said, according to the sketchy reports the union has received so far, no members have been seriously hurt or killed and we hope that remains the case.

Our thoughts are with everyone, not just in the tertiary education institutions, but the wider Canterbury region, and especially those who have lost loved ones in this tragedy.

Dr Grey and TEU’s vice presidents moved quickly to establish a $5000 fund for TEU members who experience financial hardship because of the earthquake. TEU’s national executive will also meet within a fortnight to work out how else it can help the people of Canterbury and in particular, how it can support the Council of Trade Union’s efforts to support affected workers in Canterbury.

“Like all New Zealanders, we are ready to offer what will be needed in the days and months to come,” said Dr Grey.

Education Directions has been providing regular updates about the state of the various tertiary intuitions around the region on its website. It states that both Lincoln University and the University of Christchurch report no deaths or serious injuries.

Local TEU staff are currently on leave, so any CanterburyTEU members needing assistance are urged to contact the national office at 0800 278 348 or teu@teu.ac.nz

Also in Tertiary Update thie week:

1. Students to Aoraki: ‘sort it out or we’re off’
2. University of Auckland academics stop work tomorrow
3. No room to study for beneficiaries
4. Waiāriki reinstates accidentally cancelled course

Other news

Work and Income New Zealand has announced that, from 1 April 2011, there will be a 3.75 percent increase to student allowances, and the living costs component of student loans (to $169.51 per week).The increase in these payments reflects the increase in the Consumer Price Index for the year to 31 December 2010 - Work and Income

Auckland University law professor Jane Kelsey has slammed secrecy surrounding the Trans Pacific Partnership negotiations. “They’re not negotiating a private contract. They’re actually negotiating an international treaty that will bind New Zealand for the next century and we need to know what they’re doing,” she said - TVNZ

The expanding Frocks on Bikes movement is set to take off in Palmerston North, promoting cycling as a normal, everyday mode of transport that can be carried out in regular clothing. Massey University information services librarian Kate Stanton said Palmerston North’s flat contour and cycle lanes made it an ideal location for cycling as a routine part of a normal day. “Generally, I cycle in my work clothes.” -Manawatu Standard

Tri-Valley University in northern California is an unaccredited school with a capacity for around 30 students, according to the Chronicle story, yet it enrolled 1,500 students from India. The story hit the headlines when the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities found out about the situation and began rounding up the “students” and putting radio tracking devices on many of them - Inside Higher Ed

Can academics be funny? For many academics, lecturing to a hall full of bored students can be daunting enough. So the idea of delivering course notes to a tough crowd at a comedy gig might seem positively terrifying. But that is exactly what happens at Bright Club, a monthly comedy event in London described by organisers as ‘the thinking person’s variety night’ - BBC

Thanks to  @jutaporndeer at Twitter for the photo

Tertiary Update Vol 14 No 4

Spare a thought for tutors and students at Aoraki Polytechnic where low morale and stress from restructuring means a number of staff have resigned, or are on sick leave, just as the teaching year begins.

TEU national president Sandra Grey says morale has been very low generally across Aoraki Polytechnic for at least the last year because of constant restructuring and redundancies.

The Timaru Herald reported this week that staff in the outdoor education department, where the four staff are currently on sick leave work, have felt particularly undervalued.

“The issue is broader than just the handful of people on sick leave becaue of worklace stress or those who have resigned,” said Dr Grey.

The Timaru Herald reports that the outdoor education programme leader had resigned in the latter half of last year.

In the last fortnight, two campus managers – in Dunedin and Christchurch – had also resigned.

Dr Grey says Aoraki staff are not alone in suffering stress due to constant restructuring. Last year there were over 50 major restructures or reviews in public tertiary institutions.

“Many institutions are returning to record numbers of students, but fewer staff to do the job and uncertainty about whose job might be next. It’s a direct result of government funding cuts and it is creating stress for both staff and students,” said Dr Grey.

Also in Tertiary Update this week:

1. Academics turn down 4 percent pay, want better education instead
2. Union members vote again to end ITP MECA
3. International students caught in PTE “hit and run”?
4. Obama protects education from budget cuts

Other news

Education Minister Anne Tolley has announced that up to 4000 young people will be retained in education and skills training in the year ahead instead of dropping out of the system, as a result of the Youth Guarantee and wider government initiatives. She then explains that the government has provided funding for 2500 of those students but that polytechnics and PTEs will actually be teaching 2700 youth guarantee students – or 8 percent more than they have been funded to teach – Anne Tolley

Ten staff members at the Open Polytechnic, many long-serving, were made redundant yesterday following a review that also resulted in a large number of voluntary redundancies. TEU organiser Phil Dyhrberg is questioning how this happened when the Open Polytechnic received an increase in Student Achievement Component funding from the government of nearly half a million dollars this year.

The Court of Appeal has ruled disability workers must be paid the minimum wage for doing sleepover shifts, leaving question marks about where the extra money will come from. The court’s decision yesterday upheld an earlier Employment Court decision that ruled in favour of Idea Services support worker Phil Dickson, who argued he should be paid the hourly minimum wage while doing a sleepover shift – The Dominion Post

A bill to abolish compulsory membership of student associations has been delayed by Labour and Green Party MPs. In Parliament tonight they put up a raft of amendments to the Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill and it did not complete its committee stage before the 10pm adjournment. That means it won’t be ready for its final stage, the third reading, for about six weeks – NZPA

Senior academics at the University of Cambridge will rethink a proposal to create a large tuition fee waiver for poor students by slashing bursaries after the institution’s governing council heard arguments against the plan. They had recommended that the university charge the maximum £9,000 tuition fee in 2012-13 but alleviate the impact on poor students by offering them a discount of £3,000 a year. However, students were angry that the current maximum bursary of £3,400 would be cut by more than half, to £1,625, to fund the scheme. –Time Higher Education Supplement

David Hall, an internationally recognised expert in public service investment, privatisation, asset sales and public private partnerships, argues that public spending drives economic growth. David Hall’s expert summing up of the case for public spending is now on YouTube. It is essential viewing for anyone interested in the debate about privatisation and asset sales.

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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 emailor feed reader. Back issues are available on the TEU website. Direct inquiries should be made to Stephen Day.