At least nine New Zealanders have joined a global boycott of Elsevier, the world’s largest scientific journal publisher. The protest has rapidly gained momentum since it began as an irate blog post at the end of January. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education by Tuesday evening, about 2,400 scholars had put their names to an online pledge not to publish or do any editorial work for the company’s journals, including refereeing papers. Protesters accuse Elsevier of charging too much and supporting laws that will keep research findings bottled up behind a company pay-wall.

Employees of the universities of Auckland, Lincoln and Otago have signed the pledge as well as one staff member at NIWA.

Brett S. Abrahams, an assistant professor of genetics at the USA’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine, told the Chronicle, “The government pays me and other scientists to produce work, and we give it away to private entities. Then they charge us to read it.” Mr Abrahams signed the pledge on Tuesday after reading about it on Facebook.

According to the boycotters, Elsevier, which publishes over 2,000 journals including the prestigious Cell and The Lancet, is abusing academic researchers in three areas. First there are the prices. Then the company bundles subscriptions to lesser journals together with valuable ones, forcing libraries to spend money buying things they do not want in order to get a few things they do want. And, most recently, Elsevier has supported a proposed US law that could prevent agencies like the US National Institutes of Health from making all articles written by grant recipients freely available.

However Elsevier rejects the complaints saying, globally, the amount of research that is published is going up every year but library budgets are not keeping pace.

Also in Tertiary Update this week:

1. WITT gains from PTE closure
2. TEU negotiates improved Canterbury timetable
3. University of Auckland pushes Teach First
4. Student loan debtors escape on OE

Other news

Wintec settled a collective agreement with its academic staff late last year. NorthTec is now the only one of the old ITP MECA polytechnics not to settle a collective agreement with its staff. NorthTec wants an employment agreement which allows it to direct staff to work any days, evenings and weekends. Tutors have not had a pay increase since November 2008.

“The government should be focusing on creating jobs and getting money into the pockets of low and middle income people by stimulating the economy rather than an inflexible deficit target,” says CTU Economist Bill Rosenberg. “We have had over 150,000 unemployed and 250,000 jobless almost constantly now since mid 2009. The unemployment rate at 6.6 percent is barely below its financial crisis peak in December 2009.” – CTU

Lower Hutt is in danger of losing its last provider of adult community night classes. Hutt City Workers’ Education Association (WEA) president Maurice Payes confirms a funding squeeze has forced the group to lay off its two part-time workers, who are owed wages. Four Lower Hutt colleges abandoned running adult community courses in 2010 when the National Government cut $13 million out of the $16m annual Adult Community Education (ACE) budget. That left the WEA as the last provider – Hutt News

United States President Obama brought his campaign for college affordability to an audience of Michigan college students last week, pledging that his administration would be “putting colleges on notice” over rising costs and issuing a call for continued public support for higher education by states so that the USA does not become a nation where education is reserved for the well-to-do – Chronicle of Higher Education 

TEU national president Dr Sandra Grey says the data is yet another signal to the minister of tertiary education that he needs to change his approach.

“It’s pretty self-evident that investing in tertiary education helps protect people and countries from economic troubles. It is a shame our current government has chosen to systematically cut hundreds of millions of dollars from tertiary education since 2009.”

“New Zealand has great tertiary education institutions, great students and great teachers. With a little more belief and support from government we could lead New Zealand’s recovery from the economic downturn. Instead, because of savage government cuts we are also mired in our own internal downturn,” said Dr Grey.

For more information:

Sandra Grey, TEU national president, 021 844 176 or 04 801 5098

Sharn Riggs, TEU national secretary, 027 443 8768 or 04 801 4732

NorthTec is currently trying to cut working conditions and extend teaching hours for its staff, when most other polytechnics around the country have come to amicable settlements with their staff in the last two months.

NorthTec, one of only two remaining ex-MECA ITPs yet to settle with its TEU staff members, is seeking to remove all limits on timetabled teaching hours and maximum number of teaching days from staff working conditions, as well as reducing leave for new staff, so they can teach more.

NorthTec CEO Paul Binney told TEU negotiators that getting fewer staff doing more work wasn’t immediately underpinning his employment offer, but he added:

“Let’s not duck that topic. That has to be an objective going forward. We need to be more productive and efficient so need to do more for less.”

This has led to the situation where TEU members at NorthTec today begin a ballot for industrial action, at the same time that TEU members elsewhere around the country are holding ratification ballots.

“Given the settled environment elsewhere, we anticipate a concentrated effort at NorthTec next year”, said Organiser Chan Dixon, “although their employer’s unreasonable position is hardly the ‘ho ho ho’ that TEU members at NorthTec want as they head towards the summer break, especially after more than three years without an increase to their salary.”

Also in Tertiary Update this week:

1. Threatened boycott on advertised jobs at VUW
2. Student loan statistics get worse
3. OECD says invest in education to end inequality
4. Charter schools an unpleasant surprise
5. Have your say on Tertiary Update next year

Other news

Tertiary Education Union UCOL branch president Tina Smith voices her support for locked-out CMP workers at a protest near a McDonald’s outlet, in Palmerston North – Photo in the Manawatu Standard

Lincoln University has closed two buildings after a detailed engineering inspection. Vice-chancellor Roger Field said today the Hilgendorf Wing (including the TEU office) and the Student Union building would be shut until further notice – The Press

The University of Canterbury will rely on its implicit Government guarantee to meet payments to investors on its unrated 10-year bonds after the earthquakes scared off students – TVNZ

New Zealand has really done little more than keep up with inflation until the last three years when expenditure has started to increase, but even now we are probably still at 60 to 70 percent of what appears to be an international consensus on the appropriate level of public expenditure  committed to research by other small advanced nations. There is evidence that private sector spending only starts to increase when a critical mass of activity flows from the public sector – Sir Peter Gluckman, the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor.

Many workers with caring responsibilities want flexible working arrangements and/or part-time hours. But there is no evidence to suggest these workers want casual work. Research suggests they are forced to accept casual work or other types of insecure work because they are unable to access quality on-going part-time work – The University of South Australia and the Workplace Research Centre debunk five myths about insecure work.

If the Māori Party chooses to focus on tertiary education in its negotiations it could have a significant impact for the sector over the next three years says the TEU Tumu Arataki, Cheri Waititi.

While the party did not publish a specific tertiary education policy before the election, two of its three caucus members, Dr Pita Sharples and Te Ururoa Flavell, have been very involved in tertiary education prior to their election as politicians and have continued to advocate for education as part of their portfolio responsibilities.

The party’s kāwanatanga policy proposes making education more accessible for all by introducing a fee reduction policy to reduce fees to a nominal level over time. It would also increase access to student allowances, by reintroducing a universal student allowance – which will be set at the level of the unemployment benefit.

Ms Waititi says this means “working with our people in our tertiary institutions about how those in the sector can push to have these policies implemented.”

“This is all about making sure tertiary education is accessible to everyone in our society, not just those who can pay. The sector has experienced sustained underfunding over a long period of time, which has resulted in course cuts and restrictions on entry for some programmes. The government currently does not have a clear vision for how it will ensure that Māori are able to participate in tertiary education in the same way as other citizens.”

The Māori Party would delay the requirement to repay student loan debt. It would advocate for increased Māori representation on tertiary governance bodies, including mana whenua and Māori student representation. It would also link funding to Māori course and qualification completion, and legislate to require the Tertiary Education Commission, to have regard for Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

The party wants to increase Māori trade training, cadetships and apprenticeships across growth areas, to reinstate the Training Incentive Allowance, and to promote collaborative arrangements between WINZ, iwi and education providers for training opportunities.

The Maori Party’s policy to make Te reo Māori compulsorily available in schools and compulsory Treaty education should have ‘flow-on’ effects for tertiary education providers as well.

Ms Waititi says if the Māori Party wants to leave a legacy it should consider doing so in tertiary education. “We teach the teachers…ECE through to tertiary.”

“We, as educationalists, need to build a relationship with Māori Party MPs and they with us, so they can influence tertiary education policy over the next three years in ways that supports high quality public education for all Māori students.”

Also in Tertiary Update this week:

1. McDonalds pressure needed to end meat-works lockout
2. Jobs go at Canterbury Uni
3. Cuts and accountability no longer saving money
4. Tax avoidance by multinationals: this shameful game must stop

Other news

Excellence in Research for Australia (a research management initiative of the Australian government) has a number of limitations: inputs are counted as outputs, time is wasted, disciplinary research is favoured and public engagement is discouraged. Most importantly, by focusing on measurement and emphasising competition, ERA may actually undermine the cooperation and intrinsic motivation that underpin research performance – Brian Martin in the Australian Universities Review, Volume 53, Number 2

The University of Otago has forecast it will struggle to meet a minimum requirement for its operating surplus target in 2012, as set by the Tertiary Education Commission. The TEC asks for a 3 percent return on revenue, but a combination of increasing costs and the poor likelihood of any significant increase in Government investment for the tertiary sector has made it difficult to achieve such a surplus, university financial services director Grant McKenzie says – Otago Daily Times

At universities here in Aotearoa New Zealand there are inklings that a new type of protest movement may be emerging. Closely linked to the Occupy movement that began on New York’s Wall Street and quickly spread around the world, there is an emergent tertiary-education-focused protest movement – Dr Sandra Grey in NTEU’s Advocate

Protests at the University of Sydney followed an announcement last week by vice-chancellor Michael Spence that around 150 academics “not pulling their weight” will go, with 190 general staff positions to be cut according to no specified criteria – The Australian

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Authorised by Sharn Riggs, Tertiary Education Union, 8th Floor, Education House 178-182 Willis St, Wellington 6011.

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.

Academic staff who are members of TEU will be voting on a new collective agreement over the next two weeks after their negotiating team reached an agreement with the vice-chancellor today.

Academics at the university are currently all on individual employment agreements, after their collective agreement expired earlier this year. Academics had to undertake a sustained and determined campaign of industrial action over the past year. Three days of facilitated bargaining before the Employment Relations Authority earlier this month helped the two sides reach an agreement.

The new agreement will include a set of principles or “collars” to govern those issues that had been at the heart of the dispute between union members and university management -  policies on research and study leave, academic standards, grades and criteria, outside work, and a revised discipline procedure. If university management wishes to alter the existing policies, any new policy will have to comply with those principles. The overall effect is to remove some details regarding these policies from the agreement, but strengthen the principles that govern those policies.

The review of the research and study leave, academic standards, grades and criteria and outside work policies will be subject to a process that involves TEU. The vice-chancellor also recognises more generally in the settlement that the union has a role to play in the academic governance of the university and provides mechanisms by which TEU can exercise that role.

TEU members will also receive a 4 percent salary increase and a $2,000 (gross) lump sum payment, which will be in lieu of back pay. A further 2 percent salary increase will be paid from 1 February 2012. This is significant because that it is the first time in five years that a salary increase has been negotiated during bargaining by the union and not been announced by the vice-chancellor to non-members outside of the bargaining. Annual leave will increase to 5 weeks (inclusive of Easter Tuesday and the last weekday before Christmas).

Also in Tertiary Update this week:

1. Government’s new tertiary policy punishes failure
2. ‘The vandals at the gate’
3. Rally calls for education to be election issue
4. Two South Island polytechnics settle new collective agreements
5. Auckland general staff vote on new ‘fair’ pay model

Other news

Although good reasons can always be put forward for more bureaucratic requirements, university management must be wary of possible downsides on staff morale and effectiveness. All the time spent here can be time not spent researching and teaching – Otago Daily Times editorial

Minister for Tertiary Education, Steven Joyce, has confirmed the merger of Whitireia NZ and Wellington Institute of Technology (Weltec) councils. “It is an exciting development that will provide opportunities for the institutions to work more closely together for the benefit of students right across the Wellington region,” says Mr Joyce

Photos of Te Uepu hui on 20 November and TEU annual conference 21-22 November

The University of California chancellor has apologised to students for police use of pepper spray against campus protesters in a standoff captured by video and widely replayed on television and the internet. The pepper-spraying last week led to the suspensions of the campus police chief and two officers, and thrust the normally quiet, conservative and mostly apolitical UC Davis campus to the forefront of anti-Wall Street Occupy protests nationwide – The Guardian

“[University] Rankings are a lot like political polling and research in this respect – they can be a useful indicator of performance and add a sense of sporting competition to media coverage, but trouble emerges if they become the central motivator of decision makers,” Monash University vice chancellor Ed Byrne has warned – The Australian. 

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Authorised by Sharn Riggs, Tertiary Education Union, 8th Floor, Education House 178-182 Willis St, Wellington 6011.

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.

TEU members have successfully negotiated a collective agreement at a third polytechnic that was part of the old ITP MECA. The Whitireia New Zealand Collective Agreement was ratified, at a stopwork meeting this week, with 98 percent of members voting in favour of the new agreement.

TEU national advocate Irena Brorens says the real benefit for members, apart from finally getting a pay rise after such a long time, is that they are back on a collective agreement after nearly a year of being on individual agreements.

“It has been a long and difficult dispute with Whitireia, in a tough political environment.  We’re glad it’s over and people will finally get some more money before the end of the year.

Union members and the polytechnic have agreed to a two year term with a pay rise of two percent  and a $1500 lump sum payment pro rata for the first year and two percent for the second. As at Unitec, duty hours will change to 37.5 hours a week and some discretionary leave will be converted to time that Whitireia can direct. (One week per year from next year and a second week from 2013 for some employees). Whitireia will compensate union members with an extra 2 percent pay for each week converted from discretionary leave, and Whitireia will not direct those weeks for classroom teaching duties.

“We believe that this is the best settlement we can achieve in the current circumstances and with the history of this long dispute,” said Ms Brorens.

Also in Tertiary Update this week:

1. 28 jobs go in ‘rightsizing’ exercise at MIT
2. Campaign softens cuts at Aoraki
3. Students oppose TEC cuts to pre-degree funding

Other news

Is there really no money available for tertiary education “in the foreseeable future”? The fourth in TEU’s series of election charts about what is going on in tertiary education – TEU

A long-running employment agreement dispute at Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology could soon be resolved with a staff vote on a revised offer. About 200 TEU members at CPIT have been protesting against moves to extend teaching hours and cut leave. When negotiations reached a stalemate last month, both parties entered mediation and CPIT presented a revised offer. TEU organiser Phil Dodds said CPIT’s new offer was a “win-win” for both sides. – Christchurch Press

New Zealand’s top science and technology honour has been won by a woman for the first time. Christine Winterbourn from Otago University has been awarded the Rutherford Medal by the Royal Society for discoveries in free radical biology – Radio NZ

The UK Conservative-led government is introducing primary legislation that paves the way for full-scale privatisation of the higher education sector despite a lack of public support. There is a need for a multi-level campaign to stop this as it will destabilise and tarnish the entire sector – University World News

The New Zealand lamb processor, CMP, a subsidiary of ANZCO Foods, has brutally locked out 111 workers at its plant in Marton, New Zealand, in order to force them and their union, the New Zealand Meatworkers Union, to sign off on pay cuts and unacceptable changes to terms and conditions. Send a message to ANZCO Foods demanding an end to the lockout and a return to the bargaining table – IUF

“The singing sirens of Lorelei have distracted ITPs from time to time. Those sirens have come in the guise of degree teaching and research and just like those women of the Rhine, have lured the providers onto the rocks. The search for parity of esteem is not simply a desire to be the same, and where technical and career providers have attempted to pursue a sameness with universities, the result has been rather threatening to the mission of the very provision of the kinds of education and training that mark the ITP providers as being different from the university.” – Stuart Middleton

“If you hear [in the discussion of the Transpacific Partnership trade agreement] echoes of light-handed regulation that brought us leaky buildings, Pike River, finance company collapses and weak liability for oil disasters like the Rena, and new subsidies and labour laws for Warner Bros to keep the Hobbit in New Zealand, you are spot on.” – Dr Jane Kelsey in the New Zealand Herald

TEU members at Unitec finally have a collective agreement again, after nearly a year on individual employment agreements. Members at Unitec voted to ratify their new collective last Friday.

“This is now the second collective agreement that TEU has settled coming out of the old ITP MECA that dissolved in December last year,” said national industrial officer Irena Brorens. “The settlement includes a salary increase and also makes some changes to leave and duty hours.”

“The settlement means members are finally covered again by a collective agreement and are getting a salary increase which, apart from a one off payment of $750, they have not had since 2009.”

The salary increase is 2 percent for November 2011 and 2 percent for November 2012, plus a 2 percent lump sum payment (in lieu of back pay as the collective agreement ended in December 2010).

The changes to discretionary leave will be compensated for with 2 percent on the annual salary for each week that is converted to professional development institutional leave. This change will be phased in during 2012 and 2013. All new staff will have their salaries increased by 8 percent to reflect the changes.

“This is a good outcome for current members and also for recruiting of new employees,” said Ms Brorens, “because we will finally have transparency about what the salaries are for new staff and there will be a collective agreement for them to join.”

Also in Tertiary Update this week:

1. General staff negotiations meander along at Auckland University
2. Conference speaks up for public education
3. Draper re-elected as vice-president
4. Corruption scandal rocks University of Queensland
5. Gareth Morgan challenges UnionAID

Other news

“For students at universities and polytechnics, we’re encouraging them to cast an advance vote if they’re not sure they can make it to a polling booth on the day. Many of them are still on campus at the moment but might be moving back home or going on holiday.” Advance polling booths have been set up at Otago, Auckland and Massey Universities to encourage students to vote before their exams end and they leave for the summer, Mr Do said – Dominion Post

Student demand for financial assistance and food bank services has soared in Dunedin, with welfare schemes run by student associations at the university and polytechnic being pushed past their financial limits – Otago Daily Times

Many British lecturers who are ‘working to contract’ over a pensions dispute are finding that they suddenly have time for themselves, their families and their colleagues. 40,000 members of the University and College Union (UCU) in 67 universities, has been “working to contract” since 10 October in a dispute over changes to the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) pensions – The Guardian

Otago Polytechnic is setting up a new campus in Auckland’s Queen St next year to target the international student market. A report to Otago Polytechnic council members highlighted how 80 percent of New Zealand’s international students were attracted to Auckland - Otago Daily Times

A government decision to underestimate the number of students who study each year cost tertiary institutions $100 million for each of 2009 and 2010 according to TEU national president Dr Sandra Grey.

TEU released the third of its election graphs on the state of tertiary education this week. It shows that for the last two years over 10,000 full time equivalent students in study were not funded by the government.

“What that means,” said Dr Grey “is that institutions need to cut costs in other places to pay for those students. The result is higher fees, larger student: staff ratios and less money available for pastoral care and support.”

In 2009, tertiary institutions taught 246,000 full time equivalent students. Unsurprisingly the next year there were 4000 more full time equivalent students due to students passing from secondary into tertiary education, and larger numbers of people wanting to study because of growing unemployment. Despite the increase in numbers of students, the government chose to fund 6000 fewer student places in 2010 making a shortfall in funding of 10,000 students for the second year running.

Also in Tertiary Update this week:

1. Community education wants another look
2. Educators keep ahead of mean wage rises
3. TEU advocates new plan at Aoraki
4. New Zealand doesn’t have to be a low wage country

Other news

Urgent support needed for locked out workers at CMP Meatworks Rangatikei. These 111 workers have now been locked out for 10 days as the boss tries to force them to agree to an up to 30 percent pay cut. The union members are prepared to bargain but the current offer is unjustified and unaffordable. You can donate food to NZNO in Palmerston North, or donate money to the ‘Disputes Fund’ account number: 38-9007-0894028-08 – CTU

TEU members at Te Tai Poutini and Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology will both be voting whether to ratify new collective agreements next week. TEU also had a formal facilitation with the University of Auckland over the on-going dispute about the academics’ collective agreement. The recommendation from facilitation, and details of the two ratification votes, will be available shortly.

There is official confirmation that total student loan debt now exceeds $12 billion, highlighting just what a liability the Student Loan Scheme has become for the country. “It is ironic that in accounting terms the annual report refers to the scheme as a significant financial asset, when in reality this $12 billion debt manifests itself as a liability on individuals, the country, and our economy,” – David Do, Co-President of NZUSA.

Canterbury University is pleading for at least another $150 million from the Government as it faces losing almost 20,000 students and $346m in revenue in the next eight years – The Press

Six industry training organisations have been given until February to improve their performance or face losing all taxpayer funding – New Zealand Herald

TEU organiser Shaun Scott has been working with many TEU Dunedin members in their spare time to put up billboards and placards supporting MMP.

“Tertiary education people are a diverse bunch, and we understand the need for a voting system that reflects that diversity,” said Scott.

“In tertiary institution cities like Dunedin it’s important everyone gets an equal say in who represents us because there are so many voices who have important things to say that would not otherwise be heard.”

“MMP is the fairest voting system because it gives everybody an equal voice. But, more than that, by voting for MMP we get a chance to independently review it and improve it. But a vote to get rid of MMP would lose that chance to make a good system even better.”

TEU members around the whole country can show their support for MMP by delivering leaflets, hosting a sign, writing letters or a multitude of other small volunteer tasks over the next four weeks. They just need to contact the Keep MMP campaign, which TEU is actively supporting.

Also in Tertiary Update this week:

1. Student-staff ratios a dividing issue for political parties
2. TEU supports equitable access to education
3. Treasury wrings a few more drops

Other news

Student numbers at the University of Otago have dropped for the first time in five years, partly because of an introduced enrolment limitation system for all the university’s undergraduate degrees -Otago Daily Times

The University of Wales, the second-largest university in Britain, with a 120-year history has been abolished following a visa scandal. The move follows allegations it failed to carry out proper checks on foreign colleges accredited by the university to award its degrees. An investigation revealed last week that overseas students at Rayat London College, in Hounslow, were sold diploma exam answers in advance of taking the test - The Telegraph

Treasury forecasts of lower medium term growth in GDP, and unemployment staying higher for longer, show that government has failed to achieve its own economic objectives, let alone improve the position of wage and salary earners – CTU economist Bill Rosenberg

A law professor at the International Islamic University in Malaysia, Abdul Aziz Bari, was suspended from work for giving his legal opinion on the power of the Sultan. Rosli H Mahat, the general secretary of the Malaysian Academic Movement (MOVE) calls the suspension a clear breach of academic freedom - MOVE

The education minister has refused to weigh in on proposed changes to teacher training at Massey University. While Anne Tolley was in Palmerston North this week, she did not want to comment on a Massey proposal to drop its three- and four-year teacher-training course. Massey would not have made the proposal without “good reason” she said - Manawatu Standard

The board of the Industry Training Federation (ITF) has appointed Mark Oldershaw as its new Chief Executive. He replaces Jeremy Baker who left the Federation last month to head Learning State, the Industry Training Organisation for the public sector - ITF

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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

Two pay rises over the next two years, one of three percent and one of 2.5 percent will go to TEU members at Te Tari Puna Ora o Aotearoa – NZCA if they vote to accept a recently negotiated settlement. The proposed settlement also offers TEU members a further two percent on completion of a masters qualification, and three percent on completion of a doctorate. All TEU members will also qualify under the new agreement for five weeks’ annual leave on appointment, rather than having to complete four years’ service before they get five weeks’ annual leave.

TEU advocate Chan Dixon says the negotiations with Te Tari Puna Ora o Aotearoa – NZCA were constructive and the negotiating team is recommending members vote for the proposed settlement.

“We made good progress on the issues members raised. Te Tari Puna Ora was willing to recognise the important education role that all of its teaching staff play, and that Pouako play for both its students and other staff, which meant we could make good progress with the big issues members raised before negotiations.”

The TEU negotiating team made significant efforts improving recognition for Pouako. A completely new clause, entitled ‘Pouako’, will now go into the collective agreement. That clause recognises Pouako specialties by way of a $1500 allowance for their leadership in matauranga Maori me te reo Maori. Pouako will also get an additional three days per year as a separate allowance to attend Pouako hui. The team also achieved an increase to the overnight allowance for noho marae from $50 to $100.

“When many other employers are undermining the professionalism of their staff by cutting working conditions and stifling their pay its good to see an employer working constructively with TEU to promote professionalism,” said Ms Dixon.

Also in Tertiary Update this week:

1. Treasury ponders private benefits of research
2. PEETO members win salaries and increments
3. Student fee rises continue unabated
4. University of Auckland general staff challenge performance pay
5. Plan to lift pay becomes election issue

Other news

According to research by University of Waikato student Alison Thirlwall, who graduates this week with a doctorate on workplace bullying in polytechnics and institutes of technology, bullying is usually the by-product of an already troubled workplace and by avoiding responsibility, workplaces contribute to the problem – University of Waikato

Documents relating to a controversial trade deal that spans the Pacific, including New Zealand, will be kept secret for four years after it is signed. An Auckland University law professor and staunch opponent of the talks Jane Kelsey says the secrecy is extreme even by the standards of recent negotiations – Radio NZ

The Occupy Wall Street movement has an academic heritage that spans political science, economics, and literature, but its organising principles owe a debt to an ethnography of Madagascar – Chronicle of Higher Education

So is the problem for Aoraki to do with courses that don’t easily fit into tick boxes, or is it to do with their confusion over where creativity sits in their curriculum? …Aoraki’s end decision about course-cutting will reveal much about its philosophy of education and its vision, or lack of it, for the future – Jenny Powell in the Otago Daily 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.