Vote for tertiary education.

Hau Taki Haere | Tertiary Update Vol 27, No 17

Te Hautū Kahurangi | Tertiary Education Union is looking forward to hosting ministers, Members of Parliament, and aspiring candidates from across the political spectrum all over the country at this week’s paid union meetings – occurring on every major TEU worksite on Thursday morning.

The meetings, which aim to bring the Aotearoa tertiary education sector together to discuss funding in the run-up to the general election, will include a 15-minute live broadcast from Te Herenga Waka | Victoria University with speeches from Minister Jan Tinetti (via Zoom), Julie-Anne Genter, and Tumu Whakarae | National President Dr Julie Douglas.

Funding for the sector is expected to be a major focus of the day. The TEU recently commissioned BERL to research Aotearoa’s education spending compared to other similar countries.

The report, which will be released after Thursday’s meetings, shows tertiary education funding per EFTS in New Zealand lagging well behind – 10.2% lower than Canada, 30.1% lower than the USA and 23.5% lower than the OECD average.

Dr Douglas says “if we want to compete with economies like these we need to invest similarly in our future. Between 2015 and 2019 New Zealand increased funding into our sector by just 1.9%. In the UK they increased 13.6%, while in the US 8.5% and Canada it’s 6.1% over this period.”

“We must have increases to education funding that will bring our expenditure per EFTS up to the OECD average over the next six years.”

“We also need a mandated staff voice in decisions that affect the future of the tertiary sector and funding increases that are fairly allocated to staff costs.”

“We are going to ask everyone in our sector to vote for tertiary education at this year’s general election.”

Also in this update:

• Suffrage Day
• TEU national elections
• Proud to be union, proud to be queer
• Money Matters

Other stories:

Tertiary sector plans stop work meeting for September – Stuff

Tertiary Education Commission refused to defer university funding clawbacks – briefing – RNZ

Massey University job losses would cut deep into Palmerston North – Stuff

University of Waikato boss referred to new medical school as a 'present' for future National government – RNZ