Scoop  Education

League tables relegate learning context

Dr Roy Sharp told TEU last week that "We are not using a league table model." However, what his Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) has done this week is release a table of tertiary institutions ranking them from top to bottom according to how they perform against four indicators. The indicators are: successful course completion, completion of qualifications, student progression to higher level study, and students retained in study.

The TEC’s non-league table drew immediate criticism from TEU national secretary, Sharn Riggs, who said that it provided students and the public with irrelevant comparisons and bad measurements.

"League tables like those released today simply tell institutions and their prospective students that we measure success not by how far you come but how far in front you start before the journey even begins."

Those institutions that ranked highly on the tables were quick to publically praise their own success, but attention is now turning to those that ranked at the foot of the tables.

TEC has signalled that those institutions which do not measure up according to this data may lose up to 5 percent of their overall public funding.

NZ ITP Chairman Dr James Buwalda says that it can be useful to compare performance of institutions at the level of study you’re interested in, "but the aggregate measures also published today provide no useful information."

"Students at different levels face different barriers to completion and progression – a second-chance student in foundation education (levels 1-2) will face different challenges to a PhD student with years of study under their belt. For example, part time students do not complete qualifications or progress to higher levels at the same rates as those in full-time study. Many find it challenging to balance their study with work and other programmes."

Ralph Springett, President of the Massey University Extramural Students’ Society says Massey, with its large part time extramural cohort, is being penalised for providing education to those balancing study with work, parenting and financial pressures.

"The government has lost the plot when it comes to the value of part time study," says Mr Springett. "It is ridiculous that students who avoid taking a student loan and work productively are the ones singled out as non-performers."

Also in Tertiary Update this week:

1. Earthquake hit institutions rebuilding


2. Redundancies continue in Otago


3. University general staff to contest TEU election


4. Student fees increase dramatically


5. Dr Sharp calls for more measurement and rankings


6. Reading the international university ranking tea leaves


7. Other news

Earthquake hit institutions rebuilding

Tertiary institutions in earthquake-damaged Christchurch remain closed until next week, as they try to assess the damage and clean up the mess on their campuses.

The University of Canterbury’s vice-chancellor, Rod Carr, reports that the university is making good progress as it works through its earthquake recovery phase.

"Aftershocks overnight caused some additional minor damage, but have not slowed up the progress of the recovery plan."

All staff and students not involved in assessment and clean-up of the university have been asked to remain off campus so that selected personnel can focus on the recovery efforts.

"There will be a managed approach to clean-up efforts which will be communicated to staff and students, following tomorrow’s decision concerning restarting university activities no sooner than Monday 13 September."

CPIT chief executive Kay Giles advises that her institution’s buildings have been certified structurally safe and sound with engineering approval. CPIT is planning to reopen its campus on 13 September.

Lincoln University’s vice-chancellor, professor Roger Field, says that Lincoln sustained a large volume of damage, "But thankfully at this point it appears that most is able to be repaired. Sadly one exception to this is Memorial Hall which has sustained more damage."

Meanwhile, the New Zealand Herald reports that at the University of Canterbury there have been major chemical spills, millions of books have been thrown from the shelves, and an acclaimed collection of Greek and Roman antiquities worth millions of dollars has been badly damaged.

Redundancies continue in Otago

Tertiary education staff in Otago continue to lose jobs as the university and polytechnic push on with their restructuring plans.

The Otago Daily Times reports that the University of Otago's College of Education will designate 15 jobs redundant by the end of next year, with more position losses signalled for 2012. It also reports that 20 staff will lose their jobs or accept reduced hours at Otago Polytechnic by the end of the year.

A review of staffing at the polytechnic’s Dunedin and Cromwell campuses, and a call for voluntary redundancies and early retirements, have led to a reduction of 15.1 full-time equivalent positions, affecting about 20 staff, human resources general manager Matt Carter said yesterday.

There could be more job losses or reduced work hours to come, he said, though he could not say how many positions would be affected or when decisions might be made.

The polytechnic is blaming government funding cuts for the redundancies and reduction in hours. Tertiary institutions should be investing in staff rather than shedding them, Mr Carter said.

"Staff are quite upset. All our staff are committed to [what we do] and are frustrated we have been put in a position of having to do this to make cost savings."

Meanwhile, at the University of Otago, 12 full-time-equivalent teacher education fellow positions and three administration positions would go late this year or during next year. Then in 2012 there will be further reductions as specific teaching commitments end, but the university hopes these will occur through attrition.

Staff and the TEU said that the university’s initial restructuring proposal, and a revised proposal released last month after submissions were considered, unfairly targeted teacher educators.

University general staff to contest TEU election

Annie Barker (University of Waikato), Rui Li (Victoria University), Marian Pearson (Lincoln University) and Cerian Wagstaff (Auckland University) will contest an election for three available places for university-based representatives on TEU’s General Staff Sector Group.  Robert Watson (CPIT) and Adele Wilson (UCOL) were elected unopposed as ITP representatives to the group.

The election, which TEU members who are general staff working at a university will all be able to vote in, will be en electronic ballot and is scheduled to begin on Sept 20.

Meanwhile, ITP vice-president, Ken Laraman, and Te Tumu Arataki, Cheri Waititi, have been re-elected unopposed

On the University Sector Group (USG), Nan Seuffert (University of Waikato) and Scott Walters (Lincoln University) were elected unopposed.  In the ITP sector group (ITPSG),  Lesley Francey (MIT),  Eric Stone (NorthTec), Glennis Birks (WINTEC), Tina Smith (UCOL), and Fiona Mason (UCOL) were all elected unopposed.

The National Women’s Committee saw Alexandra Sims (University of Auckland), Vicki-Lee Tyacke (UCOL), Sue Bretherton (AUT), Fran Richardson (Whitireia), Lyndsay Ainsworth (Lincoln University), and Pip Bruce Ferguson (Waikato University) elected unopposed.

The successful candidates will all take up their positions on 1 January 2011

Returning officer, Sharn Riggs, has reopened nominations for a number of the positions that were unfilled after nominations closed at the end of August.  They include University Academic Vice-President, seven positions on the University Sector Group, three positions on the ITP Sector Group, and one position on the General Staff Sector Group.

Student fees increase dramatically

Student associations fear most tertiary institutions will increase their fees for next year by the maximum allowed by the government.

Radio New Zealand reports three tertiary institutions have raised their fees for 2011 - all by the 4 percent maximum allowed by the government.

NZUSA expects most other tertiary institutions will do the same. They also worry institutions will raise their fees for student services, despite government warnings about such increases.

Co-president Pene Delaney says Government under-funding to the sector is driving the increases, and with the rise in GST will take the overall rise to 6.5%.

But he is also concerned institutions will raise their student service levies. He says some institutions last year raised their levies by as much as 400– 500 percent.

A spokeswoman for tertiary education minister Steven Joyce told the Manawatu Standard that recently several institutions had made significant increases to student service levies.

"These are to cover things like student health, gyms and the like – but the amounts being charged are in some cases growing dramatically," she said. "We've seen examples of institutions charging things like a building maintenance levy or library services or compulsory charges for internet access. Once upon a time these things were core services."

She said Mr Joyce was determined to ensure students were getting a fair deal.

"As a first step he's written to chief executives of tertiary institutions to formally raise the issue and lay out his concerns. He's also asked for information on the fees institutions charge, and what services they provide for those fees," she said.

Dr Sharp calls for more measurement and rankings

Tertiary Education Commission chief executive, Professor Roy Sharp, met with the TEU’s university and ITP sector groups last week to warn that the newly introduced student performance indicators are just the first of a range of accountability systems that tertiary institutions are likely to face.

Dr Sharp told the TEU groups that there are likely to be additional quality indicators introduced in the near future. In particular, he would like to see published data on student satisfaction and employment outcomes. However, he conceded that at present these two data sets are hard to measure accurately and fairly.

NZUSA, meanwhile, though cautious on the newly introduced league tables, seemed to support Dr Sharp’s call, with co-president Pene Delaney saying there are significant gaps in the data provided.

"Ranking in this manner doesn’t reflect what students can expect at a tertiary institution, as the numbers don’t demonstrate the whole picture. There is no reference to quality of teaching and learning, or to student satisfaction. The release of this information today should therefore only be considered a first step," concluded Mr Delaney.

Dr Sharp also told the TEU that TEC is trying to change the way tertiary institutions operate within the capped funding system.

"The TEC’s current focus is on giving students good advice on where they should enrol and what they should do – and supporting them well, whatever that means. That’s what we are trying to get TEOs to focus on."

Dr Sharp said that the government’s current priority was on younger people, because with them "the return is greater."  However, he noted, "that does not mean that [older] people cannot upgrade their qualifications or get new skills."

Reading the international university ranking tea leaves

The Ministry of Education reports that New Zealand’s performance in the 2010 Shanghai Jiao Tong University Annual Ranking of World Universities is reasonably strong. It says that, once the size of academic workforces is taken into account, the University of Otago in 99th place was the highest ranked of the New Zealand universities, followed by the University of Auckland in 240th place.

The same report said that, in terms of a country’s share of universities in the ARWU top 500, once share of the world economy is taken into account then New Zealand ranked first in the world. When taking into account our share of the world’s population, New Zealand ranked eighth in the world.

However, the New Zealand Herald, reporting on a different university ranking system, the QS World University Rankings, notes that New Zealand universities have all dropped places, with the University of Auckland the only one now in the top 100.

QS World University Rankings spokesman John Molony said all New Zealand universities slipped in the rankings because of their faculty-to-student ratio.

"While this has largely been offset with a good result in research performance, it does leave New Zealand's higher education reputation at risk internationally as institutions and systems around the world increase their investment in academic staff."

TEU national president, Dr Tom Ryan, says it is interesting that the ministry of education is using New Zealand’s falling staff-student ratio to talk up New Zealand’s performance, while the QS spokesperson points to that same ratio as a reason for New Zealand’s drop on the league table.

"These provide another example of how ranking systems and league tables can be very misleading and open to abuse. Political and other contexts always needs to be part of any such analysis," says Dr Ryan.

Other news

Massey University's College of Education announced yesterday that new students would vie for 200 fewer places, with only the highest-calibre applicants guaranteed acceptance. The announcement came after a Government clamp-down on funding contributed to tightened entry criteria, which now affects all of the university's teaching programmes. The total first-year intake to the College of Education for next year will be 370, down from 575 this year. Current students will not be affected by the cutbacks  – Manawatu Standard

Trev is not this Kiwi loan refugee's real name, but that's what we'll call him because he wouldn't be too happy to be outed and get a knock on his Queensland door from a debt collector, thanks to a small loan he took out as a 19-year-old, largely to buy a stereo. Five years ago the original $7000 had risen to $157,000 and was accelerating so fast Trev fears the total is likely to be approaching $250,000 by now  – The New Zealand Herald

"Good education increases employability," says OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría. "In countries hit early by the recession, people with lower levels of education had more difficulties finding and keeping a job." With demand for tertiary courses rising, according to analysis in this year’s edition of Education at a Glance, public resources invested in university education also pay off handsomely by bringing in additional tax revenues - OECD

Despite the unequivocal evidence of the economic crisis caused by unrestrained financial markets a new report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) continues to argue for spending efficiencies and the pursuit of failed market mechanisms in public education. – Education International

Psychologists have discovered that some of the most hallowed advice on study habits is flat wrong. For instance, many study skills courses insist that students find a specific place, a study room or a quiet corner of the library, to take their work. The research finds just the opposite – New York 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, email: stephen.day@teu.ac.nz

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