AUS Tertiary Update

Tertiary Update

Tertiary Update is also available on the AUS website

www.aus.ac.nz

University research ranking row “unseemly”

The Association of University Staff (AUS) says that the continuing public debate between university vice-chancellors about their research rankings shows that the competitive model in the university system is divisive and undermines the Government’s Tertiary Education Strategy, which calls for a national university sector based on collaboration.

Earlier this month, the Tertiary Education Commission released the latest Performance-Based Research Fund (PBRF) rankings, which saw the University of Otago rise from fourth to first, the position previously held by the University of Auckland

Since the release of the rankings, however, the University of Auckland’s advertising has continued to assert that it is the top university for research in New Zealand, with its Vice-Chancellor, Professor Stuart McCutcheon, reported as saying that any system of ranking was open to “management”.

University of Otago Vice-Chancellor, Professor David Skegg, has hit back, accusing Auckland’s advertising of being misleading and adding that it must be awkward for Auckland being ranked at number two when all of its marketing is based on being New Zealand’s number-one university. “Auckland is the biggest university in New Zealand, so of course it has the highest number of everything, including the largest number of research inactive staff,” Professor Skegg said yesterday in the Otago Daily Times.

AUS National President, Professor Nigel Haworth, said that the argument between the two vice-chancellors over which was the better research institution was an unseemly spat which did nothing to enhance the reputation of quality of the New Zealand university system. “In fact, all universities have improved their research output and there is little, if any, difference between the top universities,” he said. “Rather than allowing the current squabbling to continue, university councils should now step in and ensure that research efforts enhance the university system, rather than allowing them to be used as the basis of competition.”

Tertiary Education Commission Chief Executive, Janice Shiner, has confirmed to media that Otago had the highest overall PBRF quality score.

Also in Tertiary Update this week

1. Paid union meetings planned to consider progress in salary and tripartite talks

2. University salaries increase, but still lag behind other Commonwealth countries

3. New anti-terrorism legislation a threat to academic freedom, says AUS

4. Hutchison makes no sense on audit report, says Minister

5. 0900 Psychic

6. AVCC gets the chop

7. Columbia University fires Financial Aid Director

8. LMU refuses to recognise new Union

9. Staff face dismissal for criticising their employers on internet

10. Universities offer campuses as final resting places

Paid union meetings planned to consider progress in salary and tripartite talks

A series of paid union meetings will be held in June at all eight New Zealand universities to allow union members to hear progress from both this year’s bargaining round and the Universities Tripartite Forum. By then, it is expected that significant progress should be made towards the settlement of collective employment agreements following the recent Budget confirmation that $20 million will be made available this year by the Government to support the lifting of salaries in the sector.

The Universities Tripartite Forum met in Wellington on Tuesday this week to advance a work programme agreed among the university unions, the Government and vice-chancellors. That programme includes identifying sustainable approaches to university funding and resourcing that will deliver enhanced quality and performance in the sector; considering approaches to improve productivity in the sector to enable an increased contribution to university effectiveness; examining ways in which the parties might work together to strengthen cooperation between universities, and the wider community, including business and industry; and undertaking any other projects agreed between the Minister for Tertiary Education and Tripartite Forum participants.

As well as the Tripartite Forum meeting on Tuesday, the combined unions bargaining team met yesterday to discuss the allocation of the $20 million from the Government and the contribution universities will need to make towards the settling of collective employment agreements this year. Discussions with vice-chancellors are continuing.

The paid union meetings will be held between 18 and 29 June, with times and venues to be confirmed soon.

University salaries increase, but still lag behind other Commonwealth countries

Academic salaries at New Zealand universities experienced a much bigger increase over the year to May 2006 than in previous years, but still lag behind those in Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada, according to the 2006-07 Academic Staff Salary Survey just published by the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU).

The sixth ACU salary survey compared data for forty-nine institutions across Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and the United Kingdom, providing an international comparison of salary scales for various academic positions, including adjustments for purchasing power parity, and examining other related benefits provided to academic staff.

Although the report ranks New Zealand fourth out of the five countries surveyed, it says that, compared with data from the last survey, the overall average salary increased by 15 percent. The report says that this may be a reflection of the increased attention being paid to academic salaries in the last couple of years through national bargaining and the additional $26 million allocated last year by the Government to universities to enhance salaries.

At 1 May 2006, prior to last year’s salary settlement, average New Zealand academic salaries were recorded at $108,165 at the bottom of the professorial scale, $92,881 and $105,813 at the bottom and top respectively of the associate-professorial scale, $71,115 and $95,386 at the bottom and top of the senior lecturers’ scale and $56,815 and $69,367 at the bottom and top of the lecturers’ scale.

The report says that, despite its relatively low international ranking and relatively high per-capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP), New Zealand’s salaries still fare quite well in relation to per-capita GDP, with academic salaries averaging around twice the country’s per-capita GDP.

Australian pay scales continue, at all levels, to be above those of all other countries in the survey in terms of purchasing power parity, with the overall average 26 percent higher than Canada, ranked second in the survey.

The full ACU report can be found at:

http://www.acu.ac.uk/policyandresearch/publications/salarysurvey20062007.pdf

Current New Zealand academic salary scales can be found at:

http://www.aus.ac.nz/Industrial/academicsalaries.asp

New anti-terrorism legislation a threat to academic freedom, says AUS

In a submission to Parliament, the Association of University Staff has argued that legislation designed to extend current anti-terrorism legislation is not wanted, and that any legislation dealing with national security or anti-terrorism issues may impinge on academic freedom.

The Anti-Terrorism Suppression Amendment Bill, currently before the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Select Committee, contains proposals on the designation of United-Nations-listed terrorist entities, the High Court extension of designations for those entities, the freezing of terrorists’ assets, terrorist financing offences and the offences of committing a terrorist act and participating in a terrorist group. The Bill also introduces new offences involving nuclear material.

AUS Academic Vice-President, Dr David Small, said that the proposed amendments represented a further erosion of human rights and civil liberties in the name of greater national security. “This is occurring at a time when there is no evidence that New Zealand’s national security has worsened, or any evidence that the existing measures, which were developed after extensive public consultation, are in any way inadequate,” he said.

Dr Small said that, under the proposed legislation, the actions of many protestors against the 1981 Springbok tour would have been classified as terrorist acts. Similarly, those campaigning for the release of people such as Nelson Mandela or providing humanitarian aid in Palestine would breach the proposed Act.

Dr Small said that the Bill represented a further step away from the limited protections given in the current legislation. “We are concerned that proposed new provisions, such as removing protection for advocating democratic government or human rights, are counter-productive and undermine legitimate political activity,” he said. “In particular, these may limit the right to exercise ’academic freedom’ and the legislated duty of university staff to act as ‘critic and conscience of society’.”

Hutchison makes no sense on audit report, says Minister

The Minister for Tertiary Education, Dr Michael Cullen, says that comments by National Party Tertiary Education spokesperson, Paul Hutchison, on the Auditor-General’s report on the monitoring of quality of polytechnic education make no sense, and that he has misread the report.

Earlier this month, the findings of a performance audit were released by the Auditor-General and were intended to provide an assurance to Parliament that the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) is maintaining enough oversight of the monitoring of quality assurance in institutes of technology and polytechnics, and that there are processes in place to ensure that NZQA is informed of any quality issues in the sector. At present, the monitoring of quality assurance in the sector has been delegated by NZQA to ITP Quality, a sector-based organisation.

In a media statement yesterday, Dr Hutchison said that the Auditor General’s report, showing that quality reports on nineteen of twenty polytechnics were presented to the NZQA Board but not reported on, is indicative of the failings in the system. “At a time when Tertiary Education Minister Michael Cullen is introducing his so-called reforms, focusing on quality, it is completely inept of NZQA to not act on the audits they received,” Dr Hutchison said. “This failure demonstrates how totally distracted Labour is by creating bureaucracy and central control, rather than actually checking that polytechnics are delivering quality education.”

Dr Cullen said, however, that Dr Hutchison has misread the report. “He has totally misunderstood the Auditor-General’s findings,” he said. “Rather than indicating failure, the Auditor-General says categorically that he is ‘pleased’ with the outcome of the audit. Nowhere in the report does the Auditor-General state that audit reports on polytechnics were ‘presented to the NZQA board but not reported on’. This statement makes no sense.”

Dr Cullen said that the Auditor-General makes five recommendations that he says are “in accord with the direction it [NZQA] is heading under its new divisional structure”.

The Auditor-General’s report can be found at:

http://www.oag.govt.nz/2007/nzqa-monitoring/

0900 Psychic

In a succinct media release this week, the Victoria University of Wellington Students’Association (VUWSA) has advised that a phone bill owed to it by a former officer had been paid in full and that there would be no further comment with regard to the debt.

Earlier reports indicated that the officer had run up the $6,000 ‘phone bill in calls to a psychic hotline, but had been exposed after what was described as a bizarre evening at the student-union offices when another student association member went on an alcohol-fuelled graffiti-scribbling rampage, adorning the walls with hearts and messages.

Meanwhile, the student magazine, Salient, reports that VUWSA executive members are contemplating a move to end the organisation’s membership of the New Zealand Union of University Students, arguing that it doesn’t do enough work for the students. “If they aren’t doing shit for us, then we should cease membership,” said Tai Neilson, VUWSA Campaigns Officer.

Questions are being raised as to whether the psychic will be consulted over the decision.

Worldwatch

AVCC gets the chop

THE Australian Vice-Chancellors’ Committee was disbanded this week after university bosses voted to replace the current body with a new one, Universities Australia. The vote brought to an end the 87-year life of the AVCC, which was formed in Sydney in 1920 by the vice-chancellors of Australia’s then six universities. The AVVC shifted to Melbourne in 1966, and, as federal decisions began to influence higher education, it moved to Canberra.

Last year, it became apparent that the days were numbered for the AVCC as universities, under pressure from the Federal Government to diversify, struggled to reconcile their growing differences in a more deregulated environment. The Group of Eight universities prompted the overhaul when its Chairman wrote to the AVCC about the need for fundamental change, saying that the organisation could only speak with one voice on an ever-diminishing number of issues.

Universities Australia has appointed a headhunter to start the search for a new chief executive who, it says, will be paid “a substantial salary”. The appointee’s role will be an amalgamation of the chief executive and president's positions at the AVCC, with the new chief executive being a member of the Board along with eight elected members from among the thirty-eight vice-chancellors.

From The Australian

Columbia University fires Financial Aid Director

Columbia University in the United States has dismissed its Director of Financial Aid after documents were released showing he promoted a student loan company in which he had a financial stake. The aid official was fired amid an investigation by New York Attorney-General currently probing abuses in the $85 billion student loan industry.

A spokesman for Colombia said that David Charlow, a long-term and well regarded employee, abused a position of trust and violated the University’s policy on conflicts of interest after it was revealed he sold shares in Education Lending Group, the former parent of Student Loan Xpress, for a gain of more than $100,000.

According to a report in the New York Times, Charlow had earlier sent letters to parents and alumni on three occasions praising Student Loan Xpress. He put Student Loan Xpress on Columbia’s list of preferred lenders after he received the stock, even though the company had not bid to be a preferred lender.

The newspaper said email messages and letters to and from Charlow show that he advised Student Loan Xpress on marketing strategy, pushed its loans and helped draft talking points for the company’s sales team. The email messages showed Charlow also accepted tickets provided by the lender to sports events and rock concerts at a time when he was urging parents and alumni to do business with the company, the newspaper reported.

From Reuters

LMU refuses to recognise new Union

London’s Metropolitan University has refused to recognise the University and College Union (UCU), the new union created by last year’s merger of the two United Kingdom lecturers’ unions, the Association of University Teachers and NATFHE. The refusal prolongs tension between the LMU and staff unions which came to a head when the University attempted to unlawfully impose new employment agreements on a group of lecturers following the merger between London Guildhall University and the University of North London in 2002 to form LMU. As a result of that dispute, the University had to pay £160,000 in compensation for the unfair dismissal of twenty-three lecturers.

Union representatives say that industrial relations at LMU have worsened, with managers refusing to meet representatives or to honour previous agreements. In the latest twist, Union representatives have been asked to pay an external hire rate of £300 for a room used for official union meetings, and staff have also been denied permission to attend courses related to union activities. Managers also unsuccessfully attempted to set up a staff council, which Union members believe was aimed at replacing the Union.

UCU General Secretary, Sally Hunt, said that no university, apart from LMU, seems to have a problem with transferring union recognition to the UCU, and that the Union would work with the University to resolve the current problem.

LMU declined to comment.

From The Times Higher Education Supplement

Staff face dismissal for criticising their employers on internet

It has been claimed that the internet activity of staff is increasingly being “spied on” by university managers after a lecturer at Wolverhampton University in the United Kingdom was sacked for making a series of allegations online. Union leaders and academic-freedom campaigners say that lecturers and researchers must be free to criticise their managers and to discuss their jobs without fear of reprisal.

University marketing chiefs have warned, however, that online activities such as blogs and web forums are increasingly being monitored by universities keen to protect their reputation.

The debate was sparked by the case of Sal Fiore, a senior lecturer sacked for gross misconduct following a series of emails and a posting he had made to a discussion forum in which he named Wolverhampton in association with general bullying allegations. Dr Fiore also contributed to a blog for bullied academics, www.bulliedacademics.blogspot.com.

From The Times Higher Education Supplement

Universities offer campuses as final resting places

For a few thousand dollars, the University of Richmond and a half-dozen other universities in the United States are giving alumni and faculty the opportunity to have their ashes maintained on campus in perpetuity.

They say that, in an era when many people are highly mobile and do not settle in one place for long, a university can have a special resonance for many people who have forged life-long relationships as undergraduates and can, therefore, have a strong allure as a final resting place.

At many institutions, however, sales have been slow, perhaps in part because marketing tends to be subdued. Prices vary, ranging from $US1,800 to over $US3,000.

Officials have been quick to point out that it was alumni or staff members, not university fund-raisers and consultants, who came up with the idea of building columbaria on campuses.

From The Chronicle of Higher Education

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