AUS Tertiary Update

University employment agreements ratified
New collective employment agreements have been ratified for academic and general staff at the eight New Zealand universities. Provisional figures show that more than 97 percent of those participating in ratification ballots voted in favour of settlements at Auckland, Waikato, Massey, Victoria, Canterbury, Lincoln, Otago and AUT Universities.
The ratification will see salary increases for academic staff of between 5.2 and 6.2 percent and between 3.73 and 4.73 percent for general staff over the course of the year.
The settlements comprise a salary component funded by each university and another from a new government funding package of $20 million allocated through the Universities Tripartite Forum this year to explore and create opportunities to increase the competitiveness of New Zealand universities through recruitment and retention strategies.
Association of University Staff Deputy Secretary, Nanette Cormack, said that the unions representing university staff had successfully engaged with vice-chancellors and the Government through the tripartite process and had continued to address funding and salary problems in the university sector over the last three years. Cumulative salary increases over the three-year period of between 12.7 and 15.5 percent for general staff and between 16.5 and 19.9 percent for academic staff represented the best period of bargaining experienced by university staff since the 1980s.
According to Ms Cormack, the settlements illustrate what can be achieved when unions, vice-chancellors and the Government work together. “We know that the tripartite process has been successful in achieving consensus across the sector and providing clear benefits for university staff,” she said.
Ms Cormack added that, while the salary increases varied among universities and between academics and general staff, union members saw the settlements as a positive step. “Union members know that the government money, which funded a proportion of the increases, was a direct result of efforts made over the past three years,” she said. “The ballot result shows strong support for the national approach to bargaining and gives us confidence to continue with that process.”

Also in Tertiary Update this week
1. ITOs the key to skill training, says Cullen
2. Nats support VCs over tertiary-reform legislation
3. Restructuring likely at WITT
4. Positive report card for Pasifika education
5. NZQA making progress on quality assurance
6. Graduates showered with gifts
7. Controversy over sacking of US academic
8. Zimbabwe faces university crisis
9. Universities threatened with loss of funding over employment agreements
10. Self-plagiarising lecturer exposes software failings

ITOs the key to skill training, says Cullen
The Minister for Tertiary Education, Dr Michael Cullen, has told the Industry Training Federation (ITF) that the key to the future skills development of New Zealand is the national strategic leadership role of industry training organisations. He added that their leadership plays a critical role in linking industry and employer needs at the heart of the tertiary-education reforms.
Dr Cullen told an ITF conference that the $16 million the Government had committed to support ITOs’ leadership role through a strategic leadership component was aimed not just at assisting the development of ITOs, but also at building their strategic relationships with the wider tertiary-education sector. “I want ITOs to be the accepted voice of employers in their industries,” he said. “With the changes to the tertiary-education system, there is both the scope and need to ITOs to step up to this role.”
Pointing to the need for cooperation and collaboration among tertiary-education providers, Dr Cullen praised the ITF, saying it had already played a constructive role working with the Tertiary Education Commission to determine how the sector would operate as a whole in the new environment. “Around the country many of you have taken part in regional processes,” he said. “This has meant working with others to look at the needs of each region and produce regional statements. Those statements have a crucial role when the Commission sits down with tertiary organisations to develop investment plans.”
According to Dr Cullen, the result of the cooperation among ITOs is a skills system that is delivering and improving. “ITOs have done a great job in the supply of industry training … and the Government is proud of the work they are doing in the area.”

Nats support VCs over tertiary-reform legislation
Supporting concerns expressed by vice-chancellors over the Education (Tertiary Reforms) Amendment Bill, National Party Education spokesperson, Dr Paul Hutchison, says that the reforms are “frightening” and give the Government unprecedented control over universities. He adds that the Bill must not proceed in its current form and that it is yet another example of the Labour Government’s attempts to put every facet of New Zealand under central control, feeding the already bloated public service with more red tape.
Dr Hutchison said that submissions on the proposed legislation by the University of Auckland and the vice-chancellors state that none of the world’s leading universities are subject to the degree of control proposed by the Bill. “In fact, it does the exact opposite of what Michael Cullen has described. Instead of being ‘high trust’, it is low trust, and instead of being ‘low on compliance costs’ it is extremely bureaucratic,” he said. “The University of Auckland submission says this ‘severely weakens autonomy and threatens academic freedom’, ‘opens universities to direct Ministerial intervention’, ‘establishes State control of private revenue and assets’, and is ‘generally directive and controlling’.”
Describing the University of Auckland’s submission as a damning indictment of the Bill, Dr Hutchison said the University claimed it was wholly inappropriate and probably illegal for the Tertiary Education Commission to be already pushing ahead with implementation of the proposed new system as the Bill is yet to be enacted.
Meanwhile, the vice-chancellors have released a statement correcting what it describes as some misunderstandings that may have arisen in Parliament’s question time about their submission on the Bill. New Zealand Vice-Chancellors’ Committee Chair, Professor Roy Sharp, says that, balanced against legitimate government interest is the need for universities to have a high degree of autonomy. “We are proud of the fact that we were set up as, and remain, public institutions, and we welcome the public accountability that goes with that. We are not, however, government-controlled institutions and it would be detrimental to the university system for us to be too tied to the exigencies of the government of the day. In that way we best serve the needs of our democracy and of our thousands of individual students,” he said. “We aim to be highly accountable to the New Zealand public in a partnership with the New Zealand government and at the same time each being autonomous organisations strongly linked in to the international network of universities.”

Restructuring likely at WITT
The Association of Staff in Tertiary Education (ASTE) says it is yet to be consulted by the Western Institute of Technology over the likelihood of job losses at the financially troubled polytechnic. ASTE General Secretary, Sharn Riggs, said that she wrote to WITT Chief Executive, Stephen Mortimer, last week after learning that management were meeting staff last Friday to discuss proposed changes to get the institution “back on track”.
The Taranaki Daily News has reported that WITT has requested $500,000 from the Tertiary Education Commission’s Quality Re-Investment Fund to fund redundancies and restructuring in 2007/2008, saying that it could cost about $2 million for a series of projects aimed at turning the Institute around. The polytechnic is understood to be facing a deficit of $5.3 million this year.
Mr Mortimer is reported by the Taranaki Daily News as saying that a meeting was held with staff to discuss WITT’s vision for the future, but he would not comment about possible redundancies because he was restricted from doing so by the employment law process in which there exists a consultative process with those people potentially affected by any changes. He says some individuals have been spoken to about the proposed first stage of “high-level” restructuring, and that there would be an initial two-week consultation period before any decisions are made.
Sharn Riggs said that WITT management had failed to tell them about last week’s meeting, despite there being provisions in the collective employment agreement requiring them to advise and consult the union over any proposed changes. “From ASTE’s point of view, this doesn’t bode well for the process of a review, let alone any outcome,” she said. “We have always said we will work with the polytechnic in its efforts to turn things around, but when it comes to our members’ jobs and conditions of work we expect, as our members do, to be fully involved from the very beginning. A two-week consultation period before decisions are made doesn’t meet that requirement.”
WITT Human Resources Manager, Andy Ralphs, says the proposed reshaping of the polytechnic did not necessarily mean job losses.

Positive report card for Pasifika education
A new report released this week shows that, on current trends, 26 percent of Pasifika students enrolling in a bachelor’s degree in 2006 will complete it within five years, and it forecasts that the trend will shift towards achieving a target of 40 percent by 2010. The report also predicts that the participation rates of Pasifika people at degree level will increase towards 5 percent by 2010, up from a rate of 3.4 percent in 2004, and that participation in industry training at level four or higher will increase from 23 percent in 2004 to 30 percent by 2010.
The first monitoring report of the Pasifika Education Plan 2006-2010 summarises progress to date on the Ministry of Education’s strategic direction for improving education outcomes for Pasifika peoples in Aotearoa New Zealand. Overall, the report shows what has been described as a “positive report card”, with targeted outcomes heading in the right direction, but it also shows areas that require additional effort.
The report says that, on current trends, the five-year retention rates at all levels of tertiary education are forecast to be 48 percent, exceeding the target of 45 percent, and that the participation of Pasifika peoples in the Modern Apprenticeship programme will be at 2.7 percent.
The report can be viewed at:
http://educationcounts.edcentre.govt.nz/themes/pasifika/pasifika-monitoring-report06.html

NZQA making progress on quality assurance
The New Zealand Qualifications Authority has released an update on its progress towards the Quality Assurance components of the tertiary-education reforms, saying that a new framework is taking shape and developments are well under way. NZQA has the role of developing a new quality-assurance system with a single overall framework of self-assessment and external evaluation and review for the tertiary-education sector that will support a culture of continuous improvement.
The Tertiary Reforms team at NZQA is now identifying the principles, key features, evaluation indicators and other tools needed to develop the strengthened model for quality assurance. This will be centred on self-assessment and external evaluation and review and supported by the regulatory system. Quality assurance will focus on the educational outcomes achieved (short and long-term) and the key processes that support those outcomes. This approach will build on existing strengths.
NZQA says it is also testing ideas about quality assurance against overseas practice and talking to international evaluation authorities. “We want to capture the best of overseas experience while ensuring any new systems are appropriate for New Zealand,” the update says.
A paper on the proposed model for sector consultation is currently being prepared.
The update can be located at:
http://www.nzqa.govt.nz/for-providers/tertiary/update.html

Graduates showered with gifts
A tight labour market is seeing university graduates showered with gifts, according to a report in the Dominion Post. The story says that the gifts include wardrobe allowances and gym memberships offered by companies “falling over themselves” to sign up graduates with technical ability and social and customer skills.
The Dominion Post quotes Otago University Graduate Recruitment Coordinator, Robyn Bridges, as saying that she knew of companies offering $1,000 clothing allowances to entice graduates. She said that IT, accounting, finance and engineering graduates were in the hottest demand.
Hays Recruitment Senior Manager, Aurelie Le Gall, is reported as saying that New Zealand’s labour market is increasingly competitive, with more forms offering potential employees non-cash benefits such as laptop computers, gym memberships and shopping vouchers.
In Australia, young graduates are reportedly being offered everything from iPods to champagne, with the St George Bank offering to pay employees 80 percent of their salary and allowing them to take every fifth year off as paid leave.
PricewaterhouseCooper General Manager, Human Capital, Rolf Siggard, is reported as saying the firm offered a $2,000 acceptance bonus and small gifts to graduate emoployees, while Ernst and Young Human Resources Manager, Mark Tester, said that, instead of gifts, his company preferred to offer career development, including study leave as graduates work towards becoming chartered accountants.

Worldwatch
Controversy over sacking of US academic
An international controversy has been sparked with the sacking of an academic from Colorado State University at Boulder more than two years after his writings on 9/11 set off what has been described as a furore and more than a year after a faculty panel found him guilty of repeated, intentional academic misconduct.
Professor Ward Churchill was dismissed last Thursday after an eight-to-one vote of the University’s Board of Regents (Council). His supporters say he is the victim of a right-wing attack on the freedom of speech, his sacking motivated by a determination to remove him for his unpopular political views after he described the victims of the 2002 attack on the World Trade Centre as “little Eichmanns” who formed a “technocratic corps at the very heart of America’s global financial empire”.
University bosses say the case is not about politics but about enforcing academic integrity and punishing those who commit academic misconduct. The complaints against Professor Churchill included charges of plagiarism, false descriptions of other scholars’ work or historical evidence and fabrications, with three separate faculty panels finding him guilty of multiple instances of research misconduct.
Many academics have said that they are troubled by both the findings of research misconduct against Professor Churchill and by the reality that his work received intense scrutiny only after his political views drew attention to him.
In a statement on the issue, the American Association of University Professors has said that the freedom of faculty members to express their views, however unpopular or distasteful, is an essential condition in an institution of higher learning that is truly free. “We reject the notion that some viewpoints are so offensive or disturbing that the academic community should not be allowed to be heard and debated. Should serious questions arise about Professor Churchill’s fitness to continue at the University of Colorado, the only acceptable basis for terminating a tenured faculty appointment, those questions should be judged by a faculty committee that affords the essential safeguards of due process.”
Professor Churchill, who describes his dismissal as nothing short of a witch-hunt, has announced he is to sue the University.
From Inside Higher Education and AAUP

Zimbabwe faces university crisis
Some State and church universities in Zimbabwe face imminent closure as they are running out of money and several have increased fees drastically, or are considering doing so. Zimbabwe Open University (ZOU) and the Midlands State University (MSU), both in the State system, have already raised their fees, ZOU from $Z70,000 a semester to $Z1 million, and MSU from $Z124,000 to $Z20 million. ($Z100 is roughly equivalent to NZ53 cents)
The University of Zimbabwe, the National University of Science and Technology and Solusi University are among other universities contemplating fee increases, all saying that they need a lot of extra money just to stay open. Salaries are usually the highest single item of expenditure in any university, but the cost of teaching materials is escalating “way ahead of the general inflation”.
The Herald (Harare)

Universities threatened with loss of funding over employment agreements
In a serious escalation of the pressure on Australian universities to force their staff on to individual employment agreements called Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs), the University of New England (UNE) in New South Wales has been sent a memo by the Department of Education, Science and Training warning that, unless the University implements a policy of offering jobs on an AWA-only basis, it could lose its funding. At stake is $A400million worth of funding from the Federal Government to the university sector.
The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) has gained a copy of a memo which outlines changes to UNE policy to ensure it is compliant with the Government’s “Higher Education Workplace Relations Requirements” in order to get access to the funding.
NTEU Acting General Secretary, Ken McAlpine, said the Department’s memo was the first to come to light showing that the Federal Government is determined to force universities to push staff onto AWAs. “While the Government has publicly said all employees must be offered “genuine choice” between collective agreements and AWAs, Prime Minister Howard’s bureaucrats are enforcing his real agenda, to actually remove choice by forcing staff onto AWAs,” he said. “The Government is now saying ’genuine choice’ means the choice between an AWA and unemployment.”

Self-plagiarising lecturer exposes software failings
A lecturer has highlighted flaws in the electronic plagiarism-detection software used by 80 percent of universities in the United Kingdom after testing his own work for copied material. Simeon Yates, from Sheffield Hallam University, found that the web-based software, Turnitin, failed to recognise that work he submitted for analysis was 100 per cent plagiarised from his own previously published output.
Turnitin’s developer, iParadigm, claims that the programme has access to “a vast database” of 4.5 billion website addresses and a number of subscription sites.
One sample essay provided by Dr Yates was judged to comprise 18 percent of suspect material when, in fact, the entire essay was lifted from a published paper. In another, an “originality report” generated by the programme wrongly picked up that 28 percent of one piece of work may have been plagiarised when the sentences it picked up as being palgiarised were fairly standard and not plagiarism at all.
From The Times Higher Education Supplement

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AUS Tertiary Update is compiled weekly on Thursdays and distributed freely to members of the Association of University Staff and others. Back issues are available on the AUS website: www.aus.ac.nz . Direct enquires should be made to Marty Braithwaite, AUS Communications Officer, email: marty.braithwaite@aus.ac.nz

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