TEU Tertiary Update Vol 12 No 8

TERTIARY-EDUCATION ASSESSMENT FALLS SHORT OF THE MARK?

Consumer Magazine is advising its readers to be wary of the consistency of marking and assessment standards in tertiary-education institutions. The magazine suggests in this month’s edition that there can be significant variations in marks for students’ work and it calls for increased quality assurance. University of Auckland professor of education John Hattie is quoted as arguing that, while “we implicitly trust our academics to know what they value in their subjects, to set examinations and assignments, to mark reliably and validly”, evidence suggests that trust may not always be warranted.

Dr Alison Viskovic of Whitireia Community Polytechnic suggests in the same article that academic staff often learn the trade of assessment by “trial and error”, with few opportunities to observe others teaching or of being observed by a peer and given feedback. And Professor Luanna Meyer of Victoria University says that academic staff are usually appointed on their subject knowledge and qualifications rather than their teaching expertise, but tuition in how to do the job does not necessarily follow once they start work.

Consumer calls for a code of practice ensuring academic quality similar to that in the Britain, where institutions publish clear assessment criteria and ensure marking is carried out fairly and consistently. It also recommends publically assessing our institutions against a range of quality indicators such as occurs in Germany.

However, TEU president elect Dr Tom Ryan has expressed caution about adding further layers of “quality assurance” onto tertiary-education teaching staff.

“TEU is mindful of the need to ensure the highest standards of teaching and learning in our institutions. We welcomed the recent investment by government of $20 million in the establishment of the Ako Aotearoa National Centre for Tertiary Teaching Excellence,” Dr Ryan said. “Many of our polytechnics and ITPs already require their teaching staff to have formal qualifications in adult learning and teaching. And our universities have long required student evaluations of their courses, and assessment of graduate coursework and postgraduate theses by academics based in other New Zealand and overseas universities.”

“Our recent experience of the PBRF suggests that centrally imposed quality-assurance systems are massively expensive, impact negatively on workplace relations and morale, and invite manipulation and abuse by management. While our members recognise and value the importance of high quality teaching in all tertiary institutions, they want to be part of and consulted about any changes that might be proposed,” argued Dr Ryan.

ALSO IN TERTIARY UPDATE THIS WEEK:

1. University unions ballot for nationwide employment agreement
2. Voluntary repayment bonus to favour wealthy graduates
3. Controversy over cash-for-holidays plan
4. 3000 places in ITPs for 9-day-fortnight workers
5. Three to contest te tumu arataki position
6. French university strikes have government recalling 1968
7. TAFEs to help Australia meet degree target
8. London VC quits after losing £56m
9. Demand for Muslim prayer room rejected
10. Staff could face sack over spoof pamphlets

UNIVERSITY UNIONS BALLOT FOR NATIONWIDE EMPLOYMENT AGREEMENT

The TEU and other unions with members at New Zealand’s eight universities are balloting their university members again next week over their support or otherwise for the ongoing strategy of seeking a nationwide university collective employment agreement. If successful, the strategy would see twenty-one existing collective agreements across eight universities amalgamated into just two: one for academic and one for general staff.

Nanette Cormack deputy secretary of the TEU believes that, although national bargaining has not yet achieved its ultimate goal, in recent years it has allowed union members to set national terms and conditions of employment in the university sector and put greater pressure on the government to properly fund salaries in the sector.

“Over the past four years, the collective efforts of university staff and their unions have achieved salary increases of between 16 and 18 percent for general staff and between 20 and 24 percent for academic staff,” said Ms Cormack. “These were the largest increases in the university sector in more than fifteen years.”

The ballot, which begins next week, asks all academic and general staff to vote to determine whether or not they wish to be a part of the national negotiation process. Participation will be determined on a sector-by-sector and union-by-union basis at each of the eight universities. The ballot will run between 30 March and 14 April.

If the recommendation for national bargaining is endorsed by union members, bargaining will be initiated with the employers in May. A round of membership meetings will then be held to endorse the claims for negotiation, which would commence by early June 2009. The current collective agreements in the eight participating universities are all due to expire on 30 June 2009.

“Union members will decide on the final claims for negotiation, but salaries and workload will remain key issues.” said Ms Cormack.

VOLUNTARY REPAYMENT BONUS TO FAVOUR WEALTHY GRADUATES

Student-loan borrowers who pay back more than required will have that repayment supplemented with a 10 percent bonus from the government, according to new policy announced this week by tertiary-education minister Anne Tolley. However, student leaders are concerned that the policy rewards wealthy graduates at the expense of others.

From 1 April this year, voluntary repayments of at least $500 in a year will receive the bonus. This would mean, for example, that a voluntary repayment of $800 would reduce a borrower’s loan balance by $880.

“This is a significant step to encourage student loan repayment and reduce overall repayment times,” said Mrs Tolley. “It will give student-loan borrowers greater incentive to make voluntary repayments and help them repay loans faster.”

“Shorter repayment times will mean young New Zealanders will be debt free earlier. This means more money in their pockets each week and more freedom to make major life decisions such as travel, starting a family or home ownership,” Mrs Tolley added.

Students, however, have been lukewarm about the new policy, with New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations co-president, Sophia Blair, suggesting that the policy will be welcomed by the lucky few who qualify for the scheme and can afford to make extra voluntary repayments but would be of little benefit to student-loan borrowers who can only afford to make the compulsory repayments of 10 percent on all income earned over $18,184.

“Most borrowers are already making considerable compulsory loan repayments each week, and can’t afford to make further contributions on top of this. When they are already doing everything they should, why are they now being ignored by the government?” asked Ms Blair

CONTROVERSY OVER CASH-FOR-HOLIDAYS PLAN

The government plans to amend the law to allow employers to cash in one week of the mandatory four weeks’ annual leave for their workers, effective from April next year. However, the plan is drawing criticism from unions and workers who are concerned that employers will pressure them into swapping their holidays for cash, especially in the current economic climate.

Prime Minister John Key told the Press that the new law is about choice:

“You’ve got to remember that this can be driven only by employees, not employers, so only an employee can actually ask to cash up their leave…. Some people will say I’d rather have three weeks and the cash; others will say it’s far more important to take the extra week.”

TEU national secretary, Sharn Riggs, is less sanguine. She argues that, with increasing student numbers and increasing workloads in the tertiary-education sector, workers need to be wary of institutions looking for new ways to have staff at their jobs for more days of the year. Workers could regret trading the concrete benefit of a week’s leave for money that can lose its value in a matter of years.

“Schools, community groups, churches, and families all rely on holidays to allow them to spend time with the workers in their lives,” Ms Riggs said.

“A law that allows companies to encourage workers to sell holidays for cash would tell workers that we know the cost of everything and the value of nothing.” Four weeks’ annual leave is not excessive for a worker who wants to spend time with friends and family, volunteer at a local sports tournament, or visit relatives elsewhere in the country,” Ms Riggs added. “We all benefit from the stronger society that develops when workers have time to spend with their friends, families, and communities.”

3000 PLACES IN ITPS FOR 9-DAY-FORTNIGHT WORKERS

Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics of NZ (ITPNZ) has brokered a deal in which five ITPs, the Open Polytechnic, Aoraki Polytechnic, Otago Polytechnic, Eastern Institute of Technology, and Wellington Institute of Technology, will offer free or low-cost workforce-development and skills training to workers who qualify for the nine-day-fortnight scheme to help businesses avoid redundancies during the recession. It is an important addition to the government’s nine-day-fortnight scheme which, when announced, failed to include any provision for training.

The Open Polytechnic will offer 1500 free places, and the other institutes (Otago, Aoraki, Weltec and EIT) will offer cheap fees for more than 1500 further workers.

The Open Polytechnic’s chief executive, Dr Caroline Seelig, said the polytechnic had been looking hard at extra ways it could support firms and workers during the recession.

“We very much agree that investing in skills now to weather the current storm and prepare for the economic upturn is something that it is going to benefit workers, businesses and New Zealand.” Dr Seelig added that the polytechnic will manage the fee-free courses within its agreed funding for this year.

TEU national secretary Sharn Riggs welcomed the announcement.

“There is a nationwide recognition that skills training and education is the sensible way out of the recession,” she said Ms Riggs. She did note however that while tertiary-education workers are are keen to be involved in helping to keep fellow workers in jobs they are mindful of the increased workloads they are facing as more students flock to the ITPs to retrain or upskill..

“Having said that training is the missing piece of the government’s nine-day-fortnight puzzle, and so it is reassuring to know that workers will now have the chance on their tenth day to take up high-quality, publicly provided education from reputable institutes of technology and polytechnics,” Ms Riggs concluded

THREE TO CONTEST TE TUMU ARATAKI POSITION

Three candidates are standing for the position of TEU tumu arataki, Māori vice-president, the last vice-presidential vacancy in this electoral round. Pania Melbourne, Cheri Waititi, and Ngaroma Williams have all confirmed their candidacies.

Pania Melbourne of Ngāi Tūhoe is a lecturer in Te Pua Wānanga ki te Ao at the University of Waikato. Ms Melbourne is seeking equity and strong support for te toi ahurangi, the national Māori committee. She believes that TEU must continue to improve the representation of all sector groups fairly and vigorously by advocating for greater and more frequent localised interaction and input.

Cheri (Panda) Waititi of Ngāti Porou is a lecturer in arts education and the visual arts in the arts and language-education department of the school of education at the University of Waikato. Ms Waititi is excited to have the opportunity to contribute her leadership in the initial foundation building of the new TEU Te Hautū Kahurangi o Aotearoa.

Ngaroma Williams of Te Arawa is a regional lecturer for Te Kuratini Tūwhera, the Open Polytechnic of New Zealand, and a doctoral student at the University of Canterbury. Ms Williams is an avid advocate for bicultural education: her teaching and research are aimed at supporting and extending all educators’ theoretical knowledge of delivering bicultural curricula within Aotearoa New Zealand.

Voting will open on 20 April and all TEU members registered as Māori on the membership database will be eligible to vote. The ballot will then close on 1 May. However, TEU returning officers Sharn Riggs and Nanette Cormack are advising voters to get their votes in the post by 24 April so that they arrive in plenty of time and do not risk getting lost over Anzac weekend. Ballot papers and candidate information will be posted to eligible voters shortly.

WORLD WATCH

FRENCH UNIVERSITY STRIKES HAVE GOVERNMENT RECALLING 1968

French students and university lecturers continued to strike around France this week, and government ministers have said they fear that the ongoing demonstrations could turn violent and trigger a wider anti-government movement akin to that of May 1968, when students rioted on Paris’s Left Bank.

Students and university staff have been on strike since 2 February against reforms by President Nicolas Sarkozy which would give institutions more direct control over staff by means of increased autonomy from the state.

Their action has paralysed some institutions, such as the Sorbonne in Paris, and disrupted around 30 of France’s other 83 universities, closing lecture halls and suspending research projects.

The government has made concessions on some of its proposals, rewriting a decree that proposed changing academics’ conditions of employment and restoring jobs it had intended cutting. Now, as the strike starts its seventh week, teacher-training reforms remain the protesters’ stated area of dispute.

Last year, the government announced its “masterisation” plan for teacher training, the introduction of a compulsory master’s degree in education for all new schoolteachers, raising the minimum qualification from a bachelor’s degree.

Mr Sarkozy says that, without reforms, the higher-education system is “unsuited to the 21st century”. In a provocative speech to university researchers in January, he said, “I do not see how a system of weak universities, led by a fussy central government, can be an effective weapon in the battle for knowledge. On the contrary, it’s infantilising, and para­lyses creativity and innovation.”

Opponents, however, argue that the changes, which include regular external evaluation of researchers and penalties for academics who do not meet performance targets, are aimed at turning universities into short-term profit-making institutions.

Students fear, in particular, that universities will become more elitist and that prospects for young people in a country where youth unemployment is already at 20 percent will worsen.

From Esther Bintliff at the Financial Times and Jane Marshall at University World News

TAFES TO HELP AUSTRALIA MEET DEGREE TARGET

A big expansion of degree-granting tertiary and further education institutions is more likely to help achieve ambitious Bradley-report degree targets than the proposed 20 new teaching universities, a leading Australian vocational-education expert said this week.

TAFEs are the Australian equivalent of polytechnics and institutes of technology. The Australian government has recently announced a goal arising from the Bradley review of tertiary education which would see 40 percent of all 24- to 34-year-olds holding a degree within ten years.

Griffith University senior lecturer in vocational education, Leesa Wheelahan, said the government’s integration of vocational and university education is a breakthrough for post-secondary learning. She predicted a substantial expansion of the existing ten degree-granting TAFEs.

“I can’t see how the government can meet its expansion target of 40 percent of 24-to-34-year-olds with a degree without involving TAFE,” Dr Wheelahan said. “The idea that you have a university campus in every small regional town is ridiculous and not feasible; but TAFE is in most tiny towns, or accessible to them.”

As universities adopt new credit pathways from vocational education, Dr Wheelahan said, the government’s integration push could help achieve its expansion targets. The Bradley review, from which the government’s degree target was drawn, called for an extra 22,000 graduates by 2018.

“Integration is a good idea because, under the current architecture, we have two systems reporting to two different levels of government, with different funding, quality assurance and governance,” Dr Wheelahan added. “TAFEs have moved beyond offering degrees in niche areas and are offering degrees in business, commerce, engineering, building, and music.”

University of Melbourne professor of higher education, Richard James, said it is too early to say whether policy settings would encourage integration. “The potential of TAFE infrastructure and pedagogical capacity to help meet the degree target needs to be explored before any plans for new universities or new campuses are considered,” he said.

From Guy Healy at the Australian

LONDON VC QUITS AFTER LOSING £56M

The vice-chancellor of London Metropolitan University, Brian Roper, resigned this week in the wake of accounting mistakes which left the university £56m in the red. Dr Roper will remain at the university until December but has left his role as vice-chancellor with immediate effect, the university said.

The university is facing up to 550 job cuts among its 2,300-strong staff, following the revelation that it had been overpaid for students who failed to complete courses. It is understood to be taking a £15 million funding cut this year and is in negotiations with the government’s university funding agency about how it will pay back a further £38 million.

Peter Anwyl, chair of the university’s board of governors, said, “London Metropolitan University is sorry to announce that Brian Roper, vice-chancellor and chief executive, has decided to leave the university to take up the opportunity of early retirement and to pursue other interests.”

Dr Roper oversaw the often acrimonious merger of London Guildhall University and the University of North London to form London Metropolitan University in 2002. Before that he was vice-chancellor of the University of North London.

The University and College Union (UCU) branch at London Metropolitan said this could mean as many as 700, or one in four,employees losing their jobs, a move that “defies belief”.

Barry Jones, UCU regional official for London, said, “We’re sorry that it still seems nobody has taken formal responsibility for the current financial difficulties of the university, but we hope it might offer an opportunity for a different approach to finding solutions to the difficulties.”

From Rebecca Atwood at Times Higher Education and Polly Curtis at the Guardian

DEMAND FOR MUSLIM PRAYER ROOM REJECTED

Australian universities are responsible for providing quality education, not consecrated religious spaces, according to a university involved in a bitter dispute over Muslim prayer rooms.

Dozens of Islamic students plan to protest today to demand that a dedicated Muslim prayer room replace an existing multi-faith centre at Melbourne’s RMIT. But acting pro vice-chancellor, Maddy McMaster, said it is not for universities to provide consecrated religious spaces.

“A university’s responsibility to its students is to provide them with a quality education,” she said. “Recognising that the educational experience is not confined to the classroom, RMIT offers other services, including prayer rooms. It falls to religious communities to provide the consecrated spaces.”

The dispute over prayer rooms at RMIT’s Swanston Street campus began when a Muslim prayer room was demolished in late 2007 as part of renovations. The university’s Islamic student association claims that it was promised new rooms but that the institution reneged on its promise by making them multi-faith. They are now campaigning to have the multi-faith rooms declared Muslim-only.

The RMIT Islamic Society says that the multi-faith prayer rooms are not working and states on its website that, “As a consequence of not having a Muslim prayer room on Swanston St, Muslim females have allegedly been subject to sexual abuse, harassment, and religious vilification.”

However, Dr McMaster said the university already provides a number of prayer rooms for Muslim students across all its campuses. “It is difficult to see how we can improve on eight Muslim prayer rooms, with one more opening, as well as providing Muslim students with preferential access to two prayer rooms in the multi-faith Spiritual Centre,” she said.

“[Universities] should provide quality resources for those who choose a spiritual path. But as a secular institution, such resources do not include consecrated spaces such as churches, synagogues or mosques.”

From Milanda Rout at the Australian

STAFF COULD FACE SACK OVER SPOOF PAMPHLETS

Staff at the University of Salford in England have been warned that they could face dismissal if they are found to be responsible for a series of spoof pamphlets and posters satirising senior management.

The material emerged at Salford business school as it became the latest part of the institution to face cuts. The university is engaged in the second phase of Project Headroom, its three-year drive to cut costs by £12.5 million. More than 60 staff departed last year under voluntary-severance schemes in Headroom’s first phase. The second phase is targeting the business school, where a requirement to cut academic pay by £865,000 has led to fifteen staff taking voluntary redundancy.

One pamphlet circulated in January purported to come from the “vice consul”. It referred to staff as “plebs”, and said, “I hope the threat of the dole queue didn’t entirely spoil your Christmas dinner and festivities. Mine certainly exceeded all expectations of luxury.”

In a memo to staff on 27 February, Salford vice-chancellor Michael Harloe said, “It is obvious to most colleagues that producing and displaying posters and pamphlets, and sending malicious mail that attacks others, is unprofessional, completely inappropriate, and personally damaging to all concerned. Indeed, action of this nature could amount to gross misconduct and lead to dismissal.”

From Melanie Newman at Times Higher Education

TEU Tertiary Update is published weekly on Thursdays and distributed freely to members of the Tertiary Education Union and others. 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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