TEU Tertiary Update Vol 12 No 19

MINISTER: "DON'T RUN OUT OF MONEY, BECAUSE I'M NOT GOING TO GIVE YOU ANY"

Hon. Bill English, speaking at the ITPNZ conference earlier this week in his capacity as acting education minister, was forthright to the point of blunt when he told institutes of technology and polytechnics that "restraint (was) now permanent” and that there would be no more money.

"Well-run institutions will succeed, regardless of size. Badly-run ones won't succeed and may end up going out of existence.”

English’s prescription for a well run institute of technology or polytechnic was to get back to basics, and move away from ‘low level’ qualifications that were not helping people into jobs. He also favours greater competition between polytechnics.

Polytechnics that failed would be allowed to collapse or would have their chief executive and/or council fired.

"It's past the time government can offer continuous support to reinforce failure. You fix it, or we will find someone else who will make the decision that needs to be made," the minister told the ITPNZ conference.

However, TEU president Tom Ryan says the government is painting a false dichotomy by saying that bad institutions are those that fail financially while good ones are those prosper.

“Polytechnics can only work within the community context they are based in. We should be judging them not just by the profits they generate but by opportunities they create for students and their community. Allowing them to collapse because they cannot spin straw into gold, so to speak, seems very harsh,” said Dr Ryan.

ALSO IN TERTIARY UPDATE THIS WEEK:

1. Get youth into training and save $1 billion
2. Ill-considered restructuring all too common
3. Recession drives demand for tertiary education
4. Quality early childhood centres vital to recruiting staff
5. British universities submerged into business department
6. Lincoln-Massey merger

GET YOUTH INTO TRAINING AND SAVE $1 BILLION

Manukau Institute of Technology executive director of external relations Dr Stuart Middleton told the ITPNZ conference last week that rising teenage unemployment is costing New Zealand $1 billion a year.

Dr Middleton urged the polytechnic sector to work with schools and respond to the needs of these young people. He noted that the education sector lost 20 per cent of young people by the age of 16, and that between 17,000 and 25,000 of 15 to 19 year olds were neither in employment nor in education or training.

This had a cost, not just in terms of unemployment, but in a wide range of other social costs as well. For instance 80 per cent of young people who appeared in the Youth Court had left or were absent from school.

Dr Middleton called this level of teenage unemployment a "pandemic of educational failure", and said that "schools are a toxic learning environment for many people." However, once people leave school they have to pay for education. Dr Middleton suggested that free access to tertiary education for teenagers who were not at school should be considered.

The minister of finance, and acting education minister, Bill English, who also was at the conference, suggested that this area of vocational training for teenagers is one where the government may provide money to fund new initiatives.

For instance, he saw polytechnics playing an important role in implementing the government’s $65 million Youth Guarantee Scheme, to be introduced next year. The scheme aims to provide alternative pathways in tertiary education for those 16 and 17-year-olds most at risk of unemployment.

ILL-CONSIDERED RESTRUCTURING ALL TOO COMMON

A survey of members initiated by the Association of University Staff (now TEU) shows that they believe that universities are over-reviewed and that those reviews lack effective consultation and communication processes with the staff affected.

The survey, which aimed to gain some sense of how effectively reviews are managed by university senior management, considered responses from TEU members who remained at their university following a review (i.e. were not made redundant as a result of the review). Despite this, survey responses were overwhelmingly negative, suggesting that continuous reviewing in the tertiary education sector result in staff not having the opportunity to consolidate new systems or adjust to changes. This in turn impacts negatively on morale and productivity, with many respondents citing examples such as work overload and a reduction in services to students and other staff.

The survey found that many respondents felt that restructuring decisions had already been predetermined by management, and that seeking input from staff was simply so that their university could demonstrate it was meeting collective agreement obligations or policy requirements. They expressed similar frustration at ineffective communication and unclear processes around such reviews.

A common response was that final recommendations were either the same as in the consultation document or appeared not to have considered proposals made by staff. Some noted that there was often little follow-up of recommendations, leaving remaining staff feeling that the exercise had been a waste of time and resources, with little discernable positive impact.

TEU President Tom Ryan says that the survey is timely, given tertiary institutions use of the current economic conditions as a catalyst to launch yet more reviews and restructuring.

“This survey gives some insight into what universities are doing wrong when they review or restructure. But perhaps it’s time that institutions go one step further, and consider whether they really need to keep initiating this level of regular upheaval, rather than just letting staff get on with their jobs.”

RECESSION DRIVES DEMAND FOR TERTIARY EDUCATION

A study released this week by the Ministry of Education suggests that the recession could increase demand for certificate- and diploma-level study.

The study models demand for tertiary education between 2009 and 2025, based on underlying population trends and three scenarios with different assumptions about how rates of participation in tertiary education might vary.

One scenario keeps rates of participation in tertiary education at 2008 levels, so that demand is driven solely by changes in national population. The second scenario models the effect of a four-year economic downturn on demand for tertiary education in New Zealand. A third scenario models the effect of policies that would increase the country’s productivity through raising qualification levels and, consequently, skill levels.

The results show that based only on population trends, demand for tertiary education is likely to decline for people aged 17 to 19 years, but increase for other age groups.

The effect of the recession also is expected to increase demand for certificate- and diploma-level study, particularly from people aged 17 to 39 years. This is opposite to what would have been expected had the recession not occurred. The study’s authors say this outcome has implications for efforts aimed at improving New Zealand’s productivity, unless certificate-level study are being used as a stepping-stone to higher-level study.

Demand for bachelors-level and postgraduate study is expected to increase for people

aged 20 to 24 years during the recession, but mostly as a result of population increases rather than recession.

Finally, changes in demand for tertiary education will affect providers differently. In particular, universities, with their greater focus on bachelors-level study, will generally see a lower level of increase in demand than other providers.

QUALITY EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTRES VITAL TO RECRUITING STAFF

The University of Auckland has identified early childhood education (ECE) as vital for the recruitment, retention and success of staff and students, particularly women, Maori, pacific peoples and post-graduate students, many of whom are in the childbearing age group.

The findings are part of a strategic review of ECE centres, kohanga reo and kōhungahunga, in relation to the university’s strategic direction. The review was recommended by the Women Returning to Work project, a collaboration between the university’s equal opportunities office, human resources department, and the TEU.

A survey found that the university’s stated commitment to excellent standards in early childhood education was cited as very important by 89 percent of respondents, and important by 8 percent. However, a large number of respondents also expressed concern that the current ECE at the university did not meet quality standards.

The review also found that ECE has the potential to meet the needs of older staff and students with grand-parenting responsibilities, and that it had close links to the university’s own research goals and professional training agendas.

The review’s recommendations, which have been accepted in principle by the vice- chancellor, include a commitment to providing high quality ECE facilities on each campus for staff and student parents and caregivers – with an aim of reducing all waiting lists for places in ECE centres to no longer than 2 months. It also includes a series of pay and employment conditions to help recruit and retain high quality early childhood teachers, extended opening hours for ECE centres, and a commitment to affordable rates for staff and student at all centres.

BRITISH UNIVERSITIES SUBMERGED INTO BUSINESS DEPARTMENT.

British universities have reacted with disappointment after the government department that dealt with higher education was scrapped and replaced by a "super-ministry" focussed on business, skills and the economy.

Less than two years after it was set up, the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills has been merged with the business department to create the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). The move also brings science and business back into the same department.

The creation of BIS has been interpreted by some as a sign that universities are viewed as "an arm of business”.

Bahram Bekhradnia, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, described the decision as "very unsettling and disappointing". He said the old department had not been given time to prove itself.

The University and College Union said it was "very concerned" that higher education was no longer considered important enough to have its own department.

"Education has the power to change people's lives, and if we are serious about the important role it can play in helping us out of the recession, we need experts in education at the helm, not business interests," said Sally Hunt, UCU general secretary.

Lord Mandelson, the minister for the new department, stated that it was right to bring higher education and science under the same roof as business, "because a new world is emerging, one on the edge of a new Industrial Revolution that is driven by new technologies and the ... shift to low carbon".

From Rebecca Attwood at Times Higher Education Supplement

LINCOLN-MASSEY MERGER

Massey University vice-chancellor Steve Maharey told Radio New Zealand this week that he would be open to holding merger discussions with Lincoln University.

His comments follow a decision by Lincoln and Crown research institute AgResearch to drop their proposal to merge.

Mr Maharey said that, in his view, the abandoned merger plans had provided a catalyst for discussions about wider consolidation between universities and research institutions.

However, Lincoln University's vice-chancellor Roger Field is not as enthusiastic to the idea of merger discussions with Massey.

Well-connected TEU informant Paki Taunuhia understands that Fonterra and Tip Top also are now looking to merge with a tertiary institution such as Lincoln. And after having been rebuffed by Lincoln it is thought that Massey may approach either the Auckland Blues or Google with a potential merger offer. Other speculation includes a merger between the University of Canterbury and Irish boy-band Westlife, and a hostile takeover by Otago University of Masterton West Kindergarten as it attempts to expand northwards.

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There will not be an edition of Tertiary Update next week as the editor will be researching and important story on a beach somewhere in Savai’i.

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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