TEU Tertiary Update, volume 12, number 30

POLYTECHNICS VOTE FOR STRIKE

TEU members at the six polytechnics covered by a multi-employer collective agreement, NorthTec, Waikato Institute of Technology, Bay of Plenty Polytechnic, Whitireia Polytechnic, Western Institute of Technology and Unitec, have voted overwhelmingly in favour of taking industrial action. The vote follows a proposal from their employers that would have increased teaching days by 10 percent (from 185 per year to 204), and could require all discretionary leave to be at the employers’ discretion rather than the employees’, as it is at present. It also included a one percent salary increase with no back-dating and a 24 month term from the date of signing (effectively one percent for two and half years).

The outcome of the ballots across the six polytechnics was a 98% vote in support of industrial action.

As a result of this and feedback from the meetings, the TEU bargaining team has written again to the polytechnic employers informing them that TEU members have overwhelmingly supported taking industrial action. The letter also included a counter proposal to settle the negotiations. The letter requests a response to this proposal by Monday 14 September. In the meantime union members at the six polytechnics are preparing for industrial action, including possible strike.

“TEU members were extremely frustrated at the offer from the six polytechnics. At the meetings they said they felt disrespected by the pay offer and the total disregard by employers for the flexibility that already exists in the collective agreement. No other employers have demanded these cuts in conditions,” said TEU national industrial officer Irena Brorens.

“The government’s Pay Expectations and interference from the State Services Commission are posing significant problems for the TEU in settling agreements that are fair in the current economic climate.”

ALSO IN TERTIARY UPDATE THIS WEEK:

1. Staff caught in the middle of fee-setting season
2. Ministerial takeover of polytechnic councils
3. Hui-ā-motu opposes Roger Douglas’ student bill
4. REAPs settle for 3 percent
5. Minister wants fast track teachers
6. Govt wants more tertiary high schools
7. Manukau campus moves to a bus stop

STAFF CAUGHT IN MIDDLE OF FEE-SETTING SEASON

Universities are in the process of setting their fees for 2010, and as usual this signals the season for all in the sector to plead poverty. Massey University's council agreed last week to increase undergraduate student fees for next year by the maximum allowable 5 per cent. Then University of Auckland’s vice chancellor Professor Stuart McCutcheon told the New Zealand Herald that fees needed to rise because salaries for top professors in New Zealand were about 50 per cent of what was offered by Australian universities.

Professor McCutcheon claimed that the average New Zealand university student fees were $2538 in 2006 while Australia's were $5289. However these NZVCC figures do not appear to be supported by the OECD Education at a Glance indicators released yesterday, which show that on a per capita basis New Zealand fees are similar to those in Australia, but that New Zealand’s public to private expenditure ratio is significantly below the OECD average (63 percent public funding for tertiary education versus an OECD average of 73 percent).

Professor McCutcheon argued that the government funding to universities had fallen over the last 20 years by about $250 million and implied that he would have spent the University of Auckland's share of that on staff salaries if he had it.

TEU national secretary Sharn Riggs, welcomed the suggestion from Professor McCutcheon that he wanted to send any increase in funding directly into staff salaries.

“There is no doubt that the government cuts to the tripartite funding unfairly puts pressure on university vice chancellors when it comes to staff salaries. But if the big issue is, as Professor McCutcheon indicates, the danger of losing our best staff overseas, it is time for vice chancellors to dig around in their multi-million dollar universities and show that they value their staff as much as they say government should.”

MINISTERIAL TAKEOVER OF POLYTECHNIC COUNCILS

TEU is encouraging workers in tertiary institutions to have their say on the government’s Education (Polytechnics) Amendment Bill which aims to reduce staff and community representation on polytechnic councils.

TEU national secretary Sharn Riggs says that not only does the minister of education, Anne Tolley’s bill cut away general and academic staff representation on councils, local businesses, local iwi and other community representatives could lose their seats too.

“The minister’s bill takes away local community governance and puts polytechnics in the control of a handful of ministerial appointees. This government told us it was all about getting rid of the nanny state and yet here it is replacing local community people with a cabal of its own state appointed nannies”.

TEU has set up an online submission that TEU members and the general public can use to make short simple submissions to the parliamentary select committee. The draft submission argues that the Bill gives government an unprecedented ability to make its own council appointments.

“Institutes of technology and polytechnics are located in communities – they should have these communities directly represented at council as one way to ensure accountability,” said Ms Riggs.

HUI-Ā-MOTU OPPOSES ROGER DOUGLAS’ STUDENT BILL

Māori members at Te Ū hui-ā-motu have voted to oppose Hon Sir Roger Douglas’ Education Amendment (Freedom of Association) Bill.

The bill would compel students to make the membership of their representative associations voluntary. Under the current legislation, introduced by the National Party last time it helped form the Government, students have the right to vote collectively about the membership of their associations.

Sir Roger, a list member of parliament for the ACT Party, had his private member's bill drawn from the ballot a few weeks ago and has since been campaigning for its passage through parliament. The National Party has not yet indicated if it will support the bill.

Hui-ā-motu debated the bill last week and resolved to support the NZUSA position that “the current legislative framework is both flexible and inclusive, allowing for both voluntary and universal membership of students’ associations”.

Te Mana Akonga, the national Māori tertiary students association, believes that student representation is imperative to all students accessing quality education. Tumuaki for Te Mana Akonga, Jacqualene Poutu, said that “the student voice is important to institutions and stakeholder engagement from students is a transparent and accepted practice.”

The hui resolution reads “we believe that the current legislation allows students to be the decision-makers on whether their association is voluntary or compulsory through transparent democratic referenda and have accordingly and consistently chosen to remain compulsory.”

Some staff at tertiary institutions have expressed concern that were students to be compelled to convert their associations to voluntary membership, and then subsequently suffer a fall in membership, those associations could stop offering many of the services that they currently provide. This could result in increased workload for tertiary education staff as a result of students receiving less pastoral support on campus.

Photos of the hui-ā-motu are available on the TEU website.

REAPS SETTLE FOR 3 PERCENT

TEU members at four Rural Education Activities Programmes (Marlborough, Ruapehu, Tairāwhiti and West REAP) are all voting on an offer from their employers for a three percent pay increase over one year with no significant changes to their working conditions. Although they were not negotiating a MECA the four REAPs did negotiate together to reach a common settlement. This offer is one of the larger proposed settlements in the tertiary sector despite the REAPs facing likely funding problems as a result of the government’s budget cuts to adult and community education.

MINISTER WANTS FAST TRACK TEACHERS

The Dominion Post reported that the government is considering letting prospective teachers who have a masters degree skip specialist university training and go straight into the classroom.

The scheme, which is aimed at addressing an upcoming teacher shortage resulting from an ageing workforce, came from the minister of education, Anne Tolley’s recent trip to the United States.

"It is just to try and get some of those top graduates to come into teaching.” Mrs Tolley told the Dominion Post. “We know that good, high-quality teaching makes the greatest different in student learning. Being able to attract into teaching and retain really top-quality students makes a hang of a difference.”

She acknowledged special skills were needed to be a teacher, but it was just a matter of how those skills were taught.

“Some people have had four or five years at university in a speciality and it's whether you send them off for more years at university, which some are unlikely to do. We need to find different ways to attract them.”

TEU national secretary Sharn Riggs was critical of the proposal, saying teaching is not something you can just pick up as you go:

“She’s the minister of education and here she is advocating less of it. The solutions to the shortage of teachers that will result from an ageing workforce are not standing on a street corner waiting for Mrs Tolley to drive by take them to the nearest school,” said Ms Riggs.

“To recruit and retain good teachers in the face of the upcoming teacher shortage we need to offer fair pay that recognises the skills and time that teachers commit to their work.”

GOVT WANTS MORE TERTIARY HIGH SCHOOLS

Associate minister of tertiary education, Dr Wayne Mapp, has signalled that the government may look at replicating MIT’s experimental new tertiary school in other centres.

Dr Mapp called the partnership between MIT and nearby schools, which aims to enable students who are underperforming in school and are likely to fail to move into a more tertiary environment, “a new and very exciting project that is working right on the boundary of secondary and tertiary.”

“There has not been a programme like the tertiary high school in New Zealand before. It is a unique model. The students will do most of their education in the tertiary environment, but retain links with their home school for sports, cultural and other age appropriate activities.”

“We will be watching it closely to see how it benefits the students involved, and how we can apply a model like this more broadly across the system.”

The minister also confirmed that his government was aiming to extend its youth guarantee scheme to all 16-17 year olds. With current funding the scheme provides free tertiary education for two thousand 16 and 17 year olds at a cost of $52.7 million.

Dr Mapp said that the scheme will initially be targeted just at areas with high youth unemployment rates where there is access to suitable vocational training programmes. “The ultimate aim is to make the scheme available to all 16- and 17-year-olds.”

MANUKAU CAMPUS MOVES TO A BUS STOP

Manukau City’s mayor, Len Brown has announced that the city council has approved a land deal to allow the creation of a tertiary campus for 25,000 students in Manukau city centre.

The land is located where the new Manukau rail line arrives in the city centre. The decision means that the new Manukau rail and bus station will be part of a tertiary campus building.

Manukau Institute of Technology will be the primary partner in the development of the tertiary campus. Other tertiary providers are also expected to work with MIT and offer courses from this campus.

Mr Brown says the deal is “a commitment to the educational future of our young people.”

“Our city is providing approximately three hectares of land to MIT and future tertiary providers on a 99 year peppercorn rental. We see the great aspirational benefits of having MIT and other tertiary providers within the Manukau City Centre. But there is also potential for economic gain that will occur from development in and around the campus and as a benefit of those coming out of the campus.”

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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.

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