TEU Tertiary Update, volume 12, number 35

MINISTER SAYS BE SELECTIVE ABOUT STUDENTS

TVNZ has drawn attention to significant underfunding in the tertiary education sector, questioning whether it can continue to perform as funding cuts start to take effect. Chief Executive of WITT (Western Institute of Technology at Taranaki) Richard Handley told the station that the combination of funding cuts, the EFTS cap and increases to student numbers meant WITT had to turn away more than 300 students this semester.

"That's a very disappointing result when our primary responsibility is to developing those skills within our communities," said Mr Handley

However Education Minister Anne Tolley has responded saying tertiary educators need to be more selective with students.

"It doesn't do anyone any good to put them into courses that are not right for them, that they're not going to finish, that are not going to give them that step forward that they need when they've accumulated a loan," said Mrs Tolley.

This appears to stand in contrast with her recently released Tertiary Education Strategy which sets out her government’s goals for the sector including increasing the number of young people achieving qualifications at level four and above, and increasing the number of young people moving successfully from school into tertiary education.

The minister says every organisation funded by the government is feeling pressure from the recession.

"We've got a new government, we have new priorities, and we are putting some pressure on the sector to perform."

Meanwhile TEU women’s vice president Sandra Grey told TVNZ that tertiary education staff cannot continue to work effectively under this increasing workload pressure.

"We have staff who are leaving because of workloads, who just feel that the tertiary sector has had such cuts that they can't maintain the quality they'd like and they can't physically maintain the workload that is being required of them," stated Ms Grey.

ALSO IN TERTIARY UPDATE THIS WEEK:

1. Hawke’s Bay to lose teaching course?
2. NZ gets mixed report at ILO-UNESCO Committee
3. University of Otago bans alcohol sponsorship
4. Beneficiaries may not be able to Aspire
5. Canterbury’s $100m bonus bonds
6. Taiwanese varsities could run out of students
7. General staff intellectual property rights

HAWKE’S BAY MAY LOSE TEACHING COURSE

The Hawke’s Bay Today newspaper reports that Massey University is reviewing whether it should continue to provide its Bachelor of Education (primary) and teacher aide certificate programmes through the Eastern Institute of Technology. Massey University’s College of Education has had a base at EIT since 2007 when it signed a memorandum of cooperation for ten years with EIT. However, it now seems concerned that these courses may no longer be viable. Currently 42 year one and two student teachers are enrolled to continue their study at Massey’s Hawke’s Bay base next year and five students in the teacher aide programme. Five academic staff and four general staff are also linked to the programme.

However Massey academic and general staff at the Ruawharo Centre in Taradale are absolutely determined to maintain teacher training and the Massey facility in Hawke's Bay, says the Tertiary Education Union. TEU Massey branch president, Harvey Jones says the staff believe that the primary teaching degree offered internally at Hawke's Bay is viable, cost effective, and important for the region.

"Our Hawke’s Bay members are adamant that this facility continue. Massey has over the years repeatedly committed to on campus pre-service education in Hawke's Bay and our members are insisting to Massey that they honour that commitment. Massey staff in Hawke's Bay have a strong sense of loyalty to local students and the local community and are resolute that they will oppose any withdrawal of the service from the area."

"Nationally with a baby boom passing through universities and many people choosing to improve their qualifications in the face of the recession, tertiary enrolments are up. University education and research is more important than ever “said Mr Jones.

NZ GETS MIXED REPORT AT ILO-UNESCO COMMITTEE

The 10th Joint ILO-UNESCO Expert Committee on the Application of the Recommendations on Teachers (CEART) session took place in Paris last fortnight. Its task is to examine reports on the application of the 1966 ILO-UNESCO Recommendation on the Status of Teachers and of the 1997 UNESCO Recommendation Concerning the Status of Higher Education Teaching Personnel.

Education International (EI), the global union federation representing nearly 30 million teachers and other education workers, across 172 countries and territories used the occasion to report to UNESCO and the ILO its concerns about academic freedom and collegial governance.

The 1997 UNESCO Recommendation Concerning the Status of Higher Education Teaching Personnel recognises the teaching profession’s right to academic freedom.

However EI reports that in higher education, restrictions of academic freedom have become more severe. Across the world, academic freedom is being restricted through budgetary or political constraints, external pressure and influence, and the commercialisation of higher education systems. EI recommends that the ILO and UNESCO work to reverse this trend, and that they work with governments and higher education institutions to allow academics to carry out their teaching and research duties.

EI notes that the worldwide trend to undermine tenure in the higher education sector also impacts negatively on academic freedom. Academic staff are suffering from a staffing crisis evident in the increased use of fixed-terms contracts. Staff employed on fixed-term contracts suffer from lower salaries than tenured staff, measured on a proportional basis, and most often have few, if any, benefits. However the report notes that New Zealand proves to be an example of good practice in this respect.

“EI is pleased to report that in recent years, the trend to increasingly hire staff on fixed-term contracts has been reversed through a change in employment legislation which has meant that the higher education union has been able to successfully challenge the legitimacy of many of the fixed-term appointments in the sector.”

EI draws less favourable attention to New Zealand however over the government’s recent attacks on collegial governance of higher education institutions. The report notes there have been a number of attempts in New Zealand in recent years to reduce the size of councils and to have them focused on a business model. It argues that providing academic staff with effective and meaningful representation is a key requirement for the proper functioning of higher education institutions. Academic staff should play a decisive role in making educational decisions and setting educational policy. This is necessary if higher education institutions are to fulfil their public responsibility for the creation and transmission of knowledge and for the education of students.

UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO BANS ALCOHOL SPONSORSHIP

The Otago Daily Times reported yesterday that the University of Otago Council has voted to ban alcohol advertising and sponsorship from University of Otago campuses and from university-organised events, wherever they are held. The recommendation from vice-chancellor Prof Sir David Skegg takes effect immediately.

The paper notes that one of the most obvious effects will be on next February's orientation activities, organised by the Otago University Students’ Association and sponsored by Speights. Student representatives abstained from voting yesterday, although both said they agreed with the intent of the ban.

The ban follows ongoing coverage of drunken behaviour including rioting at the university.

The recommendation gives the vice-chancellor or his nominee the power to make exceptions to the ban if that was deemed appropriate.

Prof Skegg said the university should address the underlying cause of poor student behaviour - excessive alcohol consumption - and take the lead by eliminating alcohol advertising and sponsorship.

"These facts about the wider environment need to be acknowledged by critics who demand that the University of Otago should instantly solve its student behaviour problems. Our problems cannot be solved until the culture of binge drinking among New Zealand youth is radically altered," he said.

BENEFICIARIES MAY NOT BE ABLE TO ASPIRE

Teacher educators are concerned that the government funding for children to go to private schools may not reach many Māori students. As part of the budget earlier this year the government announced a $2.6 million scholarship fund that will enable up to 250 students in Years 9 to 13 from low-income families to attend a private secondary school. To be eligible for the scholarship the student's primary carer(s) must have a yearly gross income of $65,000 or less, and a net worth of $150,000 or less and the student, or their primary carer(s), must not be a beneficiary of a trust

However some TEU members expressed concern that most Maori students are beneficiaries of an iwi or hapu trust and thus appear to be excluded from the scholarship.

The Ministry of Education confirmed to TEU that the criteria do exclude all trust beneficiaries, but that the Ministry “may consider trust beneficiaries if we can see that the circumstances are reasonable, and that the applicant is still within the set financial criteria”. Thus it encourages beneficiaries of an iwi or hapu trust to apply if they believe they still meet all income criteria. They would be required to provide all details about the trust, the value of it, and their association with it.

TEU national secretary Sharn Riggs says however that if the government does not believe public education is as good as private education then it should invest its money in improving public education rather than creating a lottery that allows a few isolated poor students to join their wealthy peers in private education providers.

“The government needs to redesign the criteria for these awards so that they are at least fair. But more importantly it should look it invest its money equitably so that all schools benefit rather than just the very richest ones.”

CANTERBURY’S $100M BONUS BONDS

Canterbury University is selling bonds to raise $100 million from retail investors. The New Zealand Herald reports that the university is looking for cash to upgrade its facilities to attract international students.

The university is offering investors an issue of $50 million of fixed-rate bonds and it may accept oversubscriptions up to $50 million.

It is the first retail bond issue by a New Zealand university and the first where Investors will also have the "philanthropic option" of foregoing all or part of their interest and capital payment if they wish to extend further support to the university.

The money raised would largely be used to refurbish ageing science and engineering facilities.

"It will enable us to bring forward infrastructure development that we might have got around to, but it would have got done later,” said vice chancellor Rod Carr. “But also in our 10-year business plan is a deliberate commitment to grow the number of undergraduate international students by about 1200."

The university currently has about 1600 international students who mostly study business, science, and engineering.

By raising the money, the university would go from being essentially debt free to having a debt to equity ratio of about 10 per cent.

The university was anticipating an increase in fee revenue as international student numbers rose, but it was capable of servicing the debt at current levels of income.

Investors will be paid 7.25 per cent interest for five years, with the rate then reset for a further five years, and be entitled to full repayment when the bonds reach maturity in 2019.

TAIWANESE VARSITIES COULD RUN OUT OF STUDENTS

Plunging birth rates in Taiwan may lead to the closure of 60 universities in 12 years — representing more than a third of about 160 universities, local media reported yesterday. By 2021, Taiwan’s existing universities will be short of as many as 72,000 first-year university students, Education Minister Wu Ching-ji told lawmakers in Parliament on Monday. The number of school leavers eligible to apply for university is expected to be 195,000 in 2021. Currently about 300,000 to 400,000 students enter university each year, but that there were fewer than 200,000 births last year.

Dr Peter Wu, principal of Taiwan’s National Chiao Tung University, had earlier told a newspaper here that as many as half of the island’s universities might have to close down in 20 years.

The projected shortfall in student recruitment highlights the challenges for Taiwan’s tertiary education sector, which is made up of 80 private universities and 65 public ones, to serve a population of 23 million.

The surge in the number of tertiary institutions is a result of the government’s education reforms, launched in the mid-1990s, to popularise tertiary education.

While the competition to win a place in brand name universities like the National Taiwan University or the National Tsing Hua University remains stiff, overall, about 95 per cent of those who take the university-entrance exam get a university place. In 1995, only about four in 10 qualified for a place.

To help deal with the problem, Wu told lawmakers that his ministry hoped to get universities to merge or to offer courses to the community.

From the Straits Times

GENERAL STAFF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

The NTEU in Australia has committed at its annual conference this week to investigate the status of general staff intellectual property rights, and to advocate for general staff rights to be recognised at Australian institutions.

The conference, which TEU national secretary Sharn Riggs and national president Tom Ryan attended, noted that general staff in the course of their work, either as part of a larger team or individually, create and contribute to the generation of intellectual property. However those staff often underrepresented in any acknowledgement.

Currently general staff intellectual property rights at institutions are rarely explicitly covered in institution policies and are often implicitly excluded.

Advocates at the conference argued that the technical contributions by general staff to invention, design, programming and composition are regularly the difference by which good science is achieved. In other areas general staff contribute to the development of curriculum, art, music composition, computer programming and design. However, funding pressures make it hard for hard for institutions to recognise general staff contributions to intellectual property.

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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.nz

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