TEU Tertiary Update Vol 13 No 8

JOYCE PREPARES TO SHUFFLE THE FUNDING

Steven Joyce, in his first major speech as minister of tertiary education, told the Wellington Chamber of Commerce that "it is highly unlikely that there will be any significant cash injections in the foreseeable future."

He then went on to make three policy announcements. The first is that he would be rationalising the 6000 qualifications currently on offer in New Zealand.

The second is that, from 2012, between five and ten percent of tertiary education institutions' funding will be based on how well they perform academically. The criteria for measuring academic performance will include qualification completion, successful course completion, and student progression to further study.

His third announcement concerned a move to link student loans to student achievement.

TEU national president Tom Ryan has been arguing for some time in response to the government's tertiary education strategy that the government needs to start viewing tertiary education as an investment, not a cost.

"We support a general tidy up of the available qualifications, and we see sense in the call for greater funding accountability and focus on achievement. But we have major concerns about the unintended consequences of some of these new policies.”

"In particular, we fear that pressure will go on tertiary staff to inflate their pass rates or dumb down their courses, and that harsher vetting of student applicants by institutions will unfairly disadvantage the very sociocultural groups that most need to be encouraged into and supported through higher education."

"Sadly, too, Mr Joyce seems to have missed the bigger picture," said Dr Ryan.

"As one commentator noted, we have a minister who is prepared to spend billions of dollars on motorways, on the premise of promoting economic growth, but is not prepared to spend any new money on tertiary education."

"Indeed, he even seems unwilling to return to the sector the more than $100 million of institutional funding we had sliced off by his government’s recent budget. So much for catching up with Australia – where, incidentally, new investment in higher education continues."

ALSO IN TERTIARY UPDATE THIS WEEK:

1. Workload grows apace with rolls
2. Minister won't confirm future of equity funding
3. Lincoln and Telford plan merger
4. Gender biases exacerbated at University of Auckland
5. Farewell Lyn Boddington

WORKLOAD GROWS APACE WITH ROLLS

In comments to National Radio's Morning Report yesterday morning, Canterbury vice-chancellor Rod Carr highlighted the growing workload pressures on tertiary education staff. Professor Carr told Radio New Zealand:

"Last year we enrolled an additional 1.5 percent more international students, 5 percent more domestic students, 11 percent more post-graduate students and we earned 15 percent more research income, and we have 0.7 percent more staff. I think that looks like a pretty significant productivity gain. Others might think it is an erosion of quality. But we are, as they say, sweating the business every day. We are trying to make sure we are efficient and effective with the use of our resources."

TEU national president Dr Tom Ryan says the University of Canterbury is one of the tertiary institutions that has undergone significant growth in student numbers both last year and this year. The PBRF system means too that universities are producing more and better research, without an equivalent increase in funding.

Data released by the Ministry of Education yesterday shows that income from research contracts for universities in 2008 was $140 million higher than in 2002 (up 61 percent) . Over the same period external research income as a percentage of all income has been gradually increasing, to 13.2 percent.

"There is no doubt that workloads are increasing in tertiary institutions," said Dr Ryan. "Not only does that place unfair stress on staff who are being asked to do more with less; it also risks the quality of our world-class education system. The danger is that we will lose some of the less quantifiable benefits for staff in higher education, such as reflection time, time spent collaborating with other staff, and time spent discussing ideas with students outside the core course curriculum."

MINISTER WON'T CONFIRM FUTURE OF EQUITY FUNDING

Concerns about the future of the Tertiary Education Commission's equity funding programme continue to grow, with the minister of tertiary education, Steven Joyce, not responding to regular requests for information on the issue.

The funding currently provides institutions with $133 for each Māori or Pasifika EFTS studying towards a diploma, $320 for a degree, and $444 for a postgraduate qualification. It also provides $28 for each student EFTS with a disability. Its purpose is to help tertiary education institutions improve equity of access and achievement for Māori students, Pasifika students, and students with disabilities. The money goes towards additional support for institutions to improve participation, retention, completion, and progression.

Rumours have been circulating for some weeks that the fund is likely to be cut or phased out in this year's budget. Over the last three weeks Tertiary Update has written regularly to the minister's office weeks seeking the minister's comments on this fund, but has not yet received a response.

In a speech earlier this week, the minister said that one of his five key focuses for the year, as outlined in the Tertiary Education Strategy, was to increase the success rate of Māori and Pasifika students.

TEU national president Dr Tom Ryan welcomed this commitment by the current government, and likewise the minister’s comments in the media over the last week on the ongoing need for pastoral care and support for tertiary students.

"This equity programme is an excellent example of precisely such an investment in pastoral care. I hope the minister will soon dispel the growing rumours that it now faces the knife, regardless of its proven record of success," said Dr Ryan.

LINCOLN AND TELFORD PLAN MERGER

Lincoln University and Telford Rural Polytechnic are exploring a possible merger of their two institutions in the coming year.

The possible merger was announced to staff yesterday afternoon. TEU members and officials are scheduled to meet with Lincoln university management on Monday to discuss more details of the proposal.

It is likely that Telford would remain a stand alone entity, perhaps becoming a college within Lincoln University. However, it is likely that all corporate management would be based at the Lincoln campus in the future.

The business plans for the merger are being managed by Deloittes, which has divided the merger into three areas: management and governance, corporate services, and academic. The issue of how to effectively merge a university with a polytechnic also is being given attention.

There has been no mention of redundancies at this stage, but it seems likely that the majority of any restructuring would occur at Telford, rather than Lincoln. The councils of the two institutions are likely to agree to the merger in May, with the merger taking effect on 1 January 2011. Tertiary Update understands that the merger has the support of both the minister of tertiary education and the Tertiary Education Commission.

TEU national secretary Sharn Riggs said that TEU would be following the process closely and believed that staff representatives should be consulted throughout the merger process.

GENDER BIASES EXACERBATED AT UNIVERSITY OF AUCKLAND

The TEU branch at the University of Auckland has highlighted a disparate gender gap in the appointment of heads of department at that institution.

The branch argued in its weekly TEUsday News that at the University of Auckland the appointment of heads of department exacerbates the gender biases in each of the faculties. Engineering and Science, which has a high proportion of male students, has an even higher proportion of men in the roles of heads of department. Likewise, in the Faculty of Education, which is predominantly female, the proportion of women heads of department is higher than the proportion of women in that faculty’s staff.

However, it seems that the opposite is true at the University of Canterbury. There the male-dominated faculties of Science and Engineering have relatively high proportions of females in head of department roles, while the Faculty of Education has a low number in proportion to its level of women staff. As a result, there is a relatively even proportion of women heads of department across faculties.

TEUsday News went on to say:

"The immediately obvious difference between the two universities is that, at the University of Canterbury, the heads of department appointment process is largely a democratic one that occurs following an invitation to all eligible staff in the department to apply. All candidates are required to present their ‘vision for the department’ by way of a presentation to the department and staff, and postgraduate students are given the opportunity to provide feedback that is collated and considered by a selection committee including three academic and two general staff representatives. At the University of Auckland, the dean appoints heads of department, generally with little genuine consultation with staff, with candidates simply being ‘shoulder tapped’.

FAREWELL LYN BODDINGTON

Lyn Boddington, TEU branch co-president at Lincoln University and a member of both the union's national council and its university sector group, was tragically killed in a car accident on Friday last week. Lyn was a tireless worker for staff through the many positions she held in the Tertiary Education Union, and before that the Association of University Staff.

TEU national secretary Sharn Riggs says the Dr Boddington will be deeply missed by her many union friends, both at Lincoln and around the country:

"Lyn was an exemplary leader and representative of tertiary education staff. The TEU whanau, especially members at Lincoln University, will miss her compassion, humour and commitment to promoting the best possible education for students and working conditions for members. We will miss her smile. Our thoughts are with her family."

The TEU Lincoln branch obituary is available on the TEU website. A TEU delegation of are attending her funeral in Christchurch today.

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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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