TEU Tertiary Update, Vol 13 No 15

Gameshow to solve academic workforce shortage?

TEU parliamentary reporter Paki Taunuhia has discovered that the Ministry of Education is planning to sponsor a new TV gameshow, to be called MasterAcademic. Government sources have confirmed that this show is expected to counter looming shortages in the New Zealand academic workforce.

The proposal emerged  after news this week that TVNZ's hit show MasterChef New Zealand has driven a massive surge in users of the Career Services website www.careers.govt.nz, looking for information on how to become a professional chef.

Susan Kosmala, Career Services’ general manager service development, says that web traffic statistics had alerted the organisation to a pattern forming on the site over the last two months, following MasterChef’s debut on 3 February.

"Every Wednesday, immediately after MasterChef screened, there was a significant jump in people searching out the chef job profile on our web site, along with information on how to become a chef," says Ms Kosmala.

Ms Kosmala says that the chef job profile did not even feature in the January statistics, and barely scraped into their monthly ‘top ten’ list of most popular jobs in February. But by March, a few weeks into the hit show, the chef profile was the fifth most searched-for role on the site.

Mr Taunuhia says a ministry report on MasterAcademic said the show could simultaneously reduce government funding to our tertiary sector and maintain its current world rankings:

"MasterAcademic would give ordinary Kiwis the opportunity to teach and research without wasting years on study and earning qualifications.  It's cost effective; Terry Serepisos has shown you can put together a TV show like The Apprentice, even when you have no money. And there would be no need to bother with the usual performance audits, as would-be academics who do not have that 'wow' factor simply will be voted off and evicted from the lecture theatre."

Also in Tertiary Update this week:

1. Public education coffers swelled by Aussie cash and Saudi oil


2. NZVCC says young students missing out under funding cap


3. International students funding sector


4. ITOs’ cost effectiveness


5. Other news

Public education coffers swelled by Aussie cash and Saudi oil

The government will not be addressing underfunding in tertiary education in next month's budget, but it seems that will not cause problems for some institutions, thanks to the help of Australian-owned banks and Saudi oil barons.

Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology gratefully announced this week that the Bank of New Zealand would be sponsoring a new Arts and Media building on its Nelson campus.

Stephen Paul, BNZ senior partner for BNZ Partners Nelson, says BNZ is committed to helping New Zealanders and students succeed.

"Our involvement as principal sponsor of the NMIT Arts and Media Building supports NMIT to provide a state-of-the-art facility to help this happen.”

BNZ branches across the Top-of-the-South will be displaying information about the new building from next month. Customers and the public will be welcome to pick up an information pack.

Meanwhile, in peripherally related news, trade minister Tim Groser says there are opportunities to expand education services to the Saudi Arabian Gulf region (but presumably not to potential New Zealand students who currently are missing out on such opportunities because of funding caps).

Education was a perfect trade match, said Mr Groser, given Saudi Arabia's young population, with two-thirds of the people under 25 years. There are currently 7000 Saudi students in New Zealand in total, with more than 4700 at tertiary level, worth "conservatively" $300 million, Mr Groser reported.

NZVCC says young students missing out under funding cap

The Chair of New Zealand Vice Chancellors’ Committee, Derek McCormack, has challenged the government to put a greater emphasis on allowing more people to participate in tertiary education. Mr McCormack has just published his opening address to the Higher Education Summit in Auckland last month, where he noted the different approaches to participation and access in New Zealand and Australia.

"As most will know, the Australian government has adopted a goal of having 40 percent of 25 to 35 year-olds with a bachelor’s degree or better by 2025."

Mr McCormack says the Australian higher education sector requires more buildings, additional staff, and boosted student recruitment

“[Australian] Vice-Chancellors and other university leaders along with various officials are scratching their heads wondering how they were going to get all these extra young people to go to university."

"I came back to New Zealand to the regular meeting of the Vice-Chancellors at which we, with officials of the Tertiary Education Commission, were scratching our heads wondering how we were going to stop all the extra young people that were showing up from getting into university."

Mr McCormack says that New Zealand has a huge number of young people interested in tertiary education but who are missing out because of the government's fixed funding and enrolments caps.

"We [at his own institution, AUT] can only take a minor portion of the increase without breaching the government’s cap. We aren’t sure what happens to those turned away. There is no coordinated admissions information. No doubt some will go to other institutions."

Mr McCormack says participation and quality are in tension in a constrained funding environment. 

"But the funding environment is always constrained – an oft-repeated reason for doing nothing just now, whenever 'just now' happens to be. We must grapple with this issue as an urgent priority. Competitor nations are ahead in their thinking and implementation."

International students funding sector

The Ministry of Education reported a 6 percent increase in international fee-paying student enrolments last year compared with 2008, to nearly 100,000 international students.

There was also a 10 percent overall growth in revenue from international fee-paying students during 2009, totalling $664 million, which suggests the fees international students were paying rose substantially alongside the number of students.

Tertiary Education Minister Steven Joyce told the National Business Review that such growth would be a boost to both the economy and the tertiary education sector.

"International education contributes more than $2 billion to our economy each year -- continued growth will bring real benefits in terms of economic growth and the money available to allow our tertiary institutions to grow," Mr Joyce said.

TEU national president Dr Tom Ryan argues that international students should not be relied upon to fund growth as proposed by the minister.

"In the long term it's neither viable nor ethical to bring international students here with the primary goal of using them to fund our public education system."  

Tertiary Update reported last week that Weltec generated an extra $700,000 last year from its international students, despite no growth in its international student numbers.

NZUSA co-president Pene Delaney said that he did not think international students would be the saving grace of the tertiary sector.

"International students come with a number of caveats to the institution, one of which is increased pastoral care responsibilities. Any increase in price would need an equal increase in quality."

ITOs’ cost effectiveness

The Industry Training Federation's executive director Jeremy Baker is arguing that qualifications gained through industry training organisations (ITOs) cost taxpayers about a quarter of the cost of equivalent qualifications gained through other tertiary education organisations, such as polytechnics.

The Industry Training Federation has released a study it commissioned by economic agency BERL to support its view that industry training is the most cost-effective part of the tertiary education and training sector.

"Industry training delivers value for taxpayers, individuals and industry," Mr Baker said.

The BERL study shows that the average cost to taxpayers of each qualification completion arranged by an ITO is $5600.  This compares with the average cost per qualification completion at polytechnics and private providers of more than $20,000.

Mr Baker said ITOs are cost effective largely because of the significant input from workplaces and industry organisations through both cash and in-kind support.

"And because trainees are also working while they are training, they do not access student loans and allowances, which is a significant drain on taxpayer funds."

However, TEU national president Dr Tom Ryan says it is important that subsectors within tertiary education do not end up battling with one another in the current underfunded environment. 

"ITOs are doing an important job providing vocational skills and training to thousands of young working New Zealanders. But that is complementary to the jobs being done by polytechnics and wānanga, which offer different, often longer and more in-depth courses and qualifications in a structured education and training environment"

Other news

About 5,000 mainly female council staff in Birmingham, England, have won their case for equal pay at an employment tribunal. Unions said the women may be owed £30m in back-pay for bonuses paid only to certain male workers. Solicitors said the pay-out could be up to £600m - BBC

Ross Wilson, the former Chairman of ACC who was sacked by the new government, is speaking publicly for the first time about his departure from the role. The long time union leader and former head of the Council of Trade Unions talks about the government's changes to ACC – Radio NZ

'Exposed and vulnerable' could describe the feelings of overseas students in Australia and also the universities that enrol them. Times Higher Education Supplement examines how violence against foreigners has put institutions' reliance on and treatment of international students under scrutiny.

Former US president Bill Clinton has agreed to become "honorary chancellor" of the Laureate International Universities, a growing, worldwide for-profit chain of institutions. A statement from Laureate described Mr Clinton's duties as follows: "President Clinton will advise this group of universities in areas such as social responsibility, youth leadership and increasing access to higher education – Inside Higher Ed

Documents released under freedom of information rules show that eight British universities were reported to the higher education funding body in the last two years over allegations that they tried to persuade students to give their institutions high scores in the National Student Survey –The Guardian

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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