TEU Tertiary Update, Vol 13 No 17

University restructuring continues

Sweeping restructuring programmes continue across the university sector this week with the University of Otago moving to disestablish its design department and review its department of social work and community development. It is not yet known how many staff will be made redundant as a result. Earlier a leaked report revealed it intends to merge its departments of accountancy and business law.

There have been 67 redundancies so far at the University of Canterbury as a result of its STAR project, and a further 87 are anticipated. There the vice chancellor is looking to "annihilate administrators" by creating a general centralised administration team to replace specialist administrators located in colleges.

Similar change proposals are underway or mooted in other universities as well.

TEU president Dr Tom Ryan told Radio New Zealand that universities have increased restructuring since the Government announced funding cuts in last year's Budget.

Those cuts include nearly 50 million dollars over two years from funding specifically earmarked for staff salaries.

But the minister of tertiary education, Steven Joyce, says university restructuring is part of their normal business, and that recent cutbacks are not due to government funding changes.

Also in Tertiary Update this week:

1. TEU and six polytechnics go to facilitation


2. Enrolment restrictions tighten at universities


3. More science funding for businesses


4. Additional young people studying


5. University of Otago to end binge drinking


6. Other news

TEU and six polytechnics go to facilitation

Facilitation to try to resolve the ongoing ITP MECA dispute took place on Tuesday and Wednesday this week in the Employment Authority in Auckland. No resolution was achieved between the parties during the process.  Authority member Maria Urlich is now considering all the relevant facts and she has indicated that she hopes to be in a position to deliver her recommendation or recommendations by late Friday.

Position papers from both the MECA employers and the TEU are available on the TEU website .

Enrolment restrictions tighten at universities

Universities around the country are tightening up their enrolment policies as the combined pressure of the EFTS cap and increasing numbers of potential students continues to create pressure.

The Otago Daily Times reports that enrolment caps have been placed on 20 undergraduate and sub-degree programmes in the next semester, with vice-chancellor Prof Sir David Skegg saying caps also will be required next year.

He said that enrolments were increasing faster than the university or the government funding agency, the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC), had expected.

This is the first time the University of Otago has restricted entry to first-year study or open-entry courses.

Prof Skegg said Otago's domestic EFTS this year were 4.4 percent up on the corresponding time last year, and it appeared that the final domestic enrolment result would be slightly above its TEC imposed 103 percent cap.

Unexpected enrolment growth also affected staffing, Prof Skegg said. Already, the student-to-academic-staff ratio at Otago had grown from 14.6:1 in 2007 to 15.9:1 this year.

"We can't afford to hire more staff and we have no offices for them anyway, because we are short of space."

The University of Auckland introduced enrolment caps from the start of last year, and NZPA reports that Victoria University in Wellington had advised that undergraduate student places would not be guaranteed from the second semester of this year.

New Zealand Union of Students' Associations co-president David Do told the New Zealand Herald  it was "quite concerning" that universities were bringing forward their deadlines for admissions changes.

"This is yet another symptom of the Government failing to properly support increased demand for higher education and failing to support access to those who need education and upskilling at this time," said Mr Do.

More science funding for businesses

Prime minister John Key announced this week that research, science and technology will be one of the major recipients of new funding in Budget 2010. Science funding will receive $321 million in funding for new initiatives, he said.

Mr Key also released the government's new policy direction for science and innovation, called Igniting Potential.

The key point for tertiary institutions engaged in scientific research is the shift in non-contestable funding and focus away from them. The report notes:

"CRIs [Crown Research Institutions] will receive a greater proportion of non-contestable funding, will become accountable for outcomes defined in a statement of core purpose and will work more closely with the end-users of their work and other stakeholders."

Of the total allocation of $321 million for new initiatives over the next four years, $225 million is new funding and $96 million is reprioritised funding

A major part of the money ($189 million) is going to large businesses as subsidies to invest in science and research. There is also funding for a number of new initiatives to encourage links between companies and publicly-funded research organisations, or to support the commercialisation of new products and processes.

Some tertiary institutions have welcomed the new investment, with the University of Auckland's vice chancellor Stuart McCutcheon applauding it and welcoming the increased spending available to it's commercial arm, Auckland UniServices Ltd.

Weltec chief executive Linda Sissons also welcomed the announcement as an opportunity to build capacity to transfer knowledge and deliver products to commercial companies.

However president of the Association of Scientists, James Renwick, said the package is overly focused on linking science with business.

"I'm a little bit surprised and disappointed to see there wasn't more money going into the fundamental research. Fundamental, or basic, research is scientific investigation for its own sake."

Additional young people studying

The number of young people aged 20 to 24 with no income almost trebled between 1996 and 2006, according to figures released this week by Statistics New Zealand.

Young people were also studying for longer and were more likely to work part-time, the report found.

Young people 1986 - 2006 Study, work and income found that 15,990 people aged 20 to 24 had no income in 2006, compared with just 6,342 in 1996. Young peoples’ average income also had fallen between 1986 and 2006, from $18,900 to $11,500.

Statistics New Zealand spokesperson Conal Smith told the  New Zealand Herald that this was probably due to more young people being in full-time education. He said that there were many variables, but it seemed that a greater proportion of students were neither working nor getting a student allowance.

"It's what we would expect to see ... if more students were studying full-time, more would be earning no income."

The report found that thirty-two percent of all young people aged between 18 and 24 years were studying in 2006. This was an increase of eight percentage points from 1996. 

A higher proportion of young females than young males were studying in both 1996 and 2006. Young females also were more likely than young males to study full- time, and to study at younger ages. 

TEU president Tom Ryan said these figures confirmed the widely held view among tertiary education staff that rolls and workloads were increasing and that students needed more support and pastoral care to compensate for the financial pressures they faced.

University of Otago to end binge drinking

The Otago Daily Times reports that the University of Otago Students' Association (OUSA) plans to tackle its student binge-drinking culture head-on by cutting the number of liquor outlets around campuses, developing a "sober-up safely facility" on campus, and encouraging post-party flat inspections by landlords.

The changes are based in part on a 40-point action plan developed by Otago University Students' Association events manager Vanessa Reddy.

"I've seen a lot of harm coming to students... including hospitalisation and violence," she said

Ms Reddy received funding from the university, OUSA, and Dunedin City Council to spend last year in the USA researching how American universities had changed their binge-drinking cultures.

The action points in the plan include introducing broad-ranging alcohol-related policy changes and education, to practical ideas such as scheduling more lectures and tests on Friday mornings in order to reduce excessive Thursday night drinking.

OUSA president Harriet Geoghegan said that the taskforce was a positive move and that the association wanted to be part of the move to help minimise the harm caused by alcohol.

One of the action points was establishing a "sober-up safely facility" where intoxicated students would be monitored until their blood-alcohol level was at a certain point. They would be charged $200, and if the bill was not paid within a week, and hardship was not an issue, the account would be sent to their parents.

"It's never going to be one thing that does the trick, but lots of initiatives involving all aspects of life, over a period of time," said Ms Geoghegan.

Other news

Whitireia Community Polytechnic plans to move from its Lindale campus to a new site on the Kapiti Coast. It will focus more on extramural courses, online learning and specialist mobile classes to be held around the district, including at schools - Dominion Post

In the next two weeks, the councils of Lincoln University and Telford Rural Polytechnic will separately meet to decide whether to accept the merger plan, Lincoln vice-chancellor Roger Field said. If ratified, the proposal will go to the Tertiary Education Commission and tertiary education minister Steven Joyce. It then would go out for public consultation, before Mr Joyce made the final decision – The Press

The number of international students in the country has risen for the first time in six years. Education New Zealand figures show 93,500 fee-paying foreign students studied in the country last year, compared with 88,570 the previous year. The students paid $663 million in tuition fees, up 10 per cent from 2008. In 2003, 121,190 students paid $746m in tuition fees – The Press

After months of negotiations, Aoraki Polytechnic and its staff TEU have reached a new pay agreement. The deal includes a 1.95 per cent pay rise in the first year and a 1.9 per cent rise in the second year for academic staff. For general staff, the polytech has offered a 1 per cent pay rise and $1000 lump sum in the first year, and a 1.9 per cent increase in the second year – Timaru Herald

Iranian teacher trade unionist Farzad Kamangar reportedly was executed in secret on 9 May. Although the Iranian authorities had accepted the case for Farzad’s appeal, the process stalled when it should have been sent to the Supreme Court for review. After further delays, Farzad’s lawyer was told that his file had been lost. Despite the evident lack of independent inquiry and the absence of a fair judicial process for Farzad, he apparently was still executed - Education International

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