TEU Tertiary Update Vol 13 No 20

Government revises Pay Expectations for State sector

The minister of state services, Mr Tony Ryall, has released updated Expectations for Pay and Employment Conditions in the State Sector.

"While there are no fundamental changes to these updated Expectations, there is a stronger emphasis on reinforcing the critical link between decisions about pay and employment conditions, productivity and fiscal restraint and improved service delivery" said Mr Ryall.

"I expect all decisions about pay and employment conditions to support these priorities, and that any decisions to increase employment costs are tied to service improvement."

Mr Ryall said that the key points of the new Expectations are that any changes to pay must contribute to the overall improvement of frontline services, be financially sustainable for the next 3-5 years, and be linked to improved productivity.

The Expectations apply to all tertiary education institutions but, unlike other state sector bodies, there is only an obligation to consult with the State Services Commission rather than the commissioner having overall responsibility for negotiations. 

TEU national secretary Sharn Riggs said the government's last Expectations had caused significant problems for the union. These new Expectations appear to be substantially the same, if not even harder still on public sector workers, with further references to constraint and the new requirement that employer bargaining strategies "demonstrate continuing affordability". 

"Employers need to recognise that staff in the tertiary educations sector have all demonstrated improved productivity, increased workloads, and commitment to service over the last year and so should be paid accordingly" said Ms Riggs.

Also in Tertiary Update this week

1. Otago teacher educators the meat in the sandwich


2. More international students to replace capped domestic students


3. Salaries fall but unionised teaching professionals do better


4. Reflecting on the Budget


5. School principals fear students won't get to university


6. Australian govt not consulting over indigenous institute


7. Other news

Otago teacher educators the meat in the sandwich

Staff at the University of Otago's college of education held a rally and cake stall yesterday to protest at plans to restructure the college. 

The restructuring proposal would remove 23 or more EFTS between 2010 and 2012.  TEU national president Dr Tom Ryan says that translates as up to half of the college's current 64 employees. The proposal also aims to disestablish four general staff positions.

Dr Ryan says that the university’s proposal would save over $2 million, which is far more than this year’s $1.3 million dollar deficit in the department that the university is using to justify the cuts.

"Furthermore, government funding to colleges of education nationally clearly is insufficient for them to achieve both the traditional practice-based training of student teachers and significant engagement by staff in PBRF-recognised research."

"Staff at the college of education are the meat in a particularly brutal and cynical sandwich, caught between Otago's desire to be the number-one PBRF university in New Zealand, and the impact of the government reneging on Tripartite funding to universities."

Dr Ryan says it is grossly unfair that many of the college's staff now face forced redundancy given that they were employed before the 2007 merger with the university precisely because of their experience and excellence as teaching practitioners.

The Otago Daily Times reports that TEU members handed out slices of cake and protest pamphlets to people gathered outside the college.

One pamphlet gave a "recipe for a half-baked teacher", which included slicing curriculum content thinly, watering down the arts, straining and discarding classroom expertise, and packing ingredients into a crowded lecture theatre.

"When finished, serve to your children and grandchildren," the recipe said.

See photos of yesterday's rally on TEU's website.

More international students to replace capped domestic students

Tertiary education minister Steven Joyce was criticised this week for his policy of capping the number of domestic students who could study at a tertiary institution while simultaneously encouraging as institutions to take as many international students as they could.

Mr Joyce told the Dominion Post that there are about 100,000 foreign fee-paying students in New Zealand, but he wants thousands more.

He has said there was a limit to how much taxpayers could support the tertiary sector, and that the Government was "pretty close" to that ceiling.

"I am looking at ways of finding more money across the sector, [but] that is going to pale into insignificance besides the potential of doing more in the international space."

In Australia, international students account for 20 per cent of university revenue, but here the figure is only about 12 per cent.

However, TEU national president Dr Tom Ryan told Radio Live that the difference between Australia and New Zealand is that Australia is continuing to invest in tertiary education to provide the infrastructure and staff for growing domestic and international student numbers.

"They are investing an extra $1 billion a year over the current five year period.  The New Zealand government, by comparison, wants to increase the number of international students, but at the same time it's reducing overall funding."

NZUSA co-president David Do also criticised the government saying the quality of education, so often a selling point for overseas students, was also under threat from government underfunding, and people who most needed education, including Maori and Pacific Island students, were being turned away.

"Some will question why, when universities say there is no more capacity to enrol any more students, they plan to accept more international students rather than domestic students."

However, NZVCC chair Derek McCormack has supported the government's call for more international students, and stated that the proportion of international students now enrolled was not high.

Mr McCormack argued that the government should consider making it easier for foreign graduates to become permanent New Zealand residents if they studied at and graduated from a New Zealand university.

Tertiary education minister Steven Joyce rejected this proposal, saying that the government wants to encourage international students to come here for academic reasons, not as a short cut to obtaining permanent residency.

Salaries fall but unionised teaching professionals do better

Employers did not give out many pay rises over the last year, but where they did they tended to give them to highly unionised workers with collective agreements, like teaching professionals.

For the second quarter in a row, the Quarterly Employment Survey reported that average hourly earnings had fallen. The March quarter’s Labour Cost Index showed a greater deterioration in wage growth than the Quarterly Employment Survey, with ordinary time wage rates increasing 1.5 percent for the year and 0.3 percent for the quarter.

Statistics NZ say this is the lowest growth since September 2000. For the March 2010 year, 1 percent of the working population saw their wages decrease, 56 percent experienced no change, and 43 percent saw an increase in wages. This is the lowest proportion since 1999.

However, the data also reveals some interesting trends for teaching professionals, with that group experiencing the highest percentage increase (3.7 percent) in salaries and ordinary time wages of any of the surveyed occupation groups for the year March 2009 to March 2010. This could be due to the high rate of unionisation among teaching professionals. 

The Labour Cost Index statistics also show that the most important reason employers gave for giving a pay increase, and especially a pay increase of more than 3 percent, was because of the existence of a collective employment agreement.  Employers were more likely to explain the pay increase they awarded because of this, rather than saying it was due to cost of living increases or the need to attract or retain staff.

Reflecting on the Budget

Not only is this year's budget likely to worsen inequalities, but also it does very little to encourage economic growth, according to CTU economist Bill Rosenberg.

"Short of improvements in the economy beyond the government’s control, such as a greater than expected improvement in world economic conditions or continuing improvements in produce prices, the living standards of the majority of working people will fall behind in the coming year."

On top of the rise in GST, there will be a steep rise in other prices, with Treasury predicting 5.9 percent inflation in the year to March 2011, only 2 percent of which will be due to the GST increase. Treasury is forecasting the average wage to increase only 2.6 percent during the year. Even the tax cuts won’t make up the 3.3 percent difference for anyone but the top 10 percent of earners.

Dr Rosenberg says that while government debt is now on to a sounder track, the government is signalling ongoing cuts in public services, with its stated intention to reduce government expenditure from 34.7 percent of GDP forecast for the year to June 2011 down to 32.4 percent in 2014.

"The reason is no longer desperate times but political: the operating balance is now expected to be in surplus in the June 2016 year – three years earlier than projected in the 2009 Budget. Net debt is expected to peak at 27.4 percent of GDP in the June 2015 year, not so far above the government debt target of 20 percent."

"Despite the government being willing to borrow a further $460 million in order to finance the tax package in the 2010/11 year, public services will continue to be under stress. Education’s vote increases by less than 2 percent, well under inflation at a time when we should be boosting skills."

School principals fear students won't get to university

The Dominion Post reports that school principals are concerned that thousands of pupils could be 'forced on to the dole' because of tough new entry criteria at university.

Universities around the country have introduced tighter new entrance criteria in response to the EFTS cap imposed on them by the Tertiary Education Commission. The recession and a demographic bulge in 18 and 19 year olds has seen an increase in people wanting to study, at the same time as the government-imposed funding cap.

The Secondary Principals Association wants universities to relax the toughened criteria for higher NCEA pass rates to enter previously open-entry courses next year.

Association president Patrick Walsh told the Post he had pupils at his school worried they would miss out on university.

"How do you tell someone who has worked really hard to give themselves the chance of going to university that they might not get in? It's very disappointing when students capable of making a very good contribution to the economy for years to come are turned down. Instead, it could lead to more students being unemployed, which is not a good situation."

New Zealand Students Associations Union co-president Pene Delaney told the Dominion Post there is no tracking of what happens to people who are turned away from study

"It is possible that thousands of people may continue to languish... on the unemployment benefit due to these changes."

Tertiary education minister Steven Joyce said there were likely to be several factors that could free up university places for school-leavers. These included the country coming out of the recession, student loans being linked to academic progress, and an extra 5600 government-funded places next year.

Australian govt not consulting over indigenous institute

The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) has voiced its concerns regarding plans for the future of Australia’s key tertiary and vocational education provider to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in the Northern Territory.

Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education (BIITE) was placed in administration in August 2009. Since that time, the Institute has been working with the administrator, Korda Mentha, and the Federal Government, on plans to significantly change BIITE’s ability to offer culturally appropriate tertiary education to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and communities.

The changes to BIITE will affect the institution’s ability to accredit new higher education course offerings, and under the plan will seek to relocate second and third year Indigenous higher education students from BIITE to Charles Darwin University. To date, no consultation with Indigenous communities, students, or staff members has occurred.

Chairperson of the NTEU Indigenous Policy Committee, Mr Terry Mason, stated: "From our understanding, the plans for the future of Batchelor Institute have progressed to the point that it appears inevitable significant change will take place. At no time have communities, students, and staff had the opportunity to provide input to the future of Batchelor Institute, this is not appropriate. When this plan is implemented, it will have a significant effect upon the communities and students that Batchelor Institute was created to serve."

"There are many reasons Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and communities wish to study at Batchelor Institute," said Mr Mason "If Indigenous students and communities wanted to obtain a qualification through another higher education provider they would. It appears that the price of true self-determination for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities is too high, and paternalism is unfortunately alive and well."

Other news

The New Zealand Library Association (LIANZA) says the University of Canterbury’s Change Proposal – Learning Resources – if implemented, would endanger the University as a centre of teaching, learning and research excellence because it would significantly reduce services available in the university’s libraries. The proposed disestablishment of 28% of the Library’s positions would see the University rushing into change which is expensive to implement and very costly in terms of the loss of institutional knowledge and proven ability.

TEU has released draft policies for consultation on teacher registration and the supervision of student practicum, public tertiary education, intellectual property, general staff job evaluation, academic freedom on its online forum.

Education Directions reports that, finally, one single polytechnic in New Zealand has appointed a current staff member to its council. What's more she's a union member. NorthTec has appointed Gwen Edge to its council. She has been a staff member for 24 and a member of the local TIASA Executive for 22 years. Congratulations, Gwen!

The Department of Labour reports that the main reason employers hire migrants (83 percent) is that they cannot find New Zealanders with the right skills or training. Eighty-five percent of employers who had employed a migrant in the last 12 months say they had tried to find a New Zealander to fill the position.

Families with new babies can expect a boost to their parental leave payments next month, says Minister of Labour Kate Wilkinson. The maximum parental leave payment will increase from $429.74 per week to $441.62 per week from July 1.

A lecturer who has been ordered to undergo two years of "monitoring" after showing a female colleague a paper about oral sex among fruit bats has challenged the president of his university to a debate on the topic of "limits of academic freedom" – Times Higher Education Supplement

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