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Wānanga responds to performance funding pressure

Bentham Ohia, the pouhere at the Wānanga o Aoteaora, is advising staff to concentrate on ensuring that tauira are enrolled in the right programme, that they graduate, and, where possible, that they pathway onto a higher level programme.

This advice follows news that the Tertiary Education Commission will be releasing rankable data on each tertiary education institution, including rates of successful course and qualification completions, student progressions to higher levels of study, and proportions of students retained in study.

The Wānanga is responding to new government policy that makes 5 percent of overall funding contestable, based on how each institution performs against these criteria. The Wānanga believes that it will meet the required standards, but nevertheless is warning staff to focus on getting potential students into programmes they are most likely to graduate from.

TEU national president Dr Tom Ryan says that te Wānanga is responding logically to the incentives and pressures the government is putting upon it. "I'm sure that other institutions will be doing the same thing, encouraging staff to look very carefully at how and where they are enrolling students."

"But there also are dangers with such approaches. As the stakes are raised through public league tables and even higher levels of contestable funding, potential students from demographic groups that are known to have lower success rates may find themselves being discouraged from enrolling," said Dr Ryan.

"It would be a shame if the government's reforms leads to a situation where it becomes harder, rather than easier, for young people from non-standard or less privileged backgrounds to get started in tertiary education."

Also in Tertiary Update this week:

1. Ministry shrinks, 100 staff to lose jobs


2. Minister explains cuts to refugee and migrant grants


3. Lincoln-Telford merger in minister's hands


4. Massey cleaners challenge being sacked


5. Other news

Ministry shrinks, 100 staff to lose jobs

One hundred jobs are to be cut at the Ministry of Education as part of a strategy to improve student outcomes and service, NZPA reports. Ministry staff were told last week about the job cuts, on top of about 300 vacancies not being filled.

"No decisions have been made about what areas and roles will be affected. As far as possible, any staff reductions will be achieved through regular staff turnover and redeployment," Secretary for Education Karen Sewell said.

TEU national president Dr Tom Ryan said that, with the Tertiary Education Commission already decimated by recent job cuts, the ministry cuts had the potential to undermine the central support that tertiary education institutions receive.

"Cutting non-front line bureaucrats isn't freeing up more money for those of us who are on the front line of tertiary education. It simply means we have more work and less coordinated support to do our jobs. Ultimately, that's bad for students."

Public Service Association national secretary Brenda Pilott said the cuts would not improve services or bring the greater efficiencies claimed by officials.

"The ministry has been through a dozen reviews in the past three years, some of which are ongoing. One would have thought that after so many endless reviews, the ministry now would be an effective and nimble beast," she said.

"Instead it was criticised as one of the worst government departments in a recent trans-Tasman report."

However, education minister Anne Tolley said that the job cuts were an operational matter for the ministry's chief executive.

Minister explains cuts to refugee and migrant grants

The minister of education, Steven Joyce, has answered a series of parliamentary written questions explaining why the government is disestablishing the Academic Migrant Grants and the Refugee Study Grants.

Asked if he was concerned that disestablishing the grants will make it more difficult for new migrants and refugees to access tertiary education, the minster replied that the government had faced difficult fiscal decisions for tertiary education last year.

"In Budget 2009 a number of small funds were disestablished which had relatively high compliance or administration costs and provided outcomes that could be achieved elsewhere in the tertiary system. Affected funds included the Academic Migrant Grants and Refugee Study Grants. The tertiary education system will continue to support migrants and refugees, as appropriate, including through Tertiary education subsidies, Student Loans and Allowances, The Youth Training and Training Opportunities programmes, Intensive Literacy and Numeracy, and Workplace Literacy," said Mr Joyce.

The Tertiary Education Commission says that the refugee study grants currently enable adult refugees to participate in designated English language programmes at no cost. The grants enable refugee students to study English language at a level that will enable them to move into higher education or employment. TEC says the grants also contribute to the tertiary education system in line with the government's own Tertiary Education Strategy, and meet two of the goals sought by the New Zealand Settlement Strategy by helping migrants, refugees and their families to obtain employment appropriate to their qualifications and skills, and to become confident in using English in a New Zealand setting.

Lincoln-Telford merger in minister's hands

The Minister for tertiary education, Steven Joyce, has announced that he is calling for submissions from the public over the proposed merger of Lincoln University and Telford Rural Polytechnic.

The proposal is that Telford would be incorporated as a division of Lincoln University. Mr Joyce has signalled in his media statement that he strongly supports the merger.

"The merger has the potential to create a stronger base to support the education, research and knowledge transfer needs of the land-based sectors, and to improve value for money from existing government investment in the institutions. The proposed merger offers benefits for both institutions and for the tertiary education capability for the land-based sectors, which are strategically important to New Zealand," said Mr Joyce.

Mr Joyce aims to make his final decision in October, once he has heard peoples' submissions. The merger, if it proceeds, then will take place on 1 January next year. It will mean nearly 1000 EFTS from Telford will transfer to Lincoln University, with the aim that, over the next two or three years, some of the Telford students would move into Lincoln's undergraduate courses. Lincoln currently has approximately 2000 domestic EFTS and 750 international students.

Telford chief executive Jonathan Walmisley told the Otago Daily Times that, with Telford being one of the smallest polytechnics in the country, there were real advantages in merging, such as technological transfers down to the farmers, staff having greater access to professional development, and more opportunities for students to progress to higher qualification.

Massey cleaners challenge being sacked

A test case involving sixty sacked Massey University cleaners this week goes to the Employment Court today.

The sixty cleaners, represented by the Service and Food Workers Union, will go to the Employment Court in Wellington to contest their dismissal with no redundancy by OCS Ltd, a UK based cleaning contractor.

SFWU spokesperson Alastair Duncan says the cleaners face being sacked after OCS decided to turn previously full-time jobs into 25 hour-a-week part-time jobs that would be available for just the busiest 31 weeks of each university year.

The proposal will see large numbers of cleaning hours cut at each of the university's three major campuses, Palmerston North, Wellington and Albany. For many of the workers, who currently are paid just above the minimum wage, this will equate to a 35 percent drop in wages.

SFWU will be asking the employment court to rule that the cleaners are entitled to redundancy pay.

Alastair Duncan says the union also has asked Massey University vice-chancellor Steve Maharey to intervene to stop the sackings.

"The Court will rule on the issue of redundancy entitlements. But Steve Maharey can stop the dismissals altogether."

Other news

Just over a quarter of the staff in the University of Otago's design department will lose their jobs, the university says. In a statement on Tuesday, the university said there would be an overall reduction of 5.5 full-time equivalent staff - 3.8 academic positions and 1.7 general staff positions – Otago Daily Times

The CTU determination to stick by workers unfairly dismissed under the 90 day law delivered results this week when the Employment Court found young pharmacy worker Heather Smith had been unjustifiably dismissed by her employer. But the court also said that the employer’s failure to treat her in good faith or to comply with her employment agreement gave her several grounds for compensation. Heather Smith’s case was highlighted recently by the CTU and is available on YouTube at www.youtube.com/NZCTU

A year of belt tightening has seen Witt post its first surplus in seven years. The surplus of $1.2 million was an improvement of almost $4m from the polytech's 2008 loss. Chief executive Richard Handley both said "The much improved cash position has enabled us to undertake a modest but well overdue campus development programme" - Taranaki Daily News

The Ministry of Education has released a report exploring what digital information literacy is and how it could be most effectively dealt with in tertiary education. It identifies methods for developing adults’ digital skills and capabilities, and for understanding how these contribute to lifelong learning. The report's key findings are that having dedicated time, institutional support, and the opportunity to experiment with a range of ICT tools were essential for developing digital information literacy. The research showed that this could be achieved in a relatively short and intensive period of professional development, and that this could result in significant changes to participants’ digital information behaviour and skills. – Education Counts

The British University and College Union says that a minister's advice to students to lower their university ambitions makes a mockery of deputy prime minister Nick Clegg's pledge to encourage social mobility. The universities minister, David Willetts, was under fire last week after telling students to lower their sights and apply to 'less competitive' universities. UCU said it was astounded at the coalition government's 'insulting' response to students hit by the crisis over university places - UCU

Australian staff seeking pay rises at more than half the country's universities have taken more than 50 days of industrial action. More unrest is threatened as they fight for pay increases of 16 percent to 18 percent over their four year agreement periods. The National Tertiary Education Union yesterday was to give formal notice of a work ban during the University of NSW's open day next month, with the University of Newcastle expected to face the same. This follows last week's 24-hour stoppage at the University of South Australia and rolling stoppages at the University of Queensland – The Australian

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