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Thousands of 'happy' workers make themselves heard

There was a droll moment in Question Time yesterday  afternoon, according to Scoop,  as Prime Minister John Key proclaimed "New Zealand workers are happy".

Meanwhile about 4000 workers stood just metres from the House protesting the Government’s planned expansion of its 90-day fire-at-will law and the removal of other employment rights.

Tertiary Education Union members joined tens of thousands of other workers from Kaitaia to Bluff yesterday in one of New Zealand's largest collective protest actions.

The Council of Trade Unions says that 22,000 workers walked off the job yesterday to protest against attacks on their rights at work. That number is unlikely to include many workers, including TEU members who attended rallies in their lunch break and thus were not included as officially stopping work.

Helen Kelly, CTU President, said "New Zealanders believe in everyone having a fair go. Removing the right to appeal against unfair dismissal is clearly more unpopular than the Government was banking on."

"We are confident the support for fairness at work will grow," said Helen Kelly. "We are determined to keep campaigning on these issues, including during the general election next year."

Rallies were held in nearly 30 different locations throughout New Zealand. TV3 described the biggest event at Auckland's Telstra Clear Stadium as packed to capacity with 7000 union members.

"Those gathered were elbow-to-elbow; late comers filled the lobby and spewed out into the car park."

Nationwide, numbers swelled throughout the afternoon as events were held in other centres.

TEU's has photos of the events as well as interviews with national president Dr Tom Ryan, president-elect Sandra Grey and Massey branch member Bryce Galloway and Marg Gilling.

Also in Tertiary Update this week:

1. National pushes through voluntary student membership


2. WITT staff and students fund financial recovery


3. No place at Otago Uni for favoured teacher


4. Govt and mayors plan to track all school leavers


5. Other news

National pushes through voluntary student membership

The government indicated last night it would vote a second time to support an ACT party private member's bill that will compel students associations to adopt compulsory membership.

Earlier in the week students had lobbied National Party politicians to follow the advice of thousands of submitters opposed to the Bill rather than the recommendation of the select committee in favour of the Bill.

NZUSA co-president David Do says the current law, passed by National in 1998, already allows students choice in determining what sort of membership model they want via referenda, and also enables students to individually opt out of membership through conscientious objection and financial hardship.

"Students haven’t asked for this Bill, the sector doesn’t want it, and experience in both Australia and New Zealand shows it has disastrous results," said Mr Do.

With the government's support at second reading the Bill will now proceed to a third and final reading and then take effect next year.

The likely practical effect of the bill for staff at tertiary education institutions where there is an active students association is that the association will be less able to offer services, support and representation for students.  That means that institutions could pick up the cost or students will have less support and pastoral care.

TEU national president, Dr Tom Ryan has argued that if the government wants tertiary institutions to pay for more services, or to have a tougher job teaching students with less pastoral care and social support, it should compensate tertiary institutions.

WITT staff and students fund financial recovery

ED Insider reports that Western Institute of Technology at Taranaki (WITT) had its first surplus in seven years, and a year ahead of budget. 325 students were turned away in 2009, with 100% of EFTS target reached by the end of July.

Domestic student EFTS increased by 387 (24%). Increasing revenue alongside cost cutting created a $1.2m surplus (5.2% of revenue). As would be expected from an increase in students that sits alongside significant cost cutting, the student: staff ratio increased from 14.0:1 in 2008 to 16.4:1 in 2009.  This equates to an increase of 17 percent.

Ed Insider CEO Dave Guerin said 2009 was a great year for WITT financially, but 2011 will be hard because of the loss of one-off regional funding that will end this year.

"That [positive financial] situation should be repeated again in 2010, but in 2011 there will be a crunch."

TEU national president Dr Tom Ryan says it is yet another example of an institution responding to financial pressure by turning it into workload pressure for staff and students.

"In many situations 17 percent more students per staff member is also 17 percent more marking, assessment, support and advice that staff need to provide. It is seventeen percent more administration, 17 percent more pressure on resources like the library and student services.  For students it means that staff are less available to help them, and when they are available they are busy and possibly stressed."

No place at Otago Uni for favoured teacher

Students at Otago University have voted Joneen Walker onto a list of their top ten lecturers for 2010. But, ironically Ms Walker will be taking voluntary redundancy next year after a restructuring of the university's College of Education which aims to lift the university's PBRF rating by placing a greater focus on PBRF active staff in the school, at the expense of experienced teacher practitioners like Ms Walker.

The students association, which organised the awards, said over 600 students nominated 283 separate lecturers for Teaching Awards, with this number being whittled down by a panel into a 20 members list of finalists for a final vote. 1272 students voted for the twenty finalists.

"It was very difficult to whittle down 283 nominated lecturers into a top twenty" said OUSA President, Harriet Geoghegan, "the standard of lecturers on campus is very high – we were delighted to see so many being nominated by their appreciative students."

"At OUSA we feel it is important to recognise our top teachers from a student’s perspective, without the influence of PBRF scores, funding or research outputs – simply how the teachers engage with the students and help create our future teachers, doctors, lawyers, academics, businessmen, leaders or whatever their chosen fields. There were so many fantastic comments about Joneen – she has clearly touched the lives of a lot of students at the University of Otago who will no doubt be very sad to see her go," said Ms Geoghegan.

Students who nominated Ms Walker praised her experience helpfulness and approachability:

"She is inspiring and enthusiastic, makes maths actually fun and exciting.  Most of the people in the class entered at the beginning of the year feeling very uncomfortable about teaching maths, but Joneen's excitement for the subject and general open, honest down to earth attitude toward the students has turned us all into maths enthusiasts."

TEU national president Dr Tom Ryan had earlier said Government funding to colleges of education is insufficient for them to achieve both the traditional practice-based training of student teachers and significant engagement by staff in PBRF-recognised research.

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

Govt and mayors plan to track all school leavers

The New Zealand Herald reports that a plan to make sure every 16- or 17-year-old ends up in work or further training after leaving school looks set to start next year.

The plan, organised jointly by Social Development Minister Paula Bennett and the Mayors' Taskforce for Jobs, will provide contact details for all 16- or 17-year-old school-leavers to a national call centre.

The call centre will contact them and refer those who need help to local youth transition services.

According to Statistics New Zealand 10.8 percent of 15- to 19-year-olds in March. 15.3 percent of Māori teens were not in employment, education, training or caregiving.

The project dovetails with an election promise by Auckland mayor-elect Len Brown to set up a comprehensive transition service for Auckland school-leavers.

"One of our great challenges is to ensure that every single one of our kids is not wasted, that there is no loss of hope, that they have a very clear pathway coming out of school," he says.

"If they are not in employment or training, they are a cost to the taxpayer in terms of maintaining them, and they are a cost to the extent that idle minds and idle hands [find other things to do]," Mr Brown says.

Youth transition services were started in 2005 in an attempt to reach those teens who do not contact Work and Income because they cannot get most benefits until they turn 18.

A 2008 evaluation found that 61 per cent of the first 10,000 young people to pass through the services moved into either work or further training, with most of the rest (33 per cent) unaccounted for because they had left the area, could not be contacted or did not want to talk to the evaluators.

Mr Brown said he was inspired to improve the system when he visited Otorohanga, which has had an extraordinary zero youth unemployment throughout the recession.

Other news

About 700 students will miss out on summer holiday research jobs this year because the Government has decided not to repeat a $4 million grant it gave the universities last summer – New Zealand Herald

NZQA plans to lift the bar for university entrance as it responds to government funding caps.  At present, pupils must get 42 credits at level 3 in three subjects to achieve university entrance. The new proposal – to be in place by 2014 – would require 60 credits at level 3 or above and 20 credits at level 2 or above - The Dominion Post

Angry students say they will be left with a "lifetime of debt" following the University of Auckland's decision to raise its fees by 6.3 per cent next year. The increase, which was approved at a meeting this week, means some domestic students will have to pay up to $1600 extra in fees, in addition to $660 in student services fees and building levies – New Zealand Herald

The minister for tertiary education, Steven Joyce, is calling for submissions from the public on the proposed merger of Tairāwhiti Polytechnic and Eastern Institute of Technology. "People who have a view on the proposed merger should take the opportunity to make a submission by 12 November 2010.  I propose to make a final decision in late November 2010 to give effect to any merger from 1 January 2011," says Mr Joyce.

Universities in England are preparing for cuts of more than £4bn in the government's Spending Review - with deep reductions in teaching budgets. Lord Browne's review last week recommended a sharp increase in tuition fees - but universities have been angered that the extra funding from fees look set to be used to fill the gap from cuts in public spending  - BBC

Australia's Gillard government remains committed to its multi-billion-dollar Bradley reforms in tertiary education despite the need to return to budget surplus in about two years, according to tertiary education minister Chris Evans. Senator Evans said that higher education was integral to achieving the government's vision of "a stronger and fairer Australia" – The Australian

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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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