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Nursing education to move from polytechnics to universities?

The tertiary education advisory company Ed Insider reports that NZNO has released for consultation a vision statement on nursing in New Zealand. The statement includes the idea that universities should essentially take the lead in nursing education, replacing polytechnics.

The document 2020 and Beyond: A Vision for Nursing recommends that nursing education should shift to a national university-based curriculum, with ITPs offering just foundation and enrolled nursing training, along with clinical placement support. Consultation with NZNO members on this recommendation closes tomorrow.

Ed Insider's chief executive, Dave Guerin, notes that nursing currently is very important to ITPs. Polytechnics enrolled 4,250 nursing EFTS in 2009 – 78 percent of total bachelor degree nursing EFTS, with universities enrolling the rest. Nursing degree EFTS made up 27 percent of all ITP degree EFTS – over four times more than the next biggest field of study, Graphic and Design Studies.

"Besides the EFTS, nursing apparently has good margins (with high EFTS/programme) at many ITPs and is great for ITP reputation, given the high esteem that nurses have," said Mr Guerin.

"Looking at the flipside for universities, adding more nursing EFTS would boost their programmes, but would they be keen to add EFTS in an area that will drag down their PBRF average?"

Mr Guerin says the NZNO report will not set policy, but NZNO is an important body in the nursing sector and its views will influence others.

"Those in tertiary education should have their say on the document."

National president of the TEU, Dr Tom Ryan, said that his organisation will be discussing the issue with NZNO and the wider sector.

"We will state that the views and interests of nursing educators currently employed in the many well-respected nursing programmes in ITPs are taken proper account of before this proposal is developed any further".

"TEU's concern is that nursing programmes might end up being marginalised and mistreated like is currently happening to some teacher education programmes that not so long ago were merged into universities," said Dr Ryan.

Also in Tertiary Update this week:

1. 1 in 7 NZers owes a student loan


2. Thousands more students with university entrance


3. Canterbury Uni to cut Nelson teacher education course


4. Education salary rises lag behind


5. Student membership bill will create unfunded costs and workload


6. Other news

1 in 7 NZers owes a student loan

The Ministry of Education reports that, since the start of the student loan scheme in 1992, students have paid back less than half of $13.9 billion they have borrowed. The Student Loan Scheme Annual Report 2010 shows that almost 900,000 students have taken loans since the scheme started, and that over two-thirds of these have not fully repaid the money. This means that currently about one in seven of all New Zealanders currently owes on a student loan.

The New Zealand Herald reports that tertiary education minister Steven Joyce is focused on ensuring outstanding loans are repaid. However, Inland Revenue has had to write off millions of the debt because of death and bankruptcy, and accepts that about 12 per cent of borrowers – more than 107,000 people – will not repay their loans because they have left the labour force, taken unpaid work, or become ill or disabled and unable to work.

The report says Inland Revenue had $325 million in overdue loan payments in the year to last June, more than half of it owed by nearly 35,000 New Zealanders living overseas.

Mr Joyce told the Herald he had other plans to reduce the level of unpaid loans, including introducing performance-based loans. Statistics show a much better repayment rate from students who graduate.

Last year nearly 200,000 students (70 percent of all students) borrowed $1.4 billion. Nearly a third were new borrowers.

Thousands more students with university entrance

Thousands of extra students are leaving high school with university entrance, but there are not the places or the funding for many of them to pursue tertiary study, says TEU national president Dr Tom Ryan.

Dr Ryan was commenting on the Ministry of Education’s just released Student Loan Scheme Annual Report 2010, which says that, with the introduction of the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) between 2002 and 2004, school achievement has risen significantly. Between 2002 and 2008 there was a 62 percent increase in the proportion of students leaving school with university entrance (up from 27 percent in 2002 to 44 percent in 2008). The report also shows that the number of tertiary students nearly doubled between 1994 and 2009, rising from 252,000 to 469,000. And the proportion of the population aged 15 or over with a tertiary qualification rose from 47 percent in 2003 to 50 percent in 2009. It also notes that people with tertiary qualifications have lower unemployment, higher incomes, and increased overall wellbeing.

Dr Ryan says that, as well as all these new young students coming out of schools, the global recession continues to put pressure on tertiary education numbers with older students choosing to gain new skills or return to study during a period of unemployment or redundancy. Furthermore, a demographic 'baby boom' of students is passing out of secondary school into tertiary education. All of these factors mean that demand for places in universities, polytechnics, and wānanga continues to grow.

"People working in tertiary education want to reach out to all potential students wanting qualifications and training", says Dr Ryan. "We are doing a good job with limited resources and limited space. The more chances the government gives us to educate those students waiting at the door, the more we can continue to help lower unemployment, raise incomes, and increase wellbeing."

Canterbury Uni to cut Nelson teacher education course

The Marlborough Express reports that Canterbury University is consulting on a proposal to close its Nelson-based teacher education campus. The university says the government's decision to cap the number of tertiary students is driving the change.

The university's pro vice-chancellor of the College of Education, Gail Gillon, said a decision on the Nelson campus would be made later this month.

The change has upset current students, graduates of the course, and Nelson school principals.

The Express report quotes Scott Mackenzie, a former fisherman who now teaches at Hampden Street School after retraining to be a teacher when he was 33, saying there was no way he would have become a teacher if he had not had the chance to stay in Nelson.

With two school-aged children, he said he could not have completed a correspondence-styled course or moved to Christchurch for three years.

First-year students on the course said they were worried the changes would impact on the final two years of their study. Chris Duke, Sarah Orr and Kathryn Robertson said they had already learned that the position of one of their lecturers would be cut next year under the proposal.

The Nelson campus was set up by the Christchurch College of Education in 1998. It offers primary teacher training, and currently has a roll of 51.

Meanwhile, the Nelson Mail reports that Mayor Aldo Miccio intends speaking with Canterbury University to put forward a case for saving the programme.

Mr Miccio said part of his vision for Nelson was creating Nelson jobs for Nelson people, and the city needed training opportunities for young people and for those already in work to retrain.

"It's important to Nelson. I don't want it to close. I will be making that very loud and clear."

Education salary rises lag behind

Statistics New Zealand's Quarterly Employment Survey and Labour Cost Index show that people working in education and training are receiving lower pay increases than average.  The Labour Cost Index shows that pay rose 1.6 percent for workers overall during the year to September.  But in the public education and training sector salaries rose only 1 percent, while those in the private education and training sector rose 1.3 percent. Inflation is running at 1.5 per cent. (Of course, this was not the case for vice-chancellors and chief executives at polytechnics and wānanga.)

Those employers who gave pay increases of between 2 and 5 percent, continued to say when surveyed that the main reason for their higher offers was the existence of a collective employment agreement.

National Distribution Union general secretary Robert Reid concurs, saying workers who are in unions are winning wage increases in excess of the national average.

"There is a big gap between the national average and the union negotiated average - Victoria University's recent employment survey showed wages increased by 4.2 percent in the past year for workers negotiating collectively."

"Workers not in unions will find their wages are in fact going backwards, as they struggle to keep up with inflation. It is clear that it pays to be in a union," he said.

Peter Conway, CTU Secretary said: "With inflation set to exceed 4 percent next year as the GST rise takes effect, there will be more pressure from workers for fair wage increases. The situation is made worse by the fact that the bulk of the tax cuts have gone to those on high incomes."

"It is time for some better processes to attempt this major task of catching up with Australian wages. The Government has an aim of this being achieved in 2025. That is more than five general elections away. Surely we need some milestones along the way?"

Student membership bill will create unfunded costs and workload

Staff in tertiary institutions will be among those who suffer the practical consequences of the National Party's decision to introduce voluntary student membership, says TEU national president Dr Tom Ryan.

"Students’ associations provide all sorts of services that support communities of students at polytechnics and universities. At the moment students decide amongst themselves what those services are, they organise them, and they pay for them. Under the new legislation those services will either disappear or university and polytechnic managers will decide what services to keep and then take money from their already tightly stretched budgets to pay for them. Then they will get already busy staff to organise them."

"In other words students will still pay, this time through their compulsory student fees instead of their compulsory student association levy. Students will lose their control, and staff will gain extra workload that they don't want. And yet this bill is supposedly about choice."

Dr Ryan says it is ironic that in voting for this bill the National Party will be overturning legislation it previously introduced itself, so as to give a policy concession to their coalition partners the ACT Party.

"It's disappointing that the National Party appears to be willing to overturn its own long standing and pragmatic student association membership legislation to pander to the ideologues of ACT."

Other news

The results of the TEU elections which concluded on 1 November saw the University of Auckland's Kim Dirks, elected as University Academic Vice-President. Annie Barker (University of Waikato), Cerian Wagstaff (University of Auckland), and Rui Li (Victoria University) were elected as the three university sector representatives to the General Staff Sector Group (GSSG). At close of nominations there was just one valid nomination for the position of Women’s Vice-President so Alex Sims was declared elected. The successful candidates will take up their positions on 1 January 2011.

The government majority on the Transport and Industrial Relations Select Committee has published its reports on its two employment amendment bills, showing no significant changes to the plans to remove appeal rights from all employees in their first 90 days, restrict union access to workplaces, allow employers to demand a medical certificate for a single day’s absence, and encourage the sale of the fourth week’s annual leave. The CTU says the government has ignored the voices of thousands of New Zealanders who made submissions opposing the Bills.

Jobs may be affected in the proposed merger of EIT and Tairawhiti Polytechnic, says EIT chief executive Chris Collins. "The merger will immediately impact on senior management roles at Tairawhiti," he said –Hawkes Bay Today

The gains Republicans made in Tuesday's Congressional elections bode well for for-profit colleges, which are hoping for some respite from a harsh federal spotlight. They are also likely to lead to more-austere budgets on Capitol Hill, possibly resulting in spending cuts for student aid, research, and other higher-education priorities - The Chronicle

Universities in England will be able to charge tuition fees of up to £9,000 per year, as the government transfers much of the cost of courses from the state to students. Fees will rise to £6,000 - with an upper tier of £9,000, if universities ensure access for poorer students - BBC
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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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