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Student achievement grants cut for 8 polytechnics

Polytechnics and one wānanga were big losers in this year’s Government’s Student Achievement Component (SAC) funding for the tertiary education sector.

Figures released last year from the Tertiary Education Commission show that eight polytechnics will receive less SAC money this year than last. The figures reveal that Bay of Plenty Polytechnic, UCOL, NMIT, Northtec, SIT, WITT, Waiāriki and Te Tai Poutini all receive funding cuts this year. Te Wānanga o Raukawa also lost a million dollars of funding this year.

Universities on the whole did better, with a $56 million, or 5 percent increase in SAC funding – although $10 million of that relates to funding that last year went to Telford Rural Polytechnic and this year is moved into Lincoln University’s budget due to a merger of the two institutions.

Industry Training Organisations (ITOs) were the hardest hit by the commission's funding announcement with 31 of 37 receiving funding cuts. Overall ITOs lost $28 million of funding.

The polytechnics and wānanga that are the worst hit by funding cuts are all outside the major urban cities.  Waiāriki Institute of Technology for instance faces 6 percent reduction in its SAC grant this year.  That is $1.5 million, or over $400 for every equivalent full time student.

Overall, the total funding increase to the SAC grant (2 percent) does not quite match the 2.2 percent price increase that the commission says is included in its calculations – in other words there is an overall funding cut for the institutions, which is particularly given the significant roll growth that tertiary institutions are experiencing.

Also in Tertiary Update this week:

1. PM claims better results for less money


2. Will new trade agreement let foreign universities sue NZ?


3. Education International's first global women's conference


4. Early childhood cuts won’t heal


5. Other news

PM claims better results for less money

The Prime Minister told parliament in his scene-setting speech for the year this week that his government is building a more effective tertiary education system "that provides good value, high-quality up-skilling opportunities for New Zealanders from all walks of life".  He later described the path to high quality as teaching record numbers of students on reduced funding.

During his speech Mr Key outlined the government's priorities in tertiary education as progressing the Youth Guarantee policy and opening eight further Trades Academies.

"These will provide hundreds of students the opportunity to learn a trade in a school setting while also ensuring they have the foundation skills needed for future learning ".

Mr Key noted that the government would examine lower-level tertiary provision, such as that provided in level one and two certificate courses.

Mr Key also reiterated that there would be no significant new funding:

"Our focus is on getting better results from money in the existing budget for tertiary education and ploughing any savings into creating more places for students to take up education and training."

Mr Key said there had been good progress so far, with universities this year set to provide record numbers of student places, and funding in place to allow for 16,500 additional places across the wider tertiary education sector, as compared to 2008.

The Government will continue work to build better value out of the interest-free student loan system, including considering further changes to encourage repayment by graduates living overseas.

Will new trade agreement let foreign universities sue NZ?

The prime minister's equivocation on whether a proposed Trans-pacific Partnership trade agreement (TPPA) will allow multinational companies to sue the New Zealand government raises concerns for the tertiary education sector, according to TEU national president Dr Sandra Grey.

Last year the Prime Minister said it was far-fetched and extremely unlikely a foreign investor would be able to sue the New Zealand government.

But a few days ago a US trade negotiator, Barbara Wiesel, said that was no longer New Zealand’s position.

In response to questions about New Zealand and Australian positions during a briefing in Washington on 31 January Ms Wiesel said “New Zealand had retracted the Prime Minister’s statement. It is not their position.”

Under standard US terms for such agreements, investors can claim millions in compensation from governments on the grounds that new regulation has adversely affected their investment. Under a TPPA that would apply to investors from all participating countries, including our largest sources of investment, the US and Australia, said Dr Jane Kelsey, author of No Ordinary Deal: Unmasking the Trans-Pacific Partnership Free Trade Agreement.

Dr Grey says the risk for New Zealand tertiary institutions is that private American universities could sue the New Zealand government if they felt they were not given a fair chance to compete for students here in New Zealand.  Such private universities could, for instance, claim that our accreditation procedure for being a university or polytechnic, or our quality controls are unfairly restrictive and exclude them from operating here in New Zealand. If that happened the government could either end up changing those laws or paying the private institution compensation. It's not worth the risk.

Dr Grey says that her concerns are based on the text of previous similar trade agreement that the US has negotiated.  "We don't know what is in the TPPA because our government refuses to show its own people what it is negotiating to sign over."

Education International's first global women's conference

In a week when the New Zealand government is announcing budget cuts and when reductions in early childhood education funding have come into force, TEU national president Sandra Grey spent time with education workers from around the globe discussing the need for public investment in quality public education.

The key message out of Education International’s first Women’s Conferenceheld in Bangkok, was that governments must invest in public services.

"Repeatedly conference delegates from both developing and developed nations expressed their dismay that governments were prepared to bail-out bankers and financiers, but at the same time are withdrawing funding for public services, " said Dr Grey. "EI delegates felt that this meant the poor of the world were being made to pay for the on-going economic recession."

The sentiment is set out in a statement about the access of women to education which will be presented by EI, the International Trade Union Council, and Public Services International to the UN Economic and Social Council at the end of this month:

"Investment in all quality public services is a key driver of development. As such, trade unions have grave concerns with the reductions to budgets supporting public services which governments have undertaken in response to the current economic crisis. These cuts are having a negative impact on the provision of quality public services which are central to eradicating poverty through the delivery of health care, education, and decent work for women. Investments in the public sector and in the social ministries charged with development, labour and gender equality should be increased not decreased in a time of crisis …"

Or as put more succinctly by conference presenter, Gloria Inés Ramiréz, Senate of the Republic of Colombia: “Another world is possible, another world is necessary!”

Early childhood cuts won’t heal

Hundreds of people at early childhood centres around the country, including centres at many tertiary education institutions, donned green t-shirts on 1 February to protest against the government’s cuts to early childhood education.  The Day of Action was organised by NZEI Te Riu Roa which represents early childhood teachers, and was used to launch a community petition against the funding cuts.

The cuts were announced in last year’s Budget and take $295 million dollars out of early childhood education over the next few years by reducing funding for early childhood centres and services which have more than 80 percent fully qualified staff. The changes affect 93,000 children in 2,000 kindergartens and early childhood centres around the country - just over half the number of children enrolled nationwide.

An NZEI survey of 26 community-based early childhood centres in Christchurch found that the average amount of funding being lost was $43,000 and collectively they were losing $1.12 million from their budgets this year.

The result is that families are paying the cost as centres are forced to put up their fees to make up their funding shortfalls.

"This is going to put huge pressure on already stretched family budgets," says NZEI National Executive member Hayley Whitaker.

"Many parents now have to weigh up whether they can afford to continue working or whether they can keep their children enrolled.  On the other side, many services are looking at laying off their qualified staff to make ends meet."

NZEI is urging parents, grandparents and people in all communities to get behind the petition and send a strong message to the government that our youngest children are worth more.

You can download copies of the petition at www.nzei.org.nz

Other news

Professor Harlene Hayne has been appointed as the new vice-chancellor of the University of Otago and becomes the second woman vice-chancellor of a New Zealand university, following Judith Kinnear who left Massey in 2009. TEU's Otago university branch welcomed Dr Hayne and looks forward to working constructively with her.

The number of Equivalent Full Time Students aged 18 - 25 years engaged in formal tertiary study increased by 15,648 (13.5%) between 2008 and 2010 - TVNZ

The Labour Party has announced a new Tertiary Education spokesperson, Darren Hughes, will replace Grant Robertson. Mr Hughes takes on the entire Education portfolio including tertiary and compulsory education – Labour Party

"I take issue with an underlying assumption in the report that academics and institutions aren’t very good at career planning. Academics work with their institutions to set out clear career plans – the problem is the rules of progression and attainment for academics are being set by managerial approaches to tertiary education, which have been in continual flux for more than two decades" – Sandra Grey

Dame Margaret Clark, who has worked at Victoria University for more than three decades, says it is not the lifestyle choice it used to be. "I think the future is a lot tougher than my past was. I think that universities were much more gentlemanly, much more relaxed, much less judgemental," she said. The pressure has also increased in her department, where student teacher ratios are 1:47, when they should be 1:15 - TVNZ

The Government is cutting support for teaching in higher education by 80 per cent, and forcing universities to charge up to £9,000 per year. With the median wage in the UK at £22,000, the majority of the UK population will be unable to pay some of the highest fees in the world –Open letter from academics in the Time Educational Supplement

The Dutch coalition government has announced cuts of up to EUR500 million (US$681 million) a year for higher education, penalties for students and universities if they fail to complete their degree after four years, and the abolition of grants for masters students. University rectors and the mayors of university cities warned that the cuts would "push the Netherlands out of the world's top 10 knowledge economies" – University World News

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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.

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