TEU Tertiary Update Vol 14 No 5

No room to study for beneficiaries

The government’s Welfare Working Group released its final report on Tuesday, giving the government 43 recommendations it believes will drive beneficiaries off benefits and into work or study.

The report focuses on lowering the number of people on welfare benefits from about 360,000 to 260,000 within 10 years, by setting work obligations and harsh penalties if people do not comply.

Welfare Working Group chairwoman Paula Rebstock told NZPA she was confident the reform package would have a positive impact on people, their families and the wider community.

One of the many recommendations in the report was merging all existing categories of benefits, including the sickness and invalid benefits, into a single Jobseeker Support payment.

The group also suggested solo parents work 20 hours per week when their youngest child reached three years old.

Recipients who do not meet a range of new obligations would get a 25 percent payment cut for the first failure; 50 percent for the second; 100 percent for the third; and a 13-week stand-down for a fourth or any subsequent failure.

While some of the recommendations around young people who are unemployed are less punitive than some parts of the report, TEU national president Sandra Grey says they are problematic in the current environment.

Sandra Grey said that there is no point telling young beneficiaries that they should be in study if there are no spaces available for those young people.

“The government has currently capped the number of students that our polytechnics and tertiary institutions can teach. That means thousands of students are already missing out on places.”

“If tertiary institutions are so full of students that they are turning them away, as many have been for the last two years, you can’t then blame would-be-students for being on a benefit. They have done exactly what the government asked of them. It is the government’s cuts to tertiary education funding and cap on the number of funded students that is at fault.”

Read more at http://welfarejustice.org.nz

Waiāriki reinstates accidentally cancelled course

Waiāriki Institute of Technology has reinstated a diploma course after it was mistakenly axed according to the Rotorua Daily Post.

A group of students studying the institution's Diploma in Interior Design contacted the Daily Post late last week after being told the diploma they had spent thousands of dollars to work towards would not be going ahead. The students had completed a Certificate in Interior Design and were going on to the diploma.

One of the students, Kim Wilson, who has studied part-time towards the diploma since 2009, said she went to class on Wednesday afternoon where nine students were handed resources for the course.

She said the head of the department arrived and told them he was the bearer of some bad news and that the course was not going ahead as there were not enough students.

A meeting was arranged between chief executive Dr Pim Borren and the students on Friday, after several of the students sent letters to him expressing their displeasure at the course being canned and the late notice with regard to the cancellation.

Dr Borren said the course should never have been be scrapped. He said there was a new director of the school of computing, technology and communication and a new head of the arts department, and there was confusion among staff there.

"They got confused between cancelling a class as opposed to a course... Somewhere we all got wires crossed... It was a simple mistake. We have apologised."

Other news

Work and Income New Zealand has announced that, from 1 April 2011, there will be a 3.75 percent increase to student allowances, and the living costs component of student loans (to $169.51 per week).The increase in these payments reflects the increase in the Consumer Price Index for the year to 31 December 2010 - Work and Income

Auckland University law professor Jane Kelsey has slammed secrecy surrounding the Trans Pacific Partnership negotiations. "They're not negotiating a private contract. They're actually negotiating an international treaty that will bind New Zealand for the next century and we need to know what they're doing," she said - TVNZ

The expanding Frocks on Bikes movement is set to take off in Palmerston North, promoting cycling as a normal, everyday mode of transport that can be carried out in regular clothing. Massey University information services librarian Kate Stanton said Palmerston North's flat contour and cycle lanes made it an ideal location for cycling as a routine part of a normal day. "Generally, I cycle in my work clothes." - Manawatu Standard

Tri-Valley University in northern California is an unaccredited school with a capacity for around 30 students, according to the Chronicle story, yet it enrolled 1,500 students from India. The story hit the headlines when the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities found out about the situation and began rounding up the “students” and putting radio tracking devices on many of them - Inside Higher Ed

Can academics be funny? For many academics, lecturing to a hall full of bored students can be daunting enough. So the idea of delivering course notes to a tough crowd at a comedy gig might seem positively terrifying. But that is exactly what happens at Bright Club, a monthly comedy event in London described by organisers as 'the thinking person's variety night' - BBC