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Too many fixed term jobs for on-going work

New Zealand tertiary institutions are relying too heavily on casual and temporary labour for jobs that should be permanent says TEU national president Dr Sandra Grey.

The growth of casual labour in tertiary education is a growing problem. Dr Grey cites as an example for change the Templin Manifesto; a document developed by the German education trade union Gewerkschaft Erziehung und Wissenschaft, which states that researchers working towards their doctorate should enjoy adequate conditions of employment, rooted in collective bargaining. The manifesto also states that academics need reliable career prospects that facilitate a permanent future in higher education and research, and that higher education institutions need to create enough permanent positions for staff to do that institute's professional work.

Dr Grey says that it is unacceptable that staff doing permanent jobs should be on fixed term or temporary employment agreements with lesser terms and pay.

"It's not just academics like the ones the Templin Manifesto focuses on. General staff are affected by casualisation too. It is particularly galling when you consider the experience, qualifications and training that many of those employees have. They have invested in their future and their career, but their employer refuses to do the same."

Dr Grey says that the problem is particularly bad for women who are more likely to end up in these temporary or fixed term positions. 

"If people are employed on a fixed term or in a casual job but the work is actually on-going they should join TEU."

Also in Tertiary Update this week:

1. EIT Tairāwhiti merger secures extra govt funding


2. Should pay increase match inflation?


3. Course fees unchanged since 1992


4. Auckland only 144 places behind Harvard


5. India hikes spending on higher education


6. Other news

EIT Tairāwhiti merger secures extra govt funding

Education consultant, ED Insider, has sourced the papers considered by the Minister for Tertiary Education and Cabinet regarding the merger of the Eastern Institute of Technology (EIT) and Tairāwhiti Polytechnic (Tairāwhiti). The papers show that EIT had originally asked for $5 million capital funding and 400 EFTS growth in their business case, but were provided with up to $7.5 million operating grants dependent on close monitoring by the TEC board and regular reporting of expenses.

The papers show that the process was a very rapid one. In September 2010, Tairāwhiti and EIT presented a draft business case to the TEC with their intent to merge. By late November 2010, the Minister and Cabinet noted points and took decisions on the merger. Then on 1 December, the Minister announced the disestablishment of Tairāwhiti and merger with EIT, effective 1 January 2011.

Ed Insider notes that this is the first time in a while that the National-led government has agreed to provide a grant to a tertiary institution or institutions. It also agreed to waive covenants and reporting requirements for Tairāwhiti's $1.3 million suspensory loan from the Crown.

"It certainly was a tight process. Throughout the documents, there are references to ‘tight timeframes’, ‘needing further work’, ‘would have liked more time’. Almost every time Treasury makes a comment, they start by noting how little time they had to provide advice. " 

"One of the timeframe issues we found particularly interesting was how little time the Minister had to consider EIT’s request of $7.5 million rather than the initial $5 million. Advice shows that Treasury and TEC officials had agreed in principle to the $7.5 million before they had advised the Minister," said the ED Insider report.

Should pay increases match inflation?

CTU economist Dr Bill Rosenberg says workers need to be wary of arguments by employers that they should not pay the full Consumer Price Index (CPI) adjustment to wages this year because most of it is due to the GST rise, and workers have been compensated for that by the personal tax cuts.

Dr Rosenberg notes that inflation estimates are rising due to the February earthquake in Christchurch. The effects may be localised (Christchurch people are already seeing sharp increases in rents and the cost of other items in short supply), but will not be totally localised as shortages, oil and exported food (e.g. dairy) prices affect the rest of the country.

"It is government spin that the 20 percent GST increase offsets the tax cuts – a 'tax switch'" says Dr Rosenberg.

"The reality is that costs have gone up substantially for workers. In the past, employers would not have accepted that increases in income taxes should be compensated for in higher pay rates. Why should reductions in income tax be taken out of pay increases this time round?"

Dr Rosenberg notes that not all the increase in government charges and policy changes has been compensated for in tax cuts. The Reserve Bank estimates are that in the year to March 2011, inflation would be about 2.8 percentage points lower without the changes to GST, tobacco tax and emissions trading. About 2.0 percent of that was compensated for as being due to GST, so another 0.8 percent remains for those other charges. In addition there is the increase in ACC levies adding around another 0.4 percent, totalling 1.2 percent other than GST.

Course fees unchanged since 1992

Green Party tertiary education spokesperson Gareth Hughes has written to the tertiary education minister Steven Joyce asking that the amount students can borrow for course-related costs should be increased to $1500 to reflect inflation.

"The course-related costs component of the student loan scheme hasn't changed since 1992, but the cost of being a student has risen dramatically," Mr Hughes said.

Under the student loan scheme, students are eligible to borrow up to $1000 per year for course-related costs, including textbooks, computers, and course materials. Mr Hughes said the figure was out of date and should be increased and indexed to inflation.

"It is unrealistic and unfair to expect students in 2011 to equip themselves to study for the same dollar amount as students in 1992. $1000 in 1992 had the same purchasing power as $1492 today," Mr Hughes said.

"A more realistic figure for course-related costs in 2011 is $1500, and this should be indexed to inflation in future to ensure it doesn't get so out of step again. I have written to Tertiary Education Minister Steven Joyce asking him to make this change.

"As the academic year gets underway, we need to make sure that every student has access to the resources they need to study successfully. Ensuring that course-related costs reflect the true cost of being a student is one way to do this," Mr Hughes said.

Auckland only 144 places behind Harvard

Auckland University's website already heralds its ranking of 145 in the Times Higher Education (THE) Supplement list of the world's top 200 universities

The list published this week by the THE, is the first of its kind looking solely at the reputations of institutions for teaching and research. Harvard comes top closely followed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) beating both Oxford and Cambridge universities.

The US dominates with seven universities in the top ten and a massive 45 in the total rankings. Taking 12 of the places in the top 100, the UK is second to the US.

THE included a significant focus on reputation in this list, thus ensuring that British and American universities remained well ahead less well known universities from other parts of the world.

The University of Auckland is the only New Zealand university to be ranked 145 in the world and 6 out of eight in Oceania. Academics at the University of Auckland are a concerned that reputation is at risk from a managerial attempt to remove long standing academic professional working conditions from their employment agreement.

Phil Baty, editor of the rankings list, said: "In an ever more competitive global market for students, academics and university administrators a university's reputation for academic excellence is crucial."

However, TEU president Sandra Grey said the ranking exercises such as this are the higher education equivalent of American Idol.

"They say nothing about the real teaching and research that is going on in individual departments and schools. Markets and sales people might get excitable about these sorts of lists but students and staff are not going to learn anything from these lists except where most of the old boys in the old ’boys' network studied."

India hikes spending on higher education

Aiming to provide greater tertiary opportunities for its young population, India has increased its higher education budget by 34 percent to NZ$4 billion for 2011-12. Overall, the education sector received a hike of 24 percent compared to last year in order to provide universal access to secondary education, increase the number of students in higher education, and grow skills training for youth.

"Our demographic dividend of a relatively younger population compared with developed countries is as much of an opportunity as it is a challenge. Over 70 percent of Indians will be of working age in 2025," Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said while proposing the allocation for education on 28 February.

India wants to increase its university enrolment rate from around 12 percent at present to 30 percent of the 18-24 year population by 2025, approaching the levels of many Western countries.

A major portion of the money for higher education will go to the 15 Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), which will receive $1.7 billion, followed by the University Grants Commission, the regulatory body for higher education, which will receive $1.6 billion.

However, the increase falls short of the nearly 100 percent hike in higher education funding that the Education Ministry was pushing for to meet a slew of promises made under the country's 2007-12 Five Year Plan.

The 2011-12 financial year is the last under the Plan, and the budgetary allocations will not be enough to finance many promises made, senior official sources said. India's National Knowledge Commission has estimated that India needs 1,500 universities compared to around 370 now.

By Alya Mishra at University World News

Other news

CPIT plans a staged return to its city campus over the coming weeks once the institution’s Madras Street campus is clear of a civil defence cordon established after the 22 February earthquake. The vast majority of CPIT’s city campus buildings were cleared by two structural engineering assessments. We are now awaiting final clearance from Civil Defence - CPIT

It was 25 years ago this week that Parumoana Community College was officially opened by Governor General Sir Paul Reeves as the tertiary education institute that became Whitireia Community Polytechnic. It was a significant launch of an initiative to change the social outcomes for the area. The first year opened with 48 nursing students and 60 secretarial students studying on the Porirua Campus, on the edge of Parumoana harbour - Whitireia

Up to seven management and computer support jobs will go if a scheme aimed at cutting costs at the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology goes ahead. NMIT chief executive Tony Gray says the proposal would involve cutting management positions and combining IT support services with the Otago Polytechnic -Nelson Mail

The international Scholars at Risk Network, a group of over 250 higher education institutions in 30 countries fighting to protect endangered academics, researchers, and intellectuals has just launched a Norway Section. The Norway Section will organiseorganise and coordinate Scholars at Risk activities in Norway, including public awareness campaigns, talks and lectures by endangered scholars speaking about their experiences, advocacy projects on behalf of scholars who are imprisoned or otherwise silenced, and temporary academic positions for professors, lecturers, researchers and intellectuals suffering persecution in their home countries - Scholars at Risk

The IHC has appealed to the Supreme Court against a decision that could cost it $176 million in back pay for workers on overnight stays, despite three courts ruling against them. The Court of Appeal ruled last month that overnight stays fitted the legal definition of "work", and that workers should be paid the minimum hourly wage for those stays - Dominion Post

Suppose someone were to describe a small country that provided free tertiary education, transport for schoolchildren and free healthcare - including heart surgery. You might suspect that such a country is either phenomenally rich or on the fast track to fiscal crisis. But Mauritius, a small island nation off the east coast of Africa, is neither particularly rich nor on its way to budgetary ruin. Nonetheless, it has spent the past decades successfully building a diverse economy, a democratic political system, and a strong social safety net - Joseph Stiglitz

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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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