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University of Auckland students rally for staff

University of Auckland students are helping organise a rally tomorrow aiming to convince the vice-chancellor not to remove key working conditions from the academic collective agreement.

Student president Joe McCrory says students are supporting TEU because they want to be taught by the best. "So what is important to lecturers and tutors is also important to students. For us, the university's ability to retain and attract people is important."

"Teaching and learning is going to affect everybody," says Mr McCrory. "In five years' time the lecturers and academics might not be there - they will be overseas."

The rally which is scheduled to take place tomorrow at 12.30pm beside the old commerce A building on the city campus, will also be well attended by TEU members from all four of the university’s campuses, as well as a number of other supporters. Transport will be available for members from Grafton, Epsom and Tamaki.

TEU has informed management that it will be holding a stop-work meeting during this time so all TEU members will be legally entitled to attend.

The students’ association and the union are organising music, entertainment, food and drink.

McCrory will be among the speakers at the rally making a call for an end to the vice chancellor’s proposals. He is hoping the management will reconsider what they are offering to staff.

"We want to see something on the table that lecturers can work with."

Also in Tertiary Update this week:

1. Minister faces air-force query


2. TEU's legal victory creates a stir


3. English wants tertiary education to end welfare dependency


4. Australian tertiary union to push boundaries on climate change


5. Other news

Minister faces air-force query

Has Steven Joyce, the minister of tertiary education, like his boss the prime minister, also been in a hurry to get from V8 car races to black tie dinner engagements? We will soon know because he will be answering the following written question in parliament:

"Has the minister travelled by RNZAF aircraft during this term of parliament and if so; on how many occasions, on what dates and what were the points of departure and arrival for each sector flown?"

The minister is due to answer by 4 May.

TEU's legal victory creates a stir

The National Business Review (NBR) reports that TEU's victory in the employment court last fortnight, where two members from Massey University won the right to see information about why they were being chosen for redundancy, is "likely to send shock-waves though the country's workforce and change the way employment decisions are made."

The NBR reports that labour minister Kate Wilkinson had stated earlier this year that she was looking to change the law because of several employment law cases before the court. The NBR believes this was one of those cases. It says that employers may be forced to change processes, increase documentation and be aware of potential information requests and challenges. It also suggests people may be reluctant to take part in employment panels.

Meanwhile the Manawatu Standard reports that Massey University is yet to decide whether it will appeal, for a second time, the decision. Massey has 28 days to decide whether to appeal, following the judgment.

TEU national secretary Sharn Riggs says the case, the minister's reported concern and NBR's article shows how important the court's decision was for workers' rights.

"The minister of labour and the business community are frustrated because we have shown as a union that we give workers real democratic power and voice in their own workplace," said Ms Riggs.

English wants tertiary education to end welfare dependency

In his budget policy statement for this year the minister of finance, Bill English said under the heading 'lifting education and skills'

"Looking ahead, we expect growth in the labour force to slow due to demographic changes. This means that the economy will need to exploit its skills potential to the full. We will need to become more effective in moving young people from education and training into the labour market, and also in utilising the skills of others such as older workers, part-time workers, migrants and women with dependent children who may want to work more. We will also need to reduce the incidence of young people becoming trapped into long periods of welfare dependency that reduce their attachment to the labour market."

TEU president Dr Sandra Grey has responded saying that if the minister has this as his goal then the policies he needs to implement are very clear.

"There are 50,000 more people unemployed than there were two years ago, but there are only 8,000 more unemployed people in formal study than there were two years ago" says Dr Grey.

"If citizens who have not previously had a tertiary education are going to get new skills and education then we need to equip our public tertiary education system to meet their needs. That means support for first time students, foundation courses and, as the minister has often noted, greater pastoral care. It also means financial support for all those students who do not have another income while they are studying for the skills the government wants them to get - older workers, migrants and women with dependent children. It means we need to increase dramatically the number of places available to make space for all these new students. People without a background in study will need smaller, not larger class sizes, more tutorial support and a more stable tertiary education workforce."

"Tertiary education workers are desperately keen to help the minister end welfare dependency. Now we just need the tools to do the job," said Dr Grey.

Australian tertiary union to push boundaries on climate change

Tertiary education unionists are convening in Melbourne for the National Tertiary Education Union’s Climate Change Conference. The conference aims to ‘push the boundaries’ on the ways Australians are thinking, talking and acting on climate change and environmental sustainability.

"We have called the conference Pushing the Boundaries because we believe that as a union of academics, researchers, university professionals and administrators we have a particular role to play in addressing this critical problem of our time," explained National President Jeannie Rea.

"It is expected that people in universities will come up with the ways to tackle the causes and consequences of global warming, and this work is going on every day in Australian universities. University staff and students are pushing the boundaries of science, engineering, philosophy, politics, economics, psychology and education, and are working together across traditional disciplinary and professional areas."

"We assert the need to push the boundaries because the frame of the Australian debate is far too narrow and unambitious considering the immensity of the realities facing us," argued Ms Rea.

The conference will focus upon the on-going ‘debate’ about the science of climate change and the consequences, as well as what needs to change technologically and in human attitudes and behaviour. Educating for environmental sustainability is a key theme for educators, government and industry, charged with changing education and training to meet the challenges of the new thinking and the new jobs needed for a low pollution economy.

Leading commentators, researchers, educators and activists from the NTEU, and other unions and organisations will be debating and challenging the increasingly narrow framing of the critical issues.

Other news

The US for-profit higher education industry spent $8.1 million on lobbying activities in 2010, up from $3.3 million the year before, according to an analysis by The Huffington Post of data from the Center for Responsive Politics. The Huffington Post emphasised the sharp increase in such spending at a time of proposals to increase regulation of for-profit colleges - Inside Higher Ed

The number of domestic students studying at Australian universities has surged by 50,000 in the past two years, a trend the government says will help meet the growing demand for skilled staff. But the growth has sparked warnings from universities that the Gillard government's expansion agenda could stall unless more infrastructure money is made available for new classrooms and maintenance - The Australian

The number of foreign students coming to Christchurch has fallen significantly, tertiary education minister Steven Joyce says. The February earthquake, which caused dozens of foreign student fatalities in the CTV building collapse, appeared to have hit Christchurch student numbers hard. A survey by Education New Zealand last month found more than 50 per cent of the international agents reported students headed for Christchurch had diverted to another region, and 25 per cent reported cancellations - Stuff

It's close to midnight and something evil may be lurking in the dark. But anyone worried about the prowling undead can rest a little easier in the knowledge that the Zombie Institute for Theoretical Studies at the University of Glasgow is on the case - Times Higher Education Supplement

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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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