Panel members appointed to the PBRF
The full membership of the 12 peer review panels being established to support the implementation of the
Performance-Based Research Fund (PBRF) has been announced by Dr Andrew West, Chair of the Tertiary Education Commission.
153 panel member appointments have been made of which 45 are women, 16 are Mäori, three are Pacific Peoples, and 36 are
from overseas. Three quarters of panel members are from the New Zealand research community and the majority come from
universities, although there are some from polytechnics, wananga, colleges of education, Crown Research Institutes, and
the private sector.
Dr West said that the role of the panels is to evaluate the quality of the research contributions of those teaching
degree-level programmes and undertaking research in tertiary education establishments. “The peer review process will
assess quality based on a variety of measures including research outputs, peer esteem factors and contribution to the
development of new researchers and a vital high-quality research environment,” said Dr West.
AUS National President, Dr Bill Rosenberg, said he was impressed by the overall calibre of panel members and was pleased
that the proportion of overseas participants seems significant enough to satisfy the need for international input. The
panels appeared to have a good balance.
Dr Rosenberg expressed concern about the workloads of both academics in preparing for the review process, and of panel
members given the very broad range of disciplines and specialities each panel must cover. He said that there will need
to be close monitoring to ensure the job can be done effectively, and results are a fair reflection of the quality of
research carried out in a wide range of disciplines.
The full list of panel members can be found in the TEC website at:
www.tec.govt.nz/Docs/pbrfpressrelease140303.pdf
Also in Tertiary Update this week . . . .
1. Vice Chancellors call for halt on GATS
2. Canterbury budgets tighten
3. University enrolment figures mixed
4. Otago begins search for new VC
5. American academics oppose threatened invasion of Iraq
6. Funding squandered on consultants
Vice-Chancellors call for halt on GATS
The New Zealand Vice-Chancellor Committee (NZVCC) has told government that it does not support education services being
included in the General Agreement of Trades in Services (GATS). In a submission to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and
Trade, the vice-chancellors have echoed AUS views that education is a public good and not a tradable commodity.
NZVCC says that New Zealand should exercise caution before putting the quality, integrity, accessibility and equity of
our higher education institutions and system at risk. It says that the lack of research on the potential implications of
extending GATS to include education would make it remiss of the NZVCC to endorse such an extension.
Concern is expressed by the NZVCC about the unsatisfactory definitions of “private” and “public” sectors within the GATS
agreement, particularly given the degree of integration between public and private tertiary education in New Zealand.
The high level of government funding which goes into private tertiary education and the amount of private funding which
goes into the public sector makes it impossible, says the NZVCC, to separate out certain sub sectors or certain types of
institutions for the purposes of GATS without impacting on other parts of the system.
Canterbury budgets tighten
Heads of Department at the University of Canterbury have been presented with financial spreadsheets ranking the
university’s 38 departments in order of financial performance. They identify more than $4.7 million in savings which
could be made, leading to speculation that new vice chancellor, Professor Roy Sharp, will deal with the University’s
financial problems as a matter of urgency. Five major departments, mostly in core sciences, are shown to be running at
losses of between $115,000 and $827,000.
Departmental budgets have been heavily pruned over the past few years and fears have been expressed that budget cuts
could lead to further reductions in staff. More than 130 staff have taken voluntary severance from the university in the
last two years.
AUS Branch President, Jane Guise said that she hoped Professor Sharp would take a long term view, including assessing
the potential benefits of new PBRF funding to science and engineering, before considering staff reductions.
University enrolment figures mixed
Provisional figures indicate that university enrolments for 2003 are generally up on the same time last year. The number
of full fee-paying foreign students continues to grow and appear to be cushioning the overall impact of sluggish
domestic numbers.
The best results appear to be from Otago which has reported a 10% growth in enrolments, up 1400 from last year.
Canterbury has released interim figures showing 11,184 enrolments at the end of February, nearly 500 up on last year
with foreign students making up 12.5% of the roll.
Victoria had 13,952 students enrolled by the end of the first week of lectures, and while it is an increase of 1,221
over the same time last year, a preliminary analysis indicates that EFTS may be slightly down. The number of foreign
students has increased by around 25% and is on target to meet Victoria’s target of 16% foreign student enrolments by
2010.
Waikato’s overall enrolments were reported to have fallen by 783 on 2002, down from 11,551 to 10,768, although numbers
are expected to rise in the next few weeks as pre-enrolments are confirmed. Full-fee paying foreign EFTS were at 1340,
up by 28% on the comparable date in 2002.
Lincoln, Massey and Auckland universities have not yet responded to requests for enrolment information but Ministry of
Education figures show that enrolments at Lincoln have fallen over the last 5 years from 4085 in 1997 to 3066 at 31 July
2002. It is understood that currently around 40% of Lincoln’s 2003 students are foreign, up from 30% last year.
Final enrolment and EFTS figures are expected to be released in April.
Otago begins search for new VC
The University of Otago has started advertising for consultants to assist in the appointment of a new vice-chancellor.
Current vice-chancellor, Dr Graeme Fogelberg, is due to retire towards the middle of 2004 and the university council
hopes to have a replacement named by the end of 2003.
The successful consultant will be expected to carry out a worldwide search and to advise the appointment committee,
which consists of 7 council members, 5 members of the academic senate, the student president and the general staff
member on the university council.
Worldwatch
American academics oppose threatened invasion of Iraq
Fourteen thousand American intellectuals, most of them academics, have signed a statement that appeared as an
advertisement in The New York Times this week condemning a possible U.S. war with Iraq. The ad says "On the eve of
battle, 14,000 U.S. writers, academics, and other intellectuals say NO TO WAR." It calls waging war at this time
"morally unacceptable," and says: "No compelling evidence has been offered of an imminent threat to our security that
would justify the use of military force."
Joshua Cohen, chairman of the political science department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, coordinated the
ad campaign and collected the signatures via a Web site. He decided to start an online petition last month, when foreign
academics asked what stance American intellectuals were taking on the war. He said that professors had donated the
$50,000 it cost to place the ad.
Funding squandered on consultants
British academics are demanding an investigation into a government scheme to retain and recruit staff after discovering
that less than a third of the £50m earmarked for the scheme found its way into lecturers' pay packets and up to £10.5m
was spent on work by consultants.
A breakdown of the way the money was spent showed that 30 per cent, or £15m, went on recruiting and retaining staff. A
similar amount was spent on staff development and training. Twelve per cent was spent on reviewing university staffing
levels and nine per cent on job evaluation both of which, the Association of University Teachers (AUT) says, involved
hiring consultants to do the work. The AUT is writing to the National Audit Office to demand an inquiry, complaining
that cash was "squandered".
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AUS Tertiary Update is compiled weekly on Thursdays and distributed freely to members of the union and others. Back
issues are archived on the AUS website: http://www.aus.ac.nz. Direct enquires to Marty Braithwaite, AUS Communications
Officer, email: marty.braithwaite@aus.ac.nz