AUS Tertiary Update

National bargaining, tripartism back on agenda
Union members in New Zealand universities will begin to gear up for this year’s salary round with a series of meetings starting next week to look at bargaining and on-going tripartite meetings with the Government and vice-chancellors. Ballots will be conducted later this month to determine whether to initiate bargaining for national multi-employer collective agreements for academic and general staff.
Association of University Staff General Secretary, Helen Kelly, said that the AUS Annual Conference and Council were recommending that union members again vote in support of national bargaining, with the current site-based agreements in the seven universities due to expire on 31 May. “Although union members have previously voted on this issue, the technical provisions of the Employment Relations Act require that a ballot be held again this year,” she said. “If the recommendation for national bargaining is endorsed, bargaining will be initiated in early April and bargaining is expected to begin by May.”
Ms Kelly said that last year’s salary increases of between 4 and 7.5 percent throughout the sector were made possible by a contribution of $26 million from the Government directly attributable to the Tripartite Forum resulting from the national bargaining framework. “The tripartite process has allowed the unions to work constructively with the Government and vice-chancellors to address workplace issues within the universities, including funding and salaries, and last year’s results show that it was positive for university staff,” she said. “Continuing participation will allow us to build on last year’s good results and, while funding and salaries will remain a priority, tripartism may allow other issues to be addressed. These could include workforce development, including building skills and career opportunities, governance and ensuring that universities are working in the national interest.”
Ms Kelly said that the tripartite process is the most significant engagement that staff and unions have had in the direction of the New Zealand university sector and that it is important to keep the momentum going.
The first meeting of the Tripartite Forum will be held on 15 March

Also in Tertiary Update this week
1. Decision expected on UCOL diploma course
2. More than 300 Saudi students to come to New Zealand
3. Glass walls may not increase transparency, National warns
4. Students’ transition between school and tertiary education
5. Fear and loathing in North Dunedin
6. US student-grant increase, but at a price
7. University to ban gay marriages on campus
8. Crisis threatens Mathematics as RMIT sheds staff
9. Tesco shoppers bag a bargain with OU

Decision expected on UCOL diploma course
An announcement on the future of the first-year intake for the local polytechnic’s Diploma in Glass Design and Production course is expected to be made today by the Wanganui Mayor, Michael Laws. Whanganui UCOL has come under sustained criticism following its surprise announcement cancelling the first-year intake for the three-year Diploma course only days before classes were due to start. UCOL says student enrolment numbers are in single figures for 2007, making the course unsustainable, and that decisions were also based on enrolment trends and financial and academic viability.
It is understood that Mr Laws and the Wanganui District Council’s Cultural and Community Manager, Sally Patrick, have now met with senior UCOL officials and that an agreement in principle has been reached which may save the course. Mr Laws said that the agreement was yet to be signed off and put to district councillors and UCOL's glass department staff and students before being made public. “All I ask is hold on one more day and let’s see what Santa brought, as I say to my children on Christmas Eve,” he said.
Earlier, the polytechnic had come under sustained criticism for cancelling the intake in what was described as an iconic course. Maori Party Co-Leader, Tariana Turia, said that it is New Zealand’s only tertiary programme majoring in hot and warm glass, and has attracted students from all around the country and overseas. “The technologies and techniques of glass-making taught on this course are a vital foundation for our glass art community throughout the country,” she said. “The consequences of the decision to cancel the course will have a major impact on art galleries, on the local economy, on the tourism industry and it will also limit our ability to contribute to the international glass scene. The late cancellation has, it appears, been made without any consultation with the interested parties.
Form the Wanganui Chronicle

More than 300 Saudi students to come to New Zealand
Last week’s announcement that more than 300 Saudi Arabian students would study in New Zealand under an expanded Saudi Government scholarship programme has received a welcome response from the tertiary-education sector.
The Minister for Tertiary Education, Dr Michael Cullen, said that universities are expecting applications from at least 350 students at both undergraduate and postgraduate level for the 2007 academic year. “The expansion of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah scholarships programme not only boosts export education earnings, it also strengthens cooperation and understanding between New Zealand and the countries of the Gulf region,” he said. “The scholarships could be worth more than ten million dollars a year to the New Zealand economy, based on estimated foreign-exchange earnings for an international university student of around $40,000 a year.”
The New Zealand Vice-Chancellors’ Committee said that the influx of Saudi students would enrich New Zealand universities, with Committee Chair, Professor Roy Sharp, saying the initiative is further recognition of the quality of New Zealand university education. “As the [recent] OECD report states, international education not only benefits the economy and society but also the universities themselves through new academic perspectives, cultural contexts and an enriched learning environment,” he said.
Similarly, Education New Zealand says that the country’s success in securing the scholarships speaks volumes for the quality of our education offering and the way in which universities and stakeholders have been able to work together to attract students. ”New Zealand’s universities have put aside traditional competitive rivalries and cooperated to rise to the challenge presented by the Saudi opportunity,” said Robert Stevens, Chief Executive of Education New Zealand. “[We] strongly support this approach, and have worked hard with the universities in this and other markets to ensure that New Zealand is to the forefront when educational opportunities arise.”

Glass walls may not increase transparency, National warns
A pledge by the new Secretary for Education, Karen Sewell, to make her Ministry more “open and transparent” will require more than an office makeover, according to National Party Education spokeswoman, Katherine Rich.
In this week’s issue of the Education Gazette, Ms Sewell says she is determined to break down barriers to the public accessing Ministry information. Ms Sewell told the Gazette she wanted an office refit, knocking out a wall and putting in glass so she can see her reception area, adding to her new vision of transparency. “I want the Ministry of Education to be more open and transparent. We have to be accessible and responsive. We have some wonderful information here and we need to make it more available. I don’t want us to feel isolated. I don't want people to think that secret stuff goes on here, because it doesn’t,” she said.
While welcoming Ms Sewell’s approach, Katherine Rich has warned that attempts to allow the public to access information will most likely be stymied by Education Minister Steve Maharey. “Ms Sewell is on a collision course with the Minister who regularly declines Official Information Act requests and generally hides information,” said Ms Rich. “I wish Ms Sewell good luck in her fresh approach but would warn her to think carefully before installing glass walls as a symbolic gesture of transparency and save her actions for something that will actually improve learning.”

Students’ transition between school and tertiary education
School leavers with little or no formal attainment are those most likely to enrol in tertiary education, according to a recent report looking at trends in students’ transition between school and tertiary education. The report, Students’ transitions between school and tertiary education, reveals that, in 2000, the group least likely to go on directly to tertiary education after leaving school comprised students with little or no formal attainment. By 2004, however, the trend had reversed with 80 percent of this group likely to go to tertiary education.
The report says it is likely that the introduction of the Youth Training programme, which gives young people with no qualifications the opportunity to study in tertiary institutions for no cost, has contributed to this change in trend.
Most of the demographic differences in rates of transition between school and tertiary education are a result of differences in the attainment with which students leave school. Maori and Pasifika students have similar transition rates to all students, though male students remain less likely to attend tertiary education after leaving school.
Those students who attain at University Entrance level or above at school are reported to be the most homogenous in their transition to tertiary behaviour. Most choose study at degree level, with a small group choosing certificates. Students who leave school with University Entrance and study at certificate level are more likely to be Maori, Pasifika or from low decile schools.
Students’ transitions between school and tertiary education can be found at:
http://educationcounts.edcentre.govt.nz/themes/schooling/student-transition.html

Fear and loathing in North Dunedin
The quality of the student experience was expected to have been richly enhanced yesterday with the forays of four University of Otago Campus Watch teams into the depths of North Dunedin. The initiative is one of several recommendations to come out of a University working party established to address student behaviour in the city.
Twenty-one people have been employed to make up the Campus Watch teams; their role is essentially to act as “walking information booths” on a range of issues, many associated with the transition from colleges of residence to flatting. Apparently, these might include education around how to extend cooking portfolios from baked beans on toast and running a good party that is within the law and acceptable to the neighbours.
University Student Services Director David Richardson says the teams are there to maintain and improve the quality of the student experience in the wider campus environment and to assist residents and businesses of North Dunedin with any concerns they may have. “Each team … will be on duty well into the night during semester time, and wear distinctive clothes so they are readily identified,” he said.
“We know there is a small percentage of students whose idea of fun has a negative impact on their fellow students and nearby residents,” said Mr Richardson. “The presence of the Campus Watch team members should go some way towards deterring inconsiderate behaviour and encouraging people to look after themselves and each other more responsibly. These people are, after all, the future of this country.”
Mr Richardson said that the mix of alcohol and youth doesn’t always lead to good judgments, and that Campus Watch would be endeavouring to help students early on, so they don't put themselves in positions stemming from “high spirits gone wrong” which could prevent them from entering their chosen career.

Worldwatch
US student-grant increase, but at a price
This week’s announcement of the 2008 United States Education Department budget has confirmed speculation that spending for student, or Pell, grants would be increased, but at the cost of cutting lender subsidies and eliminating the Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant programme which augments Pell Grants for low-income students.
Under the President’s budget proposal, the maximum Pell Grant would increase by 14 percent to $US4,600 next year, while the maximum Academic Competitiveness Grants for talented low-income students would increase by 50 percent to $1,125 for first-year students and $1,950 for second-year. These grants are awarded for what is described as strong or rigorous academic preparation and achievement.
The Budget will also provide $US24 million for a new grant programme aimed at increasing the number of speakers of so-called “critical languages” and $US25 million for a study of a database that would track the educational progress of students.
However, commercial lenders in the Federal Government's guaranteed-loan programme would have their Federal subsidies slashed for a third time in a year, this time by $18.8 billion, meaning those costs would be passed to students. Several other higher-education, or student-loan, assistance programmes will be cut.
The President of the American Federation of Teachers, Edward McElroy, said that, each year since taking office, the President has proposed a budget that ignores the needs of the vast majority of Americans and instead lines the pockets of the ultra-rich. “This year’s budget is no exception,” he said.
From the Chronicle of Higher Education and AFT

University to ban gay marriages on campus
Academics and students at Canterbury Christ Church University in the United Kingdom say they are shocked and incensed by a proposal to ban civil-partnership ceremonies on campus. The Vice-Chancellor, Chair of Governors and Deputy Pro-Chancellor of the University argue that the Church’s position on homosexuality makes it wrong to conduct lesbian and gay “marriages” on the University’s premises.
Academics and students say a ban would flout the institution’s equal-opportunities policy and damage its reputation, with representatives of the staff and student unions calling on the proponents of the plan to retract it immediately or resign. The University and College Union (UCU) has criticised the Vice-Chancellor for the ban, saying the attitude of the senior officers at Canterbury Christ Church University is inappropriate in a modern place of learning. “Discrimination should have no place in a university and it will be opposed by UCU, in line with the law,” said Roger Kline, UCU Head of Equality and Employment Rights.
Canterbury Christ Church is one of eleven higher-education institutions closely aligned with the Church of England. The Church has declined to comment on the proposed ban until the University's governing body has made its final decision. The office of the Archbishop of Canterbury also declined to comment.
From the Education Guardian and UCU

Crisis threatens Mathematics as RMIT sheds staff
A crisis threatening Mathematics departments in Australian universities is worsening, with Melbourne’s RMIT University set to make up to 25 percent of staff in their Department of Mathematics redundant, according to the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU).
The situation at RMIT comes amid renewed debate about the crisis facing Mathematics and Science departments in universities, with a recent report on the future of mathematical sciences in Australia revealing substantial reductions in teaching and research staff in the nation’s top universities.
The report, Mathematics And Statistics: Critical Skills For Australia’s Future, found that the number of Mathematics and Statistics students and lecturers at Australian universities is “critically low”. It also revealed that not enough trained Mathematics teachers are entering the high school system.
The report will be considered this week at a forum organised by the National Committee for the Mathematical Sciences which will be attended by senior Government and opposition representatives.
On Monday, RMIT notified two Mathematics academics of redundancy and have signalled that up to 25 percent of academic staff could follow in an attempt to alleviate funding problems.
Jeanette Pierce, the NTEU Branch President at RMIT, said that it was absurd that the University, which is a member of the Australian Technology Network group of universities, should be cutting back in the area of Mathematics, which she described as a cornerstone for all technological studies.

Tesco shoppers bag a bargain with OU
Shoppers who collect points using loyalty cards with United Kingdom supermarket chain Tesco can now use them towards obtaining a university degree. A new partnership between the Open University and Tesco will sees shoppers able to pay for all or part of an OU course by exchanging Tesco Clubcard vouchers. The OU is the first university to use the loyalty-card scheme as a marketing tool.
OU Vice-Chancellor Brenda Gourley said that the scheme is an exciting and innovative partnership that is true to the University's founding mission: to be open to people, places, methods and ideas. She added that the partnership allows the University to extend its reach to new students, who have the opportunity to gain access to its courses without incurring any debt. “We aim to make access to the University’s programmes as flexible as possible,” she said. “This extends to giving our students a number of options to meet course fees, and this new deal is now one of those options.”
For every £10 of vouchers, shoppers will receive £40 towards the cost of their OU course.
The OU teaches 35 percent of all part-time undergraduate students in the United Kingdom each year. At undergraduate level, there are no qualification requirements to study at the University, with 33 percent of undergraduates starting to study with fewer than two A-levels.
From The Guardian

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AUS Tertiary Update is compiled weekly on Thursdays and distributed freely to members of the Association of University Staff and others. Back issues are available on the AUS website: www.aus.ac.nz . Direct enquires should be made to Marty Braithwaite, AUS Communications Officer, email: marty.braithwaite@aus.ac.nz

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