TEU Tertiary Update Vol 12 No 3

Tertiary-education CEOs to face pay freeze as recession bites?

State Services Commissioner Iain Rennie, who controls the salaries of senior state servants, including vice-chancellors and other tertiary-education chief executives, is saying that he expects all senior leaders across the state sector will exercise restraint in this year’s wage round. Mr Rennie has come under increasing pressure from politicians and the public to cap the salaries of highly ranked state servants.

Tertiary-education heads’ salaries range from those at Te Wānanga o Raukawa and Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiarangi where, according to the latest report of the State Services Commission (SSC), the chief executives were paid under $100,000 in 2007, to the vice-chancellors of Massey University and the University of Auckland who were paid in a band ranging from $520,000 to $529,999 during the same period.

Twenty-nine of those chief executives and vice-chancellors are recorded as earning more during 2007 than the prime minister’s current salary of $176,000. Prime Minister John Key and Governor-General Anand Satyanand ($187,000 per annum tax free), have both requested that their salaries not be increased this year in light of economic circumstances.

Mr Key told the Dominion Post that other groups covered by the SSC’s remuneration authority should follow suit: “I’m sure judges and the like will also take a similar view ... it is important that we, as well-paid New Zealanders, show leadership.” And the SSC was reported in the Dominion Post yesterday as saying that top civil servants can expect minimal, if any, increases.

The State Sector Act (s77ID) specifies that, while the conditions of employment of a chief executive at a tertiary-education institution may be determined by an the individual institution’s council, those councils first need to obtain the written concurrence of the state services commissioner to the proposed conditions of employment before they can be concluded with the chief executive.
In addition to chief executives and vice–chancellors, the SSC records that a further 2500 employees at tertiary-education institutions earn over $100,000 per annum during 2007.

TEU national secretary Sharn Riggs noted that it is more important than ever in the current economic environment that wages for low-paid workers continue to grow.

“Wage freezes for highly paid chief executives, whether in the public or private sector, are a valuable symbolic gesture of a changed culture, but other workers need more money if they are to help their families and communities through the crisis we currently face,” Ms Riggs said.

Also in Tertiary Update this week:

1. Doors open at Matapihi ki te Ao for more PTE students
2. Call for more planning at Victoria’s faculty of education
3. ITPNZ calls for ITP funding top-up
4. More te reo courses but fewer students
5. Tertiary education can join the economic rescue team
6. French academics to hit the streets again
7. Academic-freedom win at KwaZulu-Natal
8. Business-school graduates learn the real-world skill of cheating
9. Minister Gillard prepares to negotiate outcome of Australian Bradley Report
10. International MBAs risk becoming “globaloney” as economic crisis deepens

Doors open at Matapihi ki te Ao for more PTE students

According to UCOL, a collaborative process between itself and private training enterprises in the Wanganui region saw it last year providing 200 PTE students with access to UCOL’s range of campus facilities. The initiative, called the One Stop Shop initiative, is part of the Whanganui Tertiary Education Collaborate Venture which sees UCOL Whanganui working in partnership with private providers and education-related agencies in the region.

It is the first such collaboration in New Zealand, and was funded by the Tertiary Education Commission. UCOL expects that it will lead to similar ventures in other regions to help make regional tertiary education more accessible and sustainable.

“We call this part of the collaboration ‘One Stop Shop’ because it’s all about giving tertiary students in the region access to the UCOL Learning Commons and associated services,” said Project Manager Tim Snape. “Basically it means they can access the campus and use UCOL facilities as well as the agencies such as Career Services, StudyLink, and Work and Income New Zealand, based all in one place.”

Mr Snape said last year’s pilot, which included 200 PTE students, was very successful. “Provider, students, and staff felt comfortable on campus and made good use of the facilities, especially the library.”

Call for more planning at Victoria’s faculty of education

The Tertiary Education Union says it is time that Victoria University revealed to staff some strategic planning for its faculty of education following a further tranche of redundancies, this time voluntary.

The faculty of education dean, Dugald Scott has confirm that eighteen staff had either resigned of their own accord or taken a voluntary redundancy package and he has told Education Review that he is hopeful that there would not need to be any more redundancies.

However, with the latest round of redundancies complete, TEU national secretary Sharn Riggs says staff currently have the impression that the faculty is still stumbling from situation to situation without any apparent planning. “It appears as though decisions are being made ad hoc and it’s a real problem for staff.”

“In fact we’re concerned that there are some areas within the faculty that we actually view as being understaffed rather than overstaffed,” said Ms Riggs. “We need to see a plan from the university as to how it intends to improve education for students by addressing those concerns. In addition the transfer of Ministry of Education contracts for advisory services in schools from the College to Vic Link Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Victoria University, has created further disconnections and complications. The broader teaching community, as well as staff at the College, need to know that there is a coherent plan in place for the best possible provision of these services.”

ITPNZ calls for ITP funding top-up

ITPNZ executive director Dave Guerin told Education Review last week that his organisation will be lobbying for increased funding for institutes of technology and polytechnics (ITPs) if enrolment trends continue to show large numbers of new enrolments at ITPs in the face of the current recession.
“We don’t know yet what pressures there will be on enrolments in 09. Expectations are that there will be pressure on caps [on student numbers] and we will have to sit down with government if that eventuates. It’s a pretty hot issue.” he said.

Mr Guerin told Education Review that “he expected the Tertiary Education Commission would be able to shift some money toward an increase in ITP enrolments”. “TEC has to operate within a broad allocation set by ministers. They will have some lee way, they will have held some money back I’m sure.” He also expressed concern that TEC would intervene and instruct ITPs to stop enrolling students in particular courses.

Tertiary Update subsequently spoke to Mr Guerin to ask whether he saw that increase in funding coming from a shift within TEC’s current funding or an increase in funding from government.

“We haven’t yet got to that stage. We’re looking at enrolment trends and want to know how the commission will respond to increases in enrolments.”

Mr Guerin believes at this stage all options are on the table for discussion. He confirmed that he would be meeting with the minister of education, Anne Tolley, to discuss his funding concerns and also to discuss the role he saw ITPs playing in helping to address the economic recession. He said, however, that he did not have any firm details to divulge at this stage.

“We’re meeting with the minister next week and we’ll be starting the discussion there,” he concluded.

More te reo courses but fewer students

The Ministry of Education’s Annual Report on Māori Education Ngā Haeata Mātauranga, 2007/08, which was released yesterday, says provision of te reo and mātauranga Māori in tertiary education has increased in recent years but the numbers participating have fallen. Between 2003 and 2007, the number of people participating in Māori language courses dropped by over one half, from 36,356 students in 2003 to 16,934 in 2007.

The report notes that another study, He Tini Manu Reo – Learning Te Reo Māori in Tertiary Education, has found that about half of the learners studied Māori language and culture for only one year and most studied at the equivalent of senior secondary school level, suggesting more could be done to encourage learners to continue with language learning.

The study also found high levels of tertiary-education participation in Māori language courses among women, particularly those aged 25 to 44. Many women were likely to be mothers, suggesting that tertiary-education courses could have a positive role in strengthening Māori language and culture within the whānau and home environments.

According to the study, the low male participation in courses was a concern, particularly given that young Māori men had lower proficiency than Māori women in the same age group and taking into account possible future implications for maintaining aspects of tikanga Māori designated to men.

The report also notes that the overall participation rate for Māori in tertiary education, which peaked in 2005 at 23 percent, has since decreased to 20 percent in 2007. Most of the rise and fall of participation has been in Level 1 to 3 certificates. However, the total participation rate of young Māori aged 18 to 19 has remained steady over the past six years, with a positive shift away from Level 1 to 3 certificates towards study at Level 4 and above, including degree-level study.

Tertiary education can join the economic rescue team

The Tertiary Education Union says that the government needs to consider investing in tertiary education as one of its central responses to overcoming the economic recession.

“We applaud the government’s decision to invest over $200 million of its financial rescue package into education,” said TEU National Secretary Sharn Riggs. “Given the Ministry of Education’s projections yesterday for significant growth in primary education over the next decade, such an investment in education infrastructure is crucial.”

“However we would like the government to consider the value of a similar sort of investment in tertiary education as another crucial response to the economic crisis,” said Ms Riggs. “Tertiary education, like primary education, also faces a large roll growth in the next couple of years, both from a baby boom passing through our ranks and from workers looking to re-train or up-skill in the face of the recession.”

“The government’s package is rightly aimed at creating jobs, and tertiary education, especially in the polytechnics and institutions of technology, is ideally placed to provide the skilled labour for the types of jobs that the government aims to create in its package,” Ms Riggs continued. “A wise investment now can create jobs and infrastructure not just on our tertiary-education campuses but also for the many people who pass through them as students. This is also an investment in the long term future of the New Zealand economy and society”

“We can learn our way out of trouble, but we need to invest now while we have the opportunity,” she concluded.

WORLD WATCH

French academics hit the streets again

Up to 100,000 academics and students marched in all major French cities on Tuesday in a second round of demonstrations against government changes to the foundations of the French university system. In Paris, up to 50,000 turned out behind the slogan “Non à l’Université bling bling”.

A new decree, amending the 1984 law that fixed the statutory conditions of university personnel, has given university presidents (the equivalent of New Zealand’s vice-chancellors) the right to “adjust” those conditions and university managements control over staff recruitment, salaries, and tenure.
University professors, lecturers, researchers, and now students have united across political divides to oppose the new decree. A national co-ordinating group of representatives from 46 universities and seven union federations, together with action groups and scholarly societies, met in Paris last month and voted for a “total and unlimited strike”. The National Union of Higher Education (SNESUP) has estimated that “nearly all of France’s universities have been affected to some degree” and that nearly one academic in two is participating in strike action.

Thousands of academics and their supporters took to the streets in twenty cities last week in opposition to the decree. “We are profoundly angry with what’s going on”, said Stéphane Tassel of SNESUP. “It’s like coping with a disease. We went through denial and despair, now we’re angry” Rejecting the new powers being given to university presidents, he added, “They can dictate how many hours we teach or do research, and who gets promoted. This goes against the principle of collegiality we have been following.”

The university strikes and demonstrations follow a nation-wide stoppage by public- and some private-sector workers that caused transport chaos, closed banks and schools, and cut public services. France’s major unions called the strike in protest against President Sarkozy’s handling of the economic crisis.
From Libération, the Guardian, and University World News

Academic-freedom win at KwaZulu-Natal

In apparent response to local and international pressures reported in previous issues of Tertiary Update, the council of the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) has appointed a committee on governance and academic freedom. The terms of reference for the new committee are listed by chairperson Phumla Mnganga as “to examine issues pertaining to governance and academic freedom at the University of KwaZulu-Natal ... and make recommendations to council and senate.”
The local university staff union, the National Tertiary Education Staff Union (NTESU) was instrumental in generating several hundred signatures from around the world to an online petition calling on the university to uphold the tenets of academic freedom. While the two professorial staff directly involved in the dispute that led to the campaign resigned under duress from the university, the issues are still quite alive at the campus.

The announcement of the committee says that it will investigate and undertake an assessment of governance structures and processes and how these foster or inhibit academic freedom or freedom of expression; fairness of relevant dispute resolution mechanisms and the extent these may foster a culture of hostility; and other relevant factors bearing on academic freedom or freedom of expression.
Responding to the announcement, NTESU national deputy president John Landman said, "While the NTESU welcomes establishment of this committee, the fact remains that two noted academics, Professors van den Berg and Chetty, were brought under great duress and forced to resign their positions. It is untenable that the university then comes, after the fact, to recognise that there are fundamental and long-standing governance problems at UKZN and makes no mention of discussing the reinstatement of those academics."

NTESU expects an appointment with the minister of education after its representations at that level and will continue to monitor the situation and make comment to the UKZN committee.

Business-school graduates learn the real-world skill of cheating

Business students cheat more than students from any other academic discipline, and their professors too often look the other way, a US professor has told an international meeting of business school deans at the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business in San Francisco. Such dishonesty, he said, might help explain how the country got into its current financial mess.

“When a student makes a decision to cheat, he’s saying, ‘I’m going to take a shortcut here and it doesn’t matter as long as the final result is a good one,’” said the professor, Donald L McCabe, who teaches organisation management at Rutgers business school. He added that, after business students graduate and enter the real world, similar logic could lead them to cut ethical corners.
His conclusions are based on nineteen years of studying both undergraduate and graduate students, including surveying of 170,000 students at 165 colleges and universities and 18,500 faculty members at 115 institutions.

Professor McCabe said business schools had not done enough to adopt and enforce effective anti-cheating policies. He suggests that campus administrators often refuse to act, sometimes because they are afraid a student’s parents might sue or, if they are wealthy, withhold a donation. “Administrators are more likely to look the other way at campuses that are more dependent on tuition revenue and less academically competitive,” he said.

Professor McCabe added that students have become more cavalier about cheating over the years. “Companies want to hire people who will get the job done. They don’t care how they get it done. Many students argue that, because so many of their classmates cheat, they would be at a competitive disadvantage if they didn’t. I wouldn't say this attitude is prevalent, but it’s not trivial, either,” he concluded.

From Katherine Mangan at the Chronicle of Higher Education

Minister Gillard prepares to negotiate outcome of Australian Bradley Report

In December last year, Professor Denise Bradley released her independent review into Australian higher education. The report sets a target of 40 percent of Australians aged 25-34 to have a degree-level qualification by 2020. It also makes provision for greater inclusion of students from poor backgrounds and requires a large increase in undergraduate student numbers.

In a bid to boost participation rates, it proposes that all eligible students be given a voucher to a course of their choice, and that institutions be allowed to enrol as many students as they wish. To prevent a flight to elite universities, or indiscriminate fee rises, Bradley recommended the retention of price-caps on tuition fees.

Now that the report is out, the minister of education, Julia Gillard, must negotiate with sector representatives over just what the report means for them and if or how it will be implemented. So she is meeting next week with eight vice-chancellors, some of whom have expressed opposition to a voucher system and some who want the cap on all course fees lifted. Others are embracing the proposal as a means to expand and help widen participation at their universities.

To date, Ms Gillard has kept her views to herself. However, at the time of the release of the review in December, she made the point that access to university should based on merit, not ability to pay.

Australian Catholic University vice-chancellor, Professor Greg Craven, is pleased to see that many of the recommendations focus on social equity. However, he says, certain features, such as the voucher system are worrying. “I don’t think many ‘sandstone universities’ would go for mass expansion, but they may take the opportunity to use their brand power to crush courses at second-tier universities that they worried were actually better than their own.”

“I also worry that a ‘second-tier’ university might decide that, while it could never achieve dominance through things like research quality, it could attempt to do so by sheer size,” Professor Craven added.
From the Parramatta Sun

International MBAs risk becoming “globaloney” as economic crisis deepens

For years, business schools have seemed to be battling for bragging rights over which ones were the most globalised as they launched far-flung partnerships and programmes around the world. As more than 400 business deans from 35 countries gathered in San Francisco for the international Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business conference last week, however, new questions were being raised about whether the sweeping globalisation of management education amounted to more rhetoric than reality and whether, faced with a worldwide economic meltdown, those schools can afford to continue expanding overseas.

“It’s time to stop pretending that we’re doing more than we really are,” Edward A Snyder, dean of the University of Chicago’s Booth school of business, told the annual deans’ meeting.

Pankaj Ghemawat, a professor of global strategy at IESE business school, offered an even more sceptical assessment. And he dismissed as “globaloney” the premise that global borders matter little today in solving the world’s business problems. Professor Ghemawat argued that the world is, in fact, only “semi-globalized” and that both students and businesses are misled when regional differences are ignored.

“If you’re an MBA student, what could be more seductive than being told ‘the world is one, and you’re now perfectly equipped, once you get your degree, to go out and stamp out global management problems, wherever they spring up’.”
Some deans whose MBA programmes’ reputations are built on their strong international orientation were not deterred however. Hildy Teegen, dean of the University of South Carolina’s Moore school of business, said her school has a responsibility to a state that relies heavily on overseas investment in its agriculture, manufacturing, textile, and tourism industries.

“In this kind of economic environment, we’ll have to be very strategic in our partnerships, but we have no intention of pulling back,” said Professor Teegen.
From Katherine Mangan at the Chronicle of Higher Education

More international news

More international news can be found on University World News:
http://www.universityworldnews.com

TEU Tertiary Update is published weekly on Thursdays and distributed freely to members of the Tertiary Education Union and others. Back issues are available on the TEU website: www.teu.ac.nz. Direct inquiries should be made to Stephen Day, email: stephen.day@teu.ac.nz

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