TEU Tertiary Update Vol 12 No 13

NO WORKERS’ VOICE IN WORKFORCE PLANNING

News that the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) has funded an NZVCC project on academic workforce planning that does not involve the union representing those academics is concerning according to TEU deputy secretary, Nanette Cormack.

The NZVCC submitted a project for TEC Priorities for Focus Funding called ‘Academic Workforce Plan Toward 2020’. The project was approved by the TEC Board as submitted and funding for 12 months has been approved.

According to the funding application the project steering group proposed that a formal collaborative approach to strategic workforce planning be undertaken.

The project’s four objectives are to identify and quantify the size and broad mix of academic staff needed to resource New Zealand's university sector to the year 2020; to predict and quantify significant academic staffing supply shortfalls and surpluses to 2020; to develop realistic and sustainable strategies for meeting future academic staffing requirements; and to incorporate bridging strategies into a high-level implementation plan that defines key accountabilities, milestones and deliverables.

The project intends to lay the foundation for ongoing work regarding workforce planning in the university sector. The project is being led through the Victoria University of Wellington.

“This is the sort of project that the already established tripartite process, involving the government, the vice-chancellors, unions and people who work in universities should taking on. I’d suggest the NZVCC needs to consider very carefully how it undertakes this research, to ensure those working people will have the opportunity to contribute before it proceeds further,” Ms Cormack said.

ALSO IN TERTIARY UPDATE THIS WEEK

1. MIT lecturers at work until 9.30pm
2. ‘We don’t want unbridled growth’ says Minister
3. University research fails to keep up with GDP
4. Overcrowded Weltec students want space
5. Faster courses for masters students
6. Teaching-only casuals cause consternation
7. UK university staff prepare to fight job losses

MIT LECTURERS AT WORK UNTIL 9.30PM

Manukau Institute of Technology’s (MIT) claim that it needs more flexibility to manage the teaching hours of lecturers is being rejected by TEU branch president, Lesley Francey.

Ms Francey points out that under their collective agreement MIT staff can already be required to work between 8.00am and 9.30pm (including no more than 2 nights per week) and that staff may also consent to work outside of these hours.

“There has always been a tremendous amount of good will from staff about flexibility. But there is a big difference between being asked to work different hours and being told when you must work. Many staff are already involved with summer school or night classes. Flexibility is there if they want it and are willing to consult.”

Overworked TEU members at MIT began two weeks of industrial action with a strike on Tuesday and a ‘wear red’ day on Wednesday which many staff and students participated in. Further strikes are likely to follow.

“Staff are already flexible – we have to be if we’re going to reach students in South Auckland who have never previously engaged with tertiary education. We’ll go the extra mile for them, but excessive workloads are not good for our teaching or their chances to learn,” said Ms Francey.

More news coverage and photos of the industrial action at MIT is available at http://www.teu.ac.nz/?p=2184

‘WE DON’T WANT UNBRIDLED GROWTH’ SAYS MINISTER

Tertiary education minister, Anne Tolley, has confirmed that she will be looking at ways to ‘manage’ growth in tertiary institutions as rolls continue to soar in the wake of the global financial crisis.

In a rare interview Mrs Tolley told Otago University Students’ Association magazine, Critic, the government was looking at ways to manage the cost associated with more people entering tertiary education and training.

“We don’t want unbridled growth, but in a managed way. So it is uppermost in our mind – it is quite clear the trend is there – more people are either attending or staying at university and polytechs,” Mrs Tolley says. “It is a two-edged sword, because at the time of recession you want to make sure that we are keeping people in skills training. Coming out of the recession, we’re going to need a skilled workforce, and so we want to make sure we don’t lose those – but that has a cost to it.”

For the last three months tertiary education institutions have expressed concern about the government’s EFTS cap policy that penalises institutions if they enrol more students than they expected. When initially introduced it was intended to restrict competition between institutions and introduce more collaboration into the sector. However with rolls now rising across the board rather than students transferring from one institution to another, the policy is placing financial restraints on institutions trying to respond to this increased demand.

Mrs Tolley told Critic the Government will look at either lifting the cap, which has financial implications and would need to be approved in the budget, or allowing institutions to escape penalisation.

UNIVERSITY RESEARCH FAILS TO KEEP UP WITH GDP

Figures from Statistics New Zealand show that although research and development expenditure at universities has grown it has not kept pace with New Zealand’s gross domestic product (GDP).

Total research and development expenditure in 2008 was $2.1 billion, an increase of 17 percent or $314 million from 2006. Research and development expenditure by the business sector grew 20 percent compared with 2006, and government sector research and development expenditure increased 23 percent from 2006. The university sector grew at a much slower rate, with expenditure increasing 9 percent to $643 million.

This means that while total research and development expenditure increased slightly to 1.2 percent of GDP in 2008, university sector research and development decreased slightly as a proportion of GDP during the same period, from 0.38 percent down to 0.36 percent. This is because New Zealand’s GDP current price expenditure measure increased faster than university research and development spending increased.

Statistics NZ noted that despite overall increases, New Zealand’s total research and development expenditure continues to be relatively low when compared with other countries in the OECD. Australia reported its research and development expenditure at 2.01 percent of GDP in 2006, and the OECD average was 2.26 percent for the same period. International figures for 2008 are not yet available.

OVERCROWDED WELTEC STUDENTS WANT SPACE

Weltec's Wellington students are rebelling at overcrowded classes and what they say is dismissive treatment from the polytechnic's administration according to the Wellingtonian newspaper.

Sixty five students have complained via petition to Weltec about class sizes, lack of communication, and false advertising about the campus.

Weltec student association campaign executive, Kent Lambert, said Weltec promotional material boasted small class sizes and an interactive learning environment. However many classes had numbers as high as 40 students even where there were only facilities in the room for 20. Students wanted class sizes of no more than 20 students, or a refund of fees.

"We've had to drag tables and chairs from adjacent classrooms. The resources we are given are inadequate."

Mr Lambert told the Wellingtonian that this had been a problem for three years and that it was becoming unworkable, with many students not turning up to class as a result. Because of this attrition he believed Weltec was overfilling first-year classes.

"There seems to be a structured policy from Weltec to overload first-year classes with the intention of forcing out those less dedicated or less tolerant."

Student association president, Therese Keil, said she had been told by Weltec administration that they believed small classes were "anything under 100".

Chief executive officer, Linda Sissons, said Weltec offered classes that were smaller than universities and use of the term "small" in promotional material left "quite a lot of room for maneuvering." She agreed however that Weltec did take attrition rates into account when planning class sizes.

FASTER COURSES FOR MASTERS STUDENTS

News that vice-chancellors are looking at ways for students to fast-track their masters degrees raises challenges for education quality says TEU national secretary, Sharn Riggs.

The New Zealand Herald reported earlier this week that New Zealand Vice-Chancellor's Committee was investigating whether New Zealand should introduce more flexibility to its masters degrees in order to increase New Zealand's appeal to lucrative international markets. Currently in other countries, most notably Australia, masters students can complete their study much more quickly than here in New Zealand.

Professor Doug Sutton, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Waikato University, told the Herald a shorter masters programme would not mean less work, it would just vary the pace.

"There is no compromising on standards, there is no reduction in entry requirements."

But it would make it easier for students with undergraduate degrees from universities around the world to come to New Zealand and study as post-graduate students.

"Some students don't want to come to university to linger, they want to get to work as soon as they can," he said.

Education New Zealand chief executive, Robert Stevens, confirmed international students preferred Australia, and other education export competitors Canada, the United States and Britain, because they were able to complete their masters programmes much more quickly.

However Ms Riggs warns that changing export education standards to accommodate the imperatives of export education could come at a price.

“It’s important that we retain the value that comes from reflective education and time to collaborate on masters level study. Compressed courses risks increased workloads for tertiary education staff and pressure on quality research, neither of which is good for students,” concluded Ms Riggs.

WORLD WATCH

TEACHING-ONLY CASUALS CAUSE CONSTERNATION

May Day could usher in a month of campus strikes as Australian universities argue with National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) members over the use of ‘teaching-only’ casual lecturers.

Staff may strike as soon as Tuesday at the University of Sydney, where vice-chancellor, Dr Michael Spence, wants to bring in what he calls "teaching-focused" jobs.

Dr Spence said yesterday Sydney remained committed to the traditional academic role but also wanted to be able to offer fixed-term "teaching-focused" jobs to casual staff. He would also like to give permanent staff the chance of a more formal break from research so they could pursue pedagogical interests.

"Some of our most research-intensive schools, say physics or chemistry, are also places where teaching is incredibly highly valued and where people are interested in how do I teach my subject better," he said.

Ken McAlpine, senior industrial officer with the NTEU, said Sydney, Deakin and Murdoch universities were pushing for the appointment of teaching-only academics. "A teaching-only academic is an oxymoron," Mr McAlpine said.

The NTEU acknowledged that large numbers of casual staff occupied de facto teaching-only positions but said this was one reason why they opposed the rise of casual staff.

"If it was about casuals and they wanted to offer them a more secure form of appointment, that's one thing," said Michael Thompson, NTEU president at Sydney. “(But) when we discussed it with them last week, they were for advertising teaching-only positions."

From Bernard Lane at the Australian

UK UNIVERSITY STAFF PREPARE TO FIGHT JOB LOSSES

British university employers offered staff a 0.3% pay rise on Wednesday but it is the issue of job cuts that has union members planning to ballot for strike action.

Union leaders have called for an 8% rise in pay next year but in response the University and College Employers’ Association (UCEA) offered what it called a "realistic, responsible and credible" figure of 0.3% at today's second official meeting to set the 2009-10 wage levels.

But the University and College Union (UCU) said it would still ballot for strike action because of the threat of job cuts, which it said would affect the quality of students' education and damage the sector.

A UCU spokesman said "There is nothing to prevent UCEA negotiating a national agreement to prevent job losses. In fact in these exceptional financial circumstances we think it is absolutely essential. They have failed to understand, or deal with, the full scale of the jobs crisis in the sector and left us with no choice but to ballot our members for industrial action. Those ballot papers go out this week."

UCEA argued that it had no jurisdiction to negotiate or regulate jobs in the sector and employment of staff was up to individual institutions.

Diana Warwick, of the vice-chancellors' group, Universities UK welcomed the offer.

"Universities do not want to lose talented individuals – the contribution to the UK economy by higher education will be critical to our way out of the recession – but this is equally why we must ensure our universities are sustainable."

From Anthea Lipsett at the Guardian

TEU Tertiary Update is published weekly on Thursdays and distributed freely to members of the Tertiary Education Union and others. You can subscribe or read back issues on the TEU website. Direct inquiries should be made to Stephen Day, email: stephen.day@teu.ac.nz

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