TEU Tertiary Update, volume 12, number 27

TEC WARNS OF POSSIBLE TEACH-TO-EARN FUNDING MODEL

Using funding models similar to the PBRF could be just the first step in a range of new performance funding incentives according to the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC).

TEU national president, Dr Tom Ryan, and national secretary, Sharn Riggs, met with TEC chief executive Roy Sharp and some of his staff two weeks ago to discuss a range of issues including a TEU concern that some tertiary institutions were using PBRF data inappropriately as a management tool for staff.

The commission responded that while PBRF is outside its jurisdiction it is possible that other kinds of incentivised funding streams could become the norm when the new Tertiary Education Strategy is implemented. At present for example, funding to an institution occurs at the point of enrolment, but the commission suggested the government would like to look at other points in the process, such as at the completion of a course or qualifications. The government believes that, if managed well, this would change the incentives that drive institutions and thus education outcomes.

The commission noted that, if this were the case, the teaching element of a student’s enrolment would become part of the funding formula. Another funding point could be the amount of ‘stair-casing’ into higher-level programmers. The commission noted that the government was aware of the danger of creating perverse incentives as a result of such changes and said that the success of any change would rely on there being good quality assessment processes and an adequate level of funding.

The government’s new Tertiary Education Strategy will be available for consultation in September, including regional forums to discuss it, as well as written submissions. The final document will be available in December.

ALSO IN TERTIARY UPDATE THIS WEEK:

1. University staff negotiators hoping to talk about issues
2. ITPs try to re-write discretionary leave
3. Community support for Pathways College grows
4. 328 students shut out of WITT
5. Polytechnic council shrinking bill tabled today
6. Students petition return of training incentive allowance
7. USA: Sallie Mae lobbies to save private student loans

UNIVERSITY STAFF NEGOTIATORS HOPING TO TALK ABOUT ISSUES

University employment negotiations resumed yesterday after having spent nearly a month since the last round of negotiations trying to agree to a bargaining process agreement. The process agreement, which guides how the parties act in negotiations and what happens if negotiations do not proceed smoothly, was a sticking point of the first two days of negotiations on 23-24 July.

TEU deputy secretary Nanette Cormack says that she hopes that negotiations this week will move quickly on to the substantive issues that TEU members around the country want addressed.

“Our claims are fairly modest in terms of the commitment that they require from the eight universities but they are important to our members and to their students. For instance our call for no compulsory redundancies during the term of the agreement will not significantly impact on a university’s ability to review its processes and they can still offer options like voluntary redundancy where needed. But it does give staff and students the knowledge that there will be some long-term planning and continuity.

“One of New Zealand’s largest corporate banks, Westpac, has just assured its workers that it won’t off-shore any jobs and will work to ensure that it does not decrease staffing levels during the term of its collective agreement. If a cut-throat industry like banking can respond to workers’ calls for job security then universities, with their growing numbers of student enrolments, should find it easy,” stated Ms Cormack.

The TEU bargaining team also presented its pay claim to employers yesterday. The claim seeks a 4 percent pay rise or a flat rate increase of $2400, whichever is larger for the individual concerned. Ms Cormack says that the claim is represents a very modest increase when compared to international trends in universities and a current rate of inflation of 1.9 percent. She notes that the cost of items that most impact upon workers, such as food, transport housing and household utilities, are rising faster than the rate of inflation.

ITPS TRY TO RE-WRITE DISCRETIONARY LEAVE

Employers representing the six polytechnics and institutes of technology of NorthTec, Unitec, WinTec, Whitireia, WITT and Bay of Plenty Polytechnic are attempting to re-write the nature of discretionary leave for their teaching staff.

Currently staff at the six ITPs are entitled to four weeks discretionary leave per year to be used at their discretion. This leave is used to recognise that teaching is a stressful job with peaks and troughs of demand placed on teachers.

There are some exceptions to its use; for instance new staff are expected to use some of that leave for initial academic staff member training during their first two years and employees with performance inadequacies are expected to use their leave to address those problems.

The six ITPs now want to change that leave so that it is at the employers’ discretion rather than the employees’.

TEU national industrial officer Irena Brorens says that this will undermine the benefits to teaching and learning.

“Many teachers use this leave as a chance to recuperate or prepare for upcoming courses. It’s an important way retain a work-life balance and reduce workload stress. But the employers are suggesting that they want teachers to use their discretionary leave to work. They have even suggested that some of it could be used for teaching,” concluded Ms Brorens.

COMMUNITY SUPPORT FOR PATHWAYS COLLEGE GROWS

Staff and members of the University of Waikato community are petitioning their vice chancellor to reconsider his preliminary decision to cut many of the university’s foundation courses in its Pathways College. The petition, which is circulating as paper document and on-line at the TEU’s website, calls for the vice chancellor to recognise that foundation courses like those taught at Pathways College provide a vital opportunity for new students who would not otherwise take up the opportunity to tertiary education. Some staff and members of the public, like Wellington’s Sandy O’Neil, have left concerned messages about the proposed cuts on TEU’s public on-line forum:

“I’m currently working with people who had poor schooling experiences and so on, but are now keen to lift their skills and qualifications in difficult circumstances, I feel UOW's plans will compound those types of disadvantages. Do they want a reputation for consigning people to the growing unemployment queues and reducing educational opportunity? Or do they want to remain world leaders in innovative approaches to second chance education opportunities?” asked Ms O’Neil.

Staff member Lisa Hayes praised the work the college is currently doing:

“Students who have attended Pathways College programmes are, in the main, better prepared for university study than the majority of other first year students - in their attendance, engagement in the topics, completing assignments, and in their overall attitude to university study.”

And former Pathways student Jessica Scott said the college gave her a chance she may not otherwise have had:

“I completed the CUP course at the University of Waikato in 2004, since then I have completed a bachelors degree in Social Sciences, obtained second class honours and am now writing a masters thesis. All of the staff within the CUP programme have continued to support and mentor me through my continued learning.”

328 STUDENTS SHUT OUT OF WITT

The Taranaki Daily News reported yesterday that the ‘doors to Taranaki's only polytechnic have slammed shut’.

CEO Richard Handley confirmed the Western Institute of Technology at Taranaki has exceeded 103 percent of its EFTS cap and now has over 328 people who it has told to go home and come back next year.

"We haven't had this issue before. It's disappointing, my thoughts are, as Taranaki's polytechnic, we would want to be able to serve all of the training needs of the people here, but the cap hasn't allowed that," he said.

ITPNZ’s Executive Director, Dave Guerin, told the paper that the problem was not just limited to WITT and that he expected thousands of students across the country to face a similar situation as polytechnics and universities reached the maximum number of government-funded students and effectively shut up shop.

"We have been saying this day was coming since last November but WITT is the first reported case I've heard," he said. “We want to make it clear that institutions aren't turning away students because they want to. They are forced to."

In June, minister of tertiary education, Anne Tolley, said there was "no more money" for extra students despite reported leaps in demand for tertiary education across the country. She has subsequently told the Daily News that she is "watching the situation carefully and constantly taking advice".

POLYTECHNIC COUNCIL SHRINKING BILL TABLED TODAY

Minister of tertiary education, Anne Tolley, will today introduce into parliament her Education (Polytechnics) Amendment Bill. The bill will, if enacted, reduce the size of polytechnic councils from their current 12-20 members down to 8, four of which will be ministerial appointees. The bill also enables councils of two or more polytechnics to combine, and enables two or more polytechnics to establish a combined academic board. Ms Tolley hopes that the bill will be passed by parliament before the end of the year and that the newly constituted councils will be in place by May 2010.

STUDENTS PETITION RETURN OF TRAINING INCENTIVE ALLOWANCE

The New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations has launched a nationwide petition calling on students and the public to register their opposition to the axing of the Training Incentive Allowance (TIA) by the government in the 2009 budget. The petition requests that the government reinstate the allowance and highlights the beneficial effects the TIA has had on allowing those on fixed incomes to access higher education and move into the labour market over the many years it has been available.

NZUSA co-president Jordan King says that the government has emphasised on numerous occasions the importance of having people access further and higher education to improve skills and create pathways into the workforce.

“The Training Incentive Allowance has allowed so many people to do just that, there is no reason why it should be stopped now. We think that removing access to the TIA is a backward and ridiculous move.”

Since launching the petition NZUSA has contacted over 500 community organisations, schools, unions and not-for-profit groups seeking their support. Mr King says that the response has been overwhelmingly positive and that a number of TIA recipients have given their support to the petition.

NZUSA is hoping to present the petition to a parliamentary select committee after October 1, and will also be meeting with the minister of social welfare, Paula Bennett, to raise the issue with her.

USA: SALLIE MAE LOBBIES TO SAVE PRIVATE STUDENT LOANS

When Sallie Mae, the United States largest provider of student loans, saw the possibility of its own extinction in a plan advanced by the Obama administration, it did what just about any big corporation would do: It hired the best lobbyists money can buy - nearly US$2 million in the first half of the year according to disclosure reports released this month.

Sallie Mae, formally known as SML Corp., was created four decades ago as a government-sponsored enterprise. It went private in the late 1990s. As the number of college students and tuition costs skyrocketed, so did Sallie Mae's profits - at least until the credit crisis hit.

Sallie Mae is opposing legislation promoted by President Obama that end lending by private firms by giving the Department of Education a monopoly over federally backed student loans. That could save the government US$87 billion in subsidies over ten years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Credit rater Standard & Poor's immediately warned investors that it might downgrade the company's debt to junk level because "we believe the likelihood has increased" that within a year Sallie Mae will no longer be able to originate loans.

Sallie Mae has responded to the legislation hiring an army of law firms and PR agencies to lobby politicians. It has also forged close ties to lawmakers in both parties by using its political action committee to shower them with campaign contributions -- more than US$2.5 million in the past decade, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

"The banks and lenders who have reaped a windfall from these subsidies have mobilized an army of lobbyists," Obama said in a weekly radio address earlier this year. "I know they're gearing up for a fight as we speak. My message to them is this: So am I."

From Danielle Knight at the Huffington Post

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, email: stephen.day@teu.ac.nz

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