TEU Tertiary Update Vol 13 No 21

General Staff Day and rally at Christchurch

University of Canterbury union members made a noisy demonstration of solidarity for general staff facing redundancy according to the Christchurch Press.

TEU branch president Megan Clayton opened the rally with an address to a lecture theatre of 150 TEU members yesterday. She relayed the level of support from organisers, delegates, academic staff and branch committee members for general staff over the last several months, as they organised against the worst aspects of Project STAR and its effect on structures and staff.

Staff at the university have experienced nearly 100 redundancies to date and with further changes mooted new change proposals are seemingly churning off the production line. General staff have borne the brunt of the first wave of restructuring proposals.

National President Tom Ryan was also present to give his support to University of Canterbury general staff. Dr Ryan said universities have a legal responsibility to consult with their academic boards on any serious change proposal impacting on staff.

"Universities are, in fact, not businesses but have a specialised relationship with the community they are meant to serve," Dr Ryan said.

After the meeting about 60 members marched to the steps of the main library opposite the registry to protest at the effects of Project Star. The proposed axing of 36 library jobs drew particular condemnation.

Union organiser Gaby Moore said members wanted to tell vice-chancellor Rod Carr to "leave the library alone".

"We are here to show we value general staff and that we are working together to uphold the university community," Ms Moore said.

All then adjourned to TEU House for a barbeque to celebrate the contribution of general staff to the effective running of universities.

See photos of General Staff Day 2010, from around the country, on the TEU website.

Also in Tertiary Update this week:

1. Lincoln reports more staff


2. Mothers in part time work need more skills training support


3. Otago vice chancellor resigns


4. Education ministry gets poor rating


5. Universities move to restrict student enrolments


6. Other news

Lincoln reports more staff

Lincoln University's Annual Report shows that it is one of the few, if not the only, tertiary institution that can show an increase in staff numbers to match its growth in students last year.

TEU national president Dr Tom Ryan says that it is positive to see at least one tertiary institution that has had a growth in staff numbers that corresponds to the increase workload that comes with a growing student roll.  Lincoln's total equivalent full time students (EFTS) increased from 2,577 in 2008 to 2,666 last year, a rise of 3.5 percent.

During the same time full-time equivalent (FTE) staff rose by 31 to 641, a rise of 5 percent. Lincoln is the only tertiary institution that TEU is aware of so far to report a rise in staff numbers that has matched or exceeded its growth in student numbers.

However Dr Ryan says the news is not all good for staff:

"While staff numbers grew by five percent last year the university only increased the amount it spent on personnel costs by three percent," said Dr Ryan. "That places significant pressure on a group of staff who are already paid less on average than many of their peers in New Zealand, not to mention abroad."

Lincoln University's Annual Report places significant emphasis on its campaign to brand itself as "New Zealand’s specialist land-based university". With the help of that campaign the university performed better than it had budgeted with revenue and expenditure both exceeding targets.  However it still reported a $3 million deficit for the year (rather than its anticipated $6 million deficit).

Mothers in part time work need more skills training support

Mothers in part time work should be getting more support to develop their skills - from employers, the government and unions. That's the view of the chair of National Advisory Council on the Employment of Women (NACEW) Pauline Winter. Ms Winter says recent research shows there are few good practice strategies to help women in part time work advance to higher paying jobs. Those women can include mothers caring for children, as well as those caring for sick partners, parents and part time employees who, for their own health work, part time.

Ms Winters says women are generally in part time work because they break their careers to have, and care for, children.

"These women are smart and it appears that the employers have overlooked an opportunity to increase their workplace skill base," Ms. Winter says.

"Simply because they are part timers does not lessen their ability to add value to businesses and we want to see increased training for these workers," Ms Winter says.

"There are clearly identified productivity gains from this approach. Turnover is reduced, the workers have a higher sense of professionalism and there is much greater service quality delivered to customers."

"The challenge is to move away from the general acceptance of low wages, along with low investment in training and high staff turnover rates".

TEU national women's vice president Dr Sandra Grey says it is crucial that New Zealand tertiary institutions help to ensure part-time workers are afforded career training and development opportunities.

"This will benefit both workers and their places of employment."

"Tertiary institutions also need to think about responsibly supporting flexibility for employees in their workplace," said Dr Grey.

Otago vice chancellor resigns

Sir David Skegg has announced he will retire from his current role as the vice-chancellor of the University of Otago on 31 July of next year (2011). By that time Sir David will have completed seven years in the role.

Professor Skegg said that while the University Council had offered to extend his employment agreement for up to ten years, he believed one should not stay in this position for longer than seven years.

"While my contract requires me to give only three months’ notice, I wish to ensure that the Council has ample time to conduct the search for the next Vice-Chancellor. On the last occasion, this involved extensive consultation with the University community about the kind of person who should be appointed."

The Chancellor of the University, John Ward said "Professor Skegg is an outstanding Vice-Chancellor and the University is extremely pleased that he will continue to serve in this role until mid-2011.

Mr Ward says the search for a new Vice-Chancellor will begin shortly. An Advisory Committee will be established to oversee the search, and to make an appointment recommendation to the University Council in due course.

Facebook has come to the aid of this recruitment search with University of Otago student Trubie-Dylan Smith starting a 'New Zealand's Next Top Vice-Chancellor' page. The page says young hopefuls from across the nation will gather to fulfill their dream of becoming... New Zealand's Next Top Vice-Chancellor. Exact location of auditions to be revealed soon.

Education ministry gets poor rating

The Dominion Post reports that the Ministry of Education is among the worst-performing government departments, according to a survey by the right wing organisation the Trans Tasman Media report.

The report, to be issued tomorrow, finds excessive red tape, bureaucratic systems and ineffective consultation are hampering government departments.

The independent panel rated departments in five categories: chief executive performance, ease of doing business, budget performance and value for money, service delivery, and overall performance.

The panel found the departments were getting bogged down by systems. "[They] generally have created far too much process and are often very inefficient, particularly with consultation, fail to cut to the chase and in many cases lack real energy."

The Ministry of Education came bottom of the survey's rankings for overall performance, chief executive performance, and quality of service.

The assessment said the ministry was "ineffective and too politically correct".

Chief executive Karen Sewell refused to comment on her department's performance until she had seen the whole report.

TEU national president, Dr Tom Ryan, said that the survey carried little weight because the wrong people had been asked to rank the departments.

"According to the Dominion Post article panellists included paid business lobbyists like Phil O'Reilly and Charles Finny.  Their interest in how the ministry performs is specific to how easy it is to do business in the field of education and make a profit.  Hence their concerns about things like red tape, bureaucracy and consultation."

"The concerns that people working in education, or that students and the wider public might have about the Ministry of Education are likely to be very different."

Universities move to restrict student enrolments

The Otago Daily Times reports that the University of Otago plans to introduce two-tier enrolments from next year in a move designed to halt the rapid growth in first-year domestic student numbers.

Students with strong academic records will be offered guaranteed entry, but those falling below that standard will have to apply and take their chances based on the number of places available, the university council decided this week.

The university council this week approved a range of measures including halting new enrolments in five sub-degree diploma and certificate courses, discontinuing places for "interest-only" students and introducing enrolment caps for the Summer School and two foundation studies programmes.

Enrolment caps which come into force from semester two this year on 10 previously open-entry undergraduate degrees will also continue.

Vice-chancellor Prof Sir David Skegg told the council he had "no idea" how many students might miss out on places.

The university's domestic enrolments this year were 4.4 percent higher than last year and by the end of the year they were expected to exceed the Tertiary Education Commission's EFTS cap by 520 to 550 EFTS.

Meanwhile the North Shore Timesreports that Massey University will close second semester enrolments earlier than planned and also cut back summer school in semester three. The university's vice-chancellor Steve Maharey says it will introduce preferential entry next year as a result of the government's freeze on funding for extra enrolments. Mr Maharey says the earlier closing date is in an effort to ensure the university stays within tertiary education commission guidelines this year.

The Manawatu Standard reports that students are worried that second chance learners, Māori and pacific islands students could all miss out under new tighter enrolment policies - even though they're considered a Government priority.

Other news

Higher education in France is in the throes of its most profound restructuring in generations. The country's 83 universities are being granted autonomy, severing the direct authority of the central government over how they run their affairs.The government has also pledged billions of euros in new financing for higher education and, through a program called Operation Campus, is pouring money into the creation of 10 regional supercampuses intended to serve as centers of excellence that will eventually rival American institutions like Harvard and MIT – The Chronicle of Higher Education

University of Canterbury geography lecturer Dr Deirdre Hart initially banned the use of wikipedia after it kept appearing in the references of her students' work. But she has since come to the conclusion it is a useful starting point for research, and this year asked her students to produce their own Wikipedia article – New Zealand Herald.

Tough new immigration rules for foreign students are hitting Australia's economy, with more than 125,000 fewer international students expected to come in the next 12 months, costing more than 31,000 jobs nationwide – The Age.

"The New Zealand Government's decision to vote against the establishment of an international labour convention to establish fundamental rights for Domestic Workers at the International Labour Organisation exposes either a basic lack of respect for human decency or a misunderstanding of the plight of those that work in the domestic sector in many countries" - CTU president Helen Kelly.

European higher education staff and students' unions have expressed agreement that higher education should move further towards the needs of the student. This is a key finding from the survey by the European Students' Union (ESU) and the staff union  (EI).

Massey University Albany psychology lecturer Dianne Gardiner is supporting the Service and Food Workers' Union call for "whānau leave" to give people time off work to care for dependants. She says the law does not reflect the realities of life, including looking after sick children and parents - Sunday Star Times

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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