TEU Tertiary Update Vol 14 No 10

NorthTec responds to skills shortage by looking to fire trades teachers

NorthTec is looking to make three carpentry and electrical engineering trades tutors redundant. The redundancies are a very possible result of an on-going review of the area, as NorthTec tries to cut budgets and save money.

Tertiary Education Union organiser Chan Dixon says it is saddening that NorthTec is looking to axe teaching staff from construction and engineering at the same time as Immigration New Zealand has revealed there are immediate skills shortages for these trades in Auckland and the upper North Island.

"With the Christchurch earthquakes and the recent disasters in Australia everyone knows we need more skilled trades people. And yet NorthTec is looking to make the very people who teach those new tradespeople redundant and is taking away opportunities for young Northlanders."

Ms Dixon says cutting the number of trades tutors is part of a wider trend among polytechnics to cope with severely constrained budgets.

NorthTec already decided in February not to renew its contract with the Electrical Industry Training Organisation, with the result that all Northland apprentices now have to travel to Auckland for block courses which are integral to their training.

"NorthTec is responding to short-term funding constraints. But, by doing so, it's undermining one of its main purposes – its job is to respond to future regional and national skills shortages."

NorthTec will conclude its review and make a decision late next week.

Also in Tertiary Update this week:

1. Changes to compulsory student services levies
2. Staff and student voice fades from polytechnic councils
3. No 'nice-to-haves' in austerity budget
4. Tertiary Education Commission defends performance funding
5. Other news

Changes to compulsory student services levies

The minister of tertiary education Steven Joyce is introducing legislation to prevent large increases in non-academic, compulsory student fees.

The minister called for a review last year of student services levies by the Ministry of Education after he and others noted many tertiary education providers had made significant increases in recent years to compulsory levies on all students.

"The increases charged in some cases have been dramatic and I am not convinced that they have all been fair to students.

In some instances, it is quite likely that the funds from the student services levy have gone towards core services that we would expect would be paid for through tuition subsidies and tuition fees.

For example, I have seen institutions charging things like a 'building maintenance levy' or 'library services or 'compulsory charges for internet access'. I think most New Zealanders would class these as core services."

All universities and fourteen out of eighteen institutes of technology and polytechnics charge compulsory student services fees. These fees are for the delivery of a wide range of additional non-academic services, which vary between providers, such as health and counselling services, careers information and sports and recreation.

"Given the compulsory nature of these fees, it is appropriate that government and students have some oversight of them," says Mr Joyce.

The Education Amendment Bill (No. 4) will give the minister, if he is not satisfied with service fees being charged, the power to issue a direction specifying to the tertiary education provider a maximum limit on the amount that may be charged for those services.

TEU national president Sandra Grey said on their own the proposals were sensible but did not make sense in the context of the voluntary student membership bill and on-going funding cuts to tertiary education.

"Tertiary institutions are already looking for alternative ways of making up funding shortfalls, by charging students more. If the voluntary student membership bill passes, many institutions will need to fund services that students currently provide themselves. If so they will either need to charge more or make cuts in other areas. We need transparency around student services levies but we also need to make sure core education funding is not played off against student services because of underfunding," said Dr Grey.

Staff and student voice fades from polytechnic councils

Aoraki Polytechnic's problems with its outdoor education programme are a good reason to consider appointing staff and student representatives to the council, TEU national president Sandra Grey has told the Timaru Herald.

The polytechnic is currently calling for applications for three community positions, due to close on 8 April. Dr Grey has said this was a chance for the polytechnic to consider having a space for a staff member.

Bay of Plenty Polytechnic's ministerially-appointed councillors have already appointed three new community councillors, none of whom are current staff or students. Moreover, Unitec councillor Gay Simpkin, a council of trade unions nominee who had survived the initial cull last year is now being dumped in favour of someone with property development experience.  

Last year the Government passed a bill reducing the size of polytechnic councils removing staff and student representatives on those councils and ensuring that they would always be dominated by ministerial appointees.

Dr Grey said "with all that's gone on recently at Aoraki, the polytechnic had 'good reason' to consider having a space for a staff member."

Aoraki came close to losing its outdoor education programme after students turned up on the first day to find their tutors on sick leave.

"It will be interesting to see whether Aoraki takes that on board," Dr Grey said.

"Most [councils] have moved to a much more corporate-looking council. It's good to have some of that expertise on a council, but a council needs to be balanced."

Council chairperson, Kevin Cosgrove said "at the moment there's no need for [a staff or student representative] unless I'm convinced otherwise".

"If students have concerns and ideas they can put it through their heads of department. It then goes through the management structure to the council ... We're not pulling the blinds down or anything like that. Staff have the same avenues to work through."

No 'nice-to-haves' in austerity budget

The Minister of Finance, Bill English warned public servants this week that his government's cuts to public spending would mean service cuts. English said the Government's decision to rein in new spending in this year's Budget would mean some services that were ''nice-to-have'' but not essential would be axed.

''That means public spending restraint is no temporary aberration. It is effectively permanent,'' Mr English said.

However, TEU national president Sandra Grey says that not all budget cuts save money.

"Many budget items are investments that return far more than they cost at the start. Education is one such example - communities that are well educated not only have better employment prospects, research shows they are more engaged, more cohesive and healthier. 'Saving' money now by cutting education budgets will cost far more in a few years' time in health social welfare and police budgets, not to mention economic growth and taxable income."

"Luckily" say Dr Grey, "there is a minister in the current government who understands this and is investing large amounts of new money to help the country grow.

The minister of transport awarded a $150 million contract earlier this week for the construction of the Ngaruawahia section of the Waikato Expressway, arguing it will create up to 300 new local jobs and contribute to long-term economic for the region and the nation.

"The Government is committed to lifting productivity, creating jobs and helping get our goods to market faster. Strong investment in our state highways and the completion of projects such as this will help deliver on these priorities," the minister said.

The next day, referring to the Hobsonville motorway projects, the transport minister said the government's billion dollar boost to state highway funding over three years has provided a secure funding pipeline which has given contractors the confidence to continue investing in people and machinery and complete projects more quickly."

Dr Grey welcomed this rhetoric.

"The tertiary education sector looks to the same commitment to invest in growing our future from Mr Joyce in his role as minister of tertiary education at the upcoming budget," she said.

Tertiary Education Commission defends performance funding

Parliament's Education and Science Select Committee has completed its financial review of the Tertiary Education Commission. In its report, the committee notes the commission's focus on linking the funding of tertiary institutions to their performance.

The commission told the select committee that it believes that institutions will lose very little funding, because they will respond to the mere threat of funding being removed. The commission stressed that performance-linked funding is not intended to be punitive. It recognises that Māori and Pacific Islanders have lower completion rates, but it believes that appropriate achievement targets will be set in each provider’s plans.

The commission dismissed suggestions that institutions might lower their standards so as to protect their funding by maintaining or improving their pass rates, arguing it has in place mechanisms to prevent that happening. It believes that institutions will want to protect their reputations, and will work proactively with their students to maintain both their standards and their performance levels.

The report notes "while developing the [performance] indicators, the parties debated the adequacy of data on why students do not complete qualifications; we do not consider that an institution should be penalised when, for example, a student does not complete a course because they gain employment part-way through. The commission does not keep statistics on why students pull out of courses; it is difficult for institutions, particularly the larger ones, to follow up such students."

Other news

Unions affected by a planned restructuring of the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology say they have not been given enough time or information to put forward counter-proposals. The consultation period for the proposal, which would involve cutting management positions and combining IT support services with Otago Polytechnic, ended yesterday – just 11 days after the scheme was announced. If it goes ahead, up to seven jobs could be cut - Nelson Mail

A campaign by a top scientist urging overseas student loan debtors to repay their debts to help Christchurch has the backing of politicians, educators and the Reserve Bank governor. But one student has described the scheme as a "guilt trip" that will have little effect – Dominion Post

The government's changes to the Employment Relations Act (ERA) and Holidays Act come into effect tomorrow. TEU has already negotiated agreements with a number of employers that state that many of these new provisions will not apply to TEU members employed by those employers.   It is also working with the Council of Trade Unions (CTU) to repeal these laws and replace them with fairer employment legislation.

The effects of the Christchurch earthquake are being felt in the export education industry as students cancel plans to study in New Zealand. A survey involving education agents in 20 different countries suggests New Zealand has already had a small downturn in the number of international students wanting to come here - New Zealand Herald

Australians will have direct access to the thoughts of some of the country's brightest minds through a new independent news and information website, The Conversation. The not-for-profit service is backed by Australia's leading universities, providing information, analysis, commentary and research news from their researchers and academics - The Herald Sun

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