TEU Tertiary Update Vol 14 No 26

TEU challenges change proposals at Victoria

Victoria University of Wellington is currently undertaking five separate change proposals affecting academic staff. Two of these are located in the Faculty of Education, where management claim there is a surplus staffing situation in the BA programme and in Technology Education. TEU is disputing the workload calculations used to support those proposals but also believes there are important academic implications associated with both changes. There are also two change proposals in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, one to Philosophy and one to Political Science and International Relations. The final proposal is to disestablish completely the Criminal Justice and Research Centre. TEU is launching public campaigns around both of these last two proposals. In total, the university proposes to disestablish seven academic positions, with many more academic and general staff jobs affected by the changes.

In the meantime, TEU has written to the university asking it to honour the requirements of both the Education Act and a university statute, which require that the academic board be consulted on all academic matters. There is no evidence that management has consulted the board on any of these proposals so far. This is despite a 'note' in the Consultation Policy on Employment Matters to the following effect:

"These processes (change management proposals) are not to be used for new, or changes to existing, academic programmes. These matters are to be dealt with through established processes at Faculty and Academic Boards."

TEU has also launched an online petition to the vice-chancellor.

"Looking at the content of these proposals it is clear that there is simply not enough depth or breadth of understanding in management of the relevant academic matters to make for good decisions of this kind," said TEU organiser Michael Gilchrist. "That is the reason for the statutory requirement for democratic processes such as Academic and Faculty Boards in which all members of the university can participate or be represented."

Also in Tertiary Update this week

1. Otago University members quickly negotiate three percent
2. Minister plans further cuts for industry training
3. Report wants more jobs focus in secondary-tertiary transition
4. Global policy on vocational and educational training
5. Other news

Otago University members quickly negotiate three percent

TEU members at the University of Otago have begun and then, quickly, finished their collective agreement negotiations, settling on a 3 percent increase in salaries for both academics and general staff and a one-year term. The agreement also contains some enhancements for general staff and extended coverage, so that more general staff can benefit from the conditions enjoyed by TEU general staff members. For academics, there are no other changes to their working conditions.

TEU members will be meeting in the next two weeks to vote on whether to ratify the agreement or not.

Minister plans further cuts for industry training

Minister of Tertiary Education Steven Joyce has confirmed to the Education and Science Select Committee that funding for tertiary education in 2011/12 will decrease 0.4 percent to $2,780.707 million from estimated actual expenditure of $2,790.522 million in 2010/11.

In his evidence to the select committee on the 2011/12 Estimates for Vote Tertiary Education the minister also noted that funding for the Industry Training Organisation (ITO) sector has fallen by more than $100 million over the last two years. He attributed this to the effects of the recession - but said he also expects ITO funding to fall further as officials review the sector and make it more accountable for the way it uses its funding. He said that withdrawing government funding from programmes for which students do not earn credits would reveal the actual level of demand for skills training by ITOs.

The minister told the committee that the number of ITOs would probably fall from its current 38. The government is not actively seeking to reduce the number; the minister believes it will happen because of discussions between the commission and ITOs.

Many in the trades and education sectors have been warning under-investment will add to future skills shortages both specific to the Christchurch earthquake and more generally across the whole country. However, the minister believes that industry training is only part of the solution to future skills shortages; and that any skills shortage will be mitigated by people returning to that part of the workforce, and by migration.

Report wants more jobs focus in secondary-tertiary transition

A report from the New Zealand Institute More Ladders, Fewer Snakes argues that New Zealand youth are disadvantaged compared to their OECD counterparts and that a more job-focused approach to education is needed to tackle high youth unemployment.

The institute says that New Zealand youth perform well on average relative to OECD norms in education. However, for each of the other four measures of wellbeing [unemployment, crime, health and safety, and teenage births] New Zealand’s average is materially worse than the OECD average. The disadvantage is strongly concentrated in Māori and Pacic ethnic groups and there is no convincing sign of improvement trends.

Despite saying the education system is doing well the report then calls for a more jobs-focused approach.

"There are many educational institutions that compete for students and the funding they bring," the report authors state. "Success depends on being able to offer courses that students nd appealing, but there is no robust test to ensure that the courses offered will lead to work for the graduates. Most educational institutions do not track what happens to their students when they graduate and there are weak connections between the institutions and employers."

The report proposes a central agency, such as Careers NZ, that be mandated to provide oversight of the overall careers system and make changes that will promote life-long career self-management. It estimates the annual bill for all its proposals at $200 million, but it also estimates that the annual cost from youth unemployment, youth incarceration, youth on the sole parent benet, including taxes forgone, is around $900 million.

TEU Deputy Secretary Nanette Cormack said that anyone acting on the New Zealand Institute report needed to be aware that creating a sucessful secondary-tertiary transition was about more than just more than just giving school leavers skills that employers demanded.

Global policy on vocational and educational training

Many governments around the world are failing to fund vocational and educational training (VET) adequately, and that failure is leading to the growth of private and for-profit trainers driven mainly by financial and commercial imperatives, rather than educational, skills formation, equity or public policy objectives.

This is one of the key issues TEU National President Sandra Grey and National Secretary Sharn Riggs are currently debating in South Africa's Cape Town, at the Education International 6th World Congress.

Education International, the global body for education unions, believes that, in many cases, the profit motive means that resources move from the direct delivery of education to administration and marketing, and cost-reduction receives higher priority than quality improvement.

Dr Grey says vocational education and training is a vital component of any education system.

The congress will be affirming this week that VET should be available to students at all stages of life. It provides essential skills and equips individuals with the necessary technical expertise and broader competences to be successful in the labour market and to participate in civic life. VET may also provide pathways for those to pursue further and higher education opportunities.

Education International affiliates will be voting on a policy statement that asserts international agencies, governments and the trade union movement need to recognise the importance of VET. Education International will commit to lobbying and campaigning for the professional and trade union rights of VET teachers and for VET systems that are publicly funded, of high quality, accessible, and that promote equal opportunities for all.

Other news

Fears that families will no longer be able to afford early childhood education because of cuts in last year's Budget are starting to become a reality. Latest figures show the cost of early childhood education increased by 11.7 per cent in the year to June - a rise the sector's union attributes to government funding cuts - New Zealand Herald

The State Services Commission had announced Briton Lesley Longstone is the new chief executive of the Ministry of Education. Longstone is currently a director general within the English Department for Education and has 25 years' experience in the education and employment sectors in the United Kingdom, Europe and Australia. "Improving the life chances of all young people and the skills of adult learners will be my overriding ambition." - Dominion Post

The CTU is objecting to Minister of Welfare Paula Bennett saying that the jobs are there for those with the right attitude when commenting on youth unemployment. Peter Conway, CTU Secretary said "in the last 5 years the rate of youth unemployment has doubled to 27.5 percent and it is simply wrong for the Government to say this is due to the attitude of young people." - CTU

The University of Oxford has said the scandal engulfing News International will not prompt a rethink of its relationship with the company, which funds five academic posts including a Rupert Murdoch professor of language and communication - Times Higher Education Supplement

The National Quality Council has warned of a repeat trashing of Australian education's reputation "if decisive action is not taken to improve the regulation of VET delivered offshore" - The Australian

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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.

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