UC hires Aussie stock-exchange company to import students
The University of Canterbury council yesterday agreed to engage with global private education provider Navitas Limited to establish an affiliated college on campus that will recruit and prepare international students for degree study at
UC.
Students will study first-year courses at the affiliated college and on successful completion will enter their second
year of study at UC. UC Vice-Chancellor Dr Rod Carr says the University hopes international undergraduate students will
account for approximately 15% of funded enrolment within 10 years. Currently 8% of undergraduates are international
students.
"We are delighted to be partnering with the University of Canterbury to improve student body diversity and to help more
international students enrich their lives through education," says Rod Jones, CEO of Navitas.
The university selected Navitas as the private sector provider following a tender process. Operating since 1994,
Navitas currently operates nine pathway colleges in Australia, two in Canada, eight in the United Kingdom, five in the
USA, one in Kenya and one in Sri Lanka as well as three managed campuses in Australia and one in Singapore.
TEU president Sandra Grey warns however that Navitas is an Australian stock exchange listed company whose first
responsibility is to return a profit to those shareholders not to improve the education opportunities for people in
Canterbury.
"A college set-up by Navitas will be under pressure to make profits and satisfy stock market expectations. University
of Canterbury can provide a better education to international students by employing its own people and keeping the
provision in-house," says Sandra Grey.
In the United Kingdom, where Navitas has operated for several years, the local tertiary union UCU notes that Navitas' corporate strategy identifies the major conditions for its success as being the 'lack of tertiary
infrastructure in source companies', where students are recruited from and the 'real reduction of government funding
(increasing reliance of universities on full-fee paying international students)'.
UCU says a key part of this marketing strategy is the promise of some variant of 'guaranteed progression' to an
undergraduate degree at the partner institution. Also in Tertiary Update this week: League tables due out next week Teachers' Council role in teacher education debated Job Ops with Training challenged in parliament Universities and their councils serve their communities, not the Minister Chile: educators deplore the violent repression of student protest Performance pay for University of Texas heads Other news League tables due out next week
It is 'league-table' time again for tertiary education institutions around the country because the Tertiary Education
Commission is preparing to publish its 2011 educational performance information next Thursday. Tertiary institutions have already seen the educational performance data, and will get to see the final report three
days prior to its public release.
TEU president Sandra Grey says while the data is useful as part of a series of indicators to show what institutions are
doing, it is a mistake think it is, on its own, an indicator of education quality at various institutions, and an even
greater mistake to use it to rank those institutions.
"League tables create perverse incentives - institutions get punished if they choose to work with hard-to-teach
students that need opportunities to improve their lives. Meanwhile institutions have an incentive to put pressure on
academics to pass students whose work is not good enough, get rewarded."
The commission notes that some organisations may find that their relative position has changed, even though their
performance figures have not.
The commission says that it will remove private training establishments with fewer than five equivalent full-time
students from the comparative performance section of its report.
"We have added a note with the performance information to advise that the associated effects of the earthquakes may
have had an impact on 2011 student performance for education providers delivering in Canterbury. Organisations that have
their main campus in Canterbury or who have contacted us about the impact are listed in the note," says the commission.
Sandra Grey says that information about an institution tells you nothing about the individual courses and subjects that
it teaches and nothing about the students it teaches and the work it does in its local community.
"Just because something is easy to measure does not mean it is the right thing to measure." Teachers' Council role in teacher education debated
A government review of the Teachers' Council will consider the council's role in approving teacher education programmes
and graduate outcomes, including the effectiveness of its relationship with the Universities and other providers of
initial teacher education.
The review panel reports to education minister Hekia Parata in October, but before then it is seeking submissions.
Currently the council of eleven comprises four elected teachers, four ministerial appointees and one appointee each
from the two biggest teacher unions PPTA and NZEI as well as an appointee from the school trustees' association. The
council covers approximately 100,000 registered teachers.
The review will have significant implications for universities and other teacher education providers and is provoking
significant debate among providers. For instance, Stuart Middleton at Manukau Institute of Technology argued this week:
"The question of entry standards into the profession is a key matter for such a body. Having determined a set of
standards for entry, they should then apply them at the point of entry. It is an absurdity that the Teachers' Council
gets involved in initial teacher education programmes. They should be approved by CUAP or by NZQA and the only question
with regard to programmes should be whether the candidate for entry into the profession has undertaken such an approved
course."
In contrast many of the participants at TEU's recent teacher education forum argued in favour of the council setting
requirements for initial teacher education, saying teacher educators need to 'stick up for the council' and that the
current review should result in increased independence for the council, not less.
The review is seeking submissions until the end of next week. TEU is making a submission on behalf of members, which is
likely to focus on the council's role in approving teacher education courses as well as the link between tertiary
education institutions and teacher professional development. You can give your input to that submission by emailing
TEU's research officer Jo Scott. Job Ops with Training challenged in parliament
Labour Party employment spokesperson Su'a William Sio has questioned the minister for social development Paula Bennett over how many young people working under a Job Ops or Jobs Ops with
training placement, since 2009 have had their job terminated by the employer.
Job Ops with Training is a $5,000 subsidy for employers to take on young people on benefits with low or no skills, or
work experience and provide them with a six-month employment opportunity. The subsidy is to help the employer meet the
wage and training costs for the young person.
Paula Bennett replied to Su'a William Sio that 507 young people have had their Job Ops or Job Ops with Training
placement terminated by their employer. This includes 15 that had their placement terminated under the 90-day employment
trial provisions.
Su'a William Sio is concerned that employers are supposed to pay back the up to $5000 in wage subsidies they get if they sack their Job Ops workers
inside six months. It is not good enough that there are currently 477 employers who owe taxpayers a refund, with a total
of $814,541 outstanding, he said.
"There are 84,000 young people who are currently not in education, training or employment. Every dollar counts and the
Government should recover the money owed to it so it can be put to use giving young people a helping hand into
employment."
"Social Development Minister Paula Bennett is quick to demand accountability from beneficiaries who are over-paid and
she should hold employers to the same standards," Su'a William Sio said.
However, TEU national president Sandra Grey says that the union is more concerned that the students are getting high
quality transferable education and skills than that employers are being held to account.
"We would like to see more guidelines around the type of training and education the scheme requires employers to
provide employees. The scheme has more potential, to help young people in need of skills and would be more cost
effective, if employers commit to work with qualified skills trainers and educators." Universities and their councils serve their communities, not the Minister
by Professor Kevin Broughan, Former member of the University of Waikato Council
Although government funding and grants represent less than half university income, the minister of tertiary education,
Steven Joyce, has signalled his intention to take over completely the university councils.
Universities are places of great challenge for staff and students. They are dedicated to the pursuit of truth,
excellence, new knowledge, and to the transfer of that pursuit and knowledge to new generations. They attract staff of
the highest calibre from around the world. These talented and highly committed folk dedicate their lives to their
disciplines in order that our store of available knowledge and skill might become ever deeper and more pervasive.
Modern university councils are the governing bodies of their institutions. Governance means they are charged with
planning for the universities' future activities and needs, negotiating funding with the Tertiary Education Commission,
setting student fees and providing for the physical and intellectual needs of staff and students. They appoint the
vice-chancellor. These are weighty responsibilities in that a modern university has a wide range of fundamental and
professional programmes of study that need to be fostered. They run the gamut from pure science, mathematics and
philosophy to law, engineering and the training of teachers and social workers. It is hard to imagine a modern society
functioning well without graduates in computer science and medicine.
So a modern university is multifaceted and its council should, and currently does, reflect that diverse range of
activities and connections. Following wide ranging discussions within New Zealand communities during 1987-1989, a
largely democratic structure was laid down for the councils describing their roles and constitution. For example, there
were to be up to three places for each of the academic staff, the support staff and the students. There were to be
representatives from the Employers' Federation and the Council of Trade Unions. At Waikato it was common to have three
Māori representatives, the mayor of the city, the director of the then Ruakura Research Station and the chief executive
officer of the polytechnic. At different times there have been members of the legal profession, including justices of
the high court. Four members appointed by the minister of tertiary education were to be appointed last, to ensure that
the geographic, ethnic and gender balance of the council was reasonable. The wise legislators who enacted this
legislation, wanted the universities to be in good contact with their communities and the professional bodies which
accredit professional degrees.
At the heart of a university are academic programmes of teaching and research. These are the special responsibility of
an academic board. It decides which programmes should go to a central committee with representatives of all of the
universities, for final approval. This part of the system is not common in other countries. It is a throwback to the
days when there was just one university, the University of New Zealand.
The 1989 legislation was carefully worded. Universities were to be autonomous and have protected status, called
academic freedom. This status has been in the charters of universities throughout the world since medieval times. The
meaning of autonomy and academic freedom was spelt out in some detail: university staff and students are free to put
forward new ideas, test received wisdom, articulate unpopular opinions, engage in research, determine the content of
courses and programmes of study and teach and examine students in the manner they consider best promotes learning. This
freedom is conditioned by the need to act responsibility and ethically and allows for public scrutiny. There is
certainly plenty of this – New Zealand academic staff must be one of the most looked at and measured in today's world.
Universities work very hard indeed to spend every dollar of student fee income, government income and research income
wisely and well.
Now Minister Joyce wants to change the structure of the university councils. He wants to make them, apparently, "leaner
and more entrepreneurial". If the polytechnics are a guide to what he wants, he himself will appoint the Chancellor and
deputy, appoint four of the members who will have a business orientation, and then they will appoint four more members.
In other words, change a governing body that is broadly democratic and representative of major stakeholders, able to
understand both the university and the needs of its communities for teaching and research, into one appointed, directly
and indirectly, by himself with a very narrow focus. Since taxpayer government funding is typically less than half of a
university's income (at Waikato in 2011 it was less than 44 percent), there is even no basis in equity in this take-over
of control.
In any case, the universities are already very entrepreneurial. There are many links between companies and researchers
and between crown research institutes and researchers. For example, the University of Waikato was one of the prime
movers in the development of the successful Waikato Innovation Park. There are many New Zealand examples of spin-off
companies formed from ideas hatched within the universities. University staff make important contributions to their
communities in a huge variety of ways, not just entrepreneurial. But their main contribution to the development of
society and its peoples includes undergraduate teaching, which on no account should be downgraded.
Mr. Joyce may wish to tie funding to some measured institutional entrepreneurial-ship: that is the modern way. The
performance-based research funding system is being used to stimulate a concentration on a particular type of research.
We have an analogous system for teaching with pass rates, retention and completions being measured as part of the
funding structure. Not only are these funding structures flawed, but they are outlawed by the Education Amendment Act of
1989. In providing for autonomy and academic freedom in teaching, assessment and research, the Act requires councils,
commissions and ministers to respect this autonomy. Chile: educators deplore the violent repression of student protest
Academic union the Colegio de Profesores (CPC) has condemned the violent actions of the Chilean Police Special Force,
that reacted with "violence and unjust repression" against a student protest.
Thousands of students rallied in the capital Santiago on 8 August to demand their right to a free education.
Chilean student leaders asked their Government to take control of the mostly privatised public universities to provide
an equal access to quality education. They also demand that the government alters the taxation system. Unfortunately,
protests have turned violent, leaving both students and police officers badly injured; student protestors reportedly set
aflame three school buses. The Chilean Government responded to the protest with force, revoking the students' right to
protest after their last demonstration on 28 June turned violent. The government's "Hinzpeter Law," following the 28 June protest, restricts students' rights to freedom of assembly. Both students and teachers
condemned it as unlawful.
"The Chilean Government is contributing an anti-democratic attitude with an utter lack of understanding about this
social movement," said the union's National Director Barbara Figueroa
"We, educators, came here because our students' demands are also ours," she highlighted. "Since they introduce the
administrative decentralisation at a community level, we have been rejecting this form of administration, since it only
widens social differences."
These protests are a part of a larger storm that has been hanging over Chile since May 2011. In April 2012, Chilean
education minister Harald Beyer proposed a new university funding plan, which would remove private sector banks from the
process of granting student loans and reduce interest rates on loans from six to two per cent.
The President of the University of Chile Student Federation, Gabriel Boric, rejected the plan, stating, "We don't want to trade debt for debt, which is what the government is offering us."
Read the full article at Education International Performance pay for University of Texas heads
The University of Texas has approved a proposal to adopt an incentive-pay system for the heads of the system's nine
universities and six health centres, as well as 11 system administrators.
Under the plan, the system's chancellor will meet with each individual administrator eligible for the incentive plan.
With each, he will develop three or four areas on which to evaluate that official's performance.
An example plan included in the proposal measured performance on four areas: cost savings from shared-services initiatives, growth in
sponsored research programs from the prior year, philanthropic funding as a percentage of institutional expenditures,
and four-year graduation rates (all issues that have generated headlines at the University of Texas at Austin in the
past year).
Incentive pay, also called performance pay and variable pay, is nothing new, but it is the exception rather than the
rule at higher education institutions, particularly at public colleges and universities.
The fact that the University of Texas System - one of the largest and most prominent public university systems in the
USA - is moving toward performance pay is notable and could potentially drive others to adopt similar approaches.
But in a state that has seen numerous complaints in recent years about governing boards -- and the politicians who
appoint them -- micromanaging university policies, many see the incentive-pay plan as another step for boards to dictate university policy rather than working
collaboratively with campus leaders, which could lead to further confrontations between campuses and the system.
The UT system worked with Towers Watson, a human resources consulting firm that traditionally works with private-sector
organizations, to develop the proposal. Compensation experts said the Texas proposal resembles the types of plans used
in the corporate sector.
Compensation experts expressed concern that the system's compensation plan is an opportunity for board members to get
more involved in day-to-day policymaking. "The role of the board ought to be to set the general direction of the
university and leave it to the president to implement decisions on a day-to-day basis," said Raymond D. Cotton, a
Washington lawyer who specializes in presidential contracts.
Compensation experts say more higher education institutions seem likely to adopt performance pay structures.
Read more at Inside Higher Ed Other news
The first week of voting for TEU's presidential election is nearly over, and both candidates, Richard Draper and Lesley Francey, have been answering questions from members. All TEU members have until Monday 10 September to cast their vote. If you
have not received an email or a paper ballot please contact Susannah Muirhead.
CTU is alarmed at a report from the Ministry of Social Development that shows inequality in New Zealand is at its
highest level ever. The report also shows that the average income has fallen for the first time since its low point in
the early 1990s. CTU President, Helen Kelly says "Average incomes have dropped for the first time since the early 1990s,
yet this government is moving ahead with law changes that they themselves acknowledge will cut wages further." - CTU
A second year of declining student numbers at the University of Otago shows Dunedin can no longer rely on the tertiary
sector for economic growth, Otago Chamber of Commerce chief executive John Christie says. Mr Christie made the comments
after figures released last week showed enrolments at the university as of July 31 were down 1.8% on last year - Otago Daily Times
The University of Otago is being challenged to put caveats on claims made in its Genetics lectures, that international
consumer concern over Genetically Modified food can be ignored. The lectures based on research over ten years, claim our
overseas customers won't care about GE in our food exports, and that there is no risk to Brand New Zealand from
Genetically Engineered foods - GE Free NZ
How the American university was killed, in five easy steps. "In 1920 H.G. Wells wrote, 'History is becoming more and
more a race between education and catastrophe.' I think he got it right" - 'Junct Rebellion blog