The Council of Trade Unions is concerned by some of the findings in a ‘State of the Public Tertiary Education Sector Survey’ released today by the Tertiary Education Union Te Hautū Kahurangi (TEU).

"Tertiary institutions are tremendously important to our society - they allow for the development of thought as well as the learning of skills. These places of learning must be great places to think, teach, research and develop," CTU Secretary Sam Huggard said.

"This report has identified that there are serious issues around workloads; that they are unmanageable. This is very worrying and we urge all employers to take steps to ensure working people in all industries have manageable workloads. The frequent restructuring in our tertiary sector is having a negative impact on staff and appears to be a contributing factor in why working conditions are deteriorating and why staff satisfaction is decreasing."

"Changing the fundamental orientation of the tertiary sector is significant recommendation. To change the current model from one which is business and profit orientated to one which instead focuses on the value and power of tertiary education to transform lives of New Zealanders is aspirational and visionary," Huggard said.

ENDS

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