The decision it announced this week means that six of those programmes will survive, as will nine jobs.

Ms Smith told the Timaru Herald staff were “gutted“.

“They think [the polytechnic has] made the wrong decisions, and it’s narrowing the focus too much.These foundation courses are exactly what the polytechnic should be doing,” she said.

Members were disappointed that the lower-level computing programmes in Timaru, Oamaru and Ashburton were not continuing next year, especially as there were no similar programmes in Oamaru and Ashburton, Ms Smith said. “We think they should have kept many more of the courses,” she said.

The Timaru Herald editorial was scathing of Aoraki’s management of the issue saying the chief executive Kay Nelson, “invoked the glorious language of modern management to assure the public the course trimming ‘will build stronger synergies between sport and fitness and outdoor recreation across our Christchurch and Timaru campuses’. We can’t wait to see them.”

“But something more is needed. The passage of a vote of no confidence in Ms Nelson by 110 union-member staffers early last month – and their call on her to enter into mediation with them – attests to a fractious relationship between staff and management. This can’t be conducive to building stronger synergies.”

TEU organiser Kris Smith has been negotiating with the polytechnic to provide replacement study courses for Dunedin media programmes. A proposal to cull eight of the 12 Dunedin-taught media courses at Aoraki would put the entire Dunedin programme and campus at risk, Ms Smith says.

TEU members are arguing that the polytechnic could establish multimedia course qualifications, incorporating elements of the radio, television/film, web and advertising design courses. TEU also advocated for Aoraki’s level 6 qualifications to be collapsed into one level 5 or 6 diploma incorporating television and film, 3-D animation, photography and creative writing.

“If the design of the programme was co-ordinated with Otago Polytechnic, the students could staircase at least 18 months’ credit into the design degree at Otago Polytechnic.”

A “rationalisation” of programmes between Aoraki and Otago could have resulted in the formation of an Otago School of Media, but this had fallen by the wayside as part of a senior management change last year, Ms Smith told the Otago Daily Times.

The Timaru Herald quotes from TEU’s submission to Aoraki:

“It is clear from the council report [in] October … that Aoraki has not yet met its budgeted [equivalent fulltime students]. To carve out 180 EFTS … when there are obviously no sound plans for delivering alternate programmes makes no business sense.”

A final decision on whether Aoraki will proceed with its move to cut courses and cull jobs is due by November 11, once a senior management team has reviewed a round of feedback and submissions from affected staff and students.

Aoraki Polytechnic told staff a fortnight ago of proposals that would close a range of programmes across all five communities. Twenty jobs are under threat, and several hundred potential students could lose a place of study if the changes go ahead.

TEU national president Sandra Grey was at a stop-work meeting in Timaru where Aoraki staff discussed current collective agreement negotiations and the proposed changes. She said staff see no justification for the proposed closures.

“These are professionals committed to quality tertiary education provision in their communities. They are committed to protecting their communities’ rights to access teaching and learning at all levels,” said Dr Grey.

TEU members will be making submissions to Aoraki senior management on the proposed changes and will be working with students and members of the public to do the same.

Meanwhile Film and Television students in Dunedin are also organising to oppose the closures. One former student, ‘Jonty’ told the Facebook group Save Aoraki Polytechnic Courses if it wasn’t for doing Web Design & Advertising Design last year he would not be where he is today.

“The staff were great, they made me feel like I was part of a team, this course gave me life. I truly felt like I belonged there. I think about other people that may be just like I was two years ago, knew what they wanted to do with their life. But because of their past, not having any school qualifications, they can’t get into any other course. I’m doing a degree at Otago Polytechnic now, and it’s going great. But if I hadn’t gone to Aoraki first I would be like a lost dog in the jungle. Closing down Aoraki simply isn’t an option.”

Aoraki Polytechnic told staff at 10 days ago of proposals that would close a range of programmes across all five communities. Twenty jobs are under threat, and several hundred potential students could be affected if the changes go ahead.

TEU national president Sandra Grey was at the stopwork meeting in Timaru where Aoraki staff discussed current collective agreement negotiations and the proposed changes.  She said staff see no justification for the proposed closures.

“These are professionals committed to quality tertiary education provision in their communities.  They are committed to protecting their communities’ rights to access teaching and learning at all levels,” said Dr Grey.

TEU members will be making submissions to Aoraki senior management on the proposed changes and will be working with students and members of the public to do the same.

For more information:

Dr Sandra Grey, TEU national president, 021 844 176 or 04 801 5098
Kris Smith, TEU organiser, 03 479 0085 or 027 229 5570

In Ashburton the closures will affect 84 students and two staff. Among them is young 19-year-old Samantha Quinton who is organising a protest and has a petition circulating to save the Life Skills course she is taking at Ashburton’s branch of the polytechnic.

The Ashburton Guardian reports that Aoraki is planning to discontinue some courses to fit the Government’s tertiary education policy, but wants to protect the course she is doing for future students.

“Before I did Life Skills, I did not know how to do a CV or a job interview. The Life Skills tutors teach you all that, those basic skills you need in everyday life, and they have bent over backwards to help,” said Ms Quinton.

In Timaru 182 students and three staff will be affected, and in Oamaru 102 students and two staff will see courses closed. In all three towns the courses the polytechnic wishes to close are computing and life skills programmes.

In Christchurch 76 students and five staff will be affected when courses in TV and radio and the Diploma in Sport and Fitness are both closed.

In Dunedin 109 students and seven staff will be affected when web design, advertising design, creative writing, 3D animation, film, TV and radio courses are all closed.

The polytechnic has said it is ‘rationalising’ its courses on offer said Ms Smith.

“But it does not seem rational when the threatened courses are not offered by other providers in their local communities,” said Ms Smith.

“For instance, the life skills programme in Oamaru is very popular and incredibly important to the community. Most of the students are young women who will now lose access to an important local learning opportunity.”

“The computing courses are important for people of many ages and backgrounds and in Oamaru and Ashburton no-one else is offering the courses that successfully target second chance learners in this way – 1 to 1 delivery in combination with self-paced learning.”

Branch President Michael Armstrong says with the growing membership some campuses at the polytechnic are now nearly fully unionised.

“There is a general feeling of activism and involvement especially noticeable at the smaller sub-campuses where density is higher and where the members work very closely together. The members have to take much of the kudos for the growth of the branch, as they notify us of new staff and encourage them to join and are actively involved,” said Mr Armstrong.

Lincoln University closed on Tuesday but reopened yesterday after engineers said they could not find any structural issues. Te Wānanga o Aotearoa’s Otautahi courses are closed all this week. Aoraki and Te Tai Poutini Polytechnics reopened their Christchurch buildings yesterday.

Meanwhile, TEU national president, Dr Sandra Grey said that, given the on-going earthquakes in Christchurch, it was time for the government to let the local tertiary institutions know what it was going to do to support them next year.

“Students and staff are doing an incredible job making do in very trying circumstances. But we need to assure those staff and students that there will be new funding and support for the next few years while that rebuilding continues.”

Thanks to Lee Hanner @ Flickr for the photo http://www.flickr.com/photos/shelby99/5695687512

The polytechnic had initially proposed a compressed building course as a way of providing more tradespeople for the rebuild of Christchurch. The proposal would have halved Aoraki’s 34-week carpentry, general engineering, and brick, block and paving programmes so they would take six months instead of a year to become qualified.

Aoraki has now withdrawn its application to the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) for approval for the course because the Building and Construction Industry Training Organisation did not support compressed carpentry training.

However, Chief Executive Kay Nelson says that a compressed course in general engineering will proceed because it had the full support of Competenz (New Zealand Engineering, Food and Manufacturing Industry Training Organisation) and NZQA had approved it.

“Pending student numbers, the polytechnic was on track to run a compressed course in general engineering,” she told the Herald.

TEU organiser Kris Smith, told the paper that she was surprised that the compressed course in general engineering had received support.

“There is definitely a need for skilled tradespeople in Christchurch, but I am not sure whether this course would be the right mechanism to deliver the right outcomes,” she said. “I would be interested to know their rationale for approving one course, but not the other.”

“We are concerned there will not be enough industry placements available, and wonder whether they will be able to find enough adequately qualified staff to run the course,” she said.

Earlier, TEU members had expressed concern that there are limited local spaces available for work experience, and had questioned who will teach the compressed trades programmes given these are specialist programmes and the present tutors already have full classes and full workloads.

Chief executive Kay Nelson made a presentation to industry representatives last night about the polytechnic’s plans to halve its 34-week carpentry, general engineering, and brick, block and paving programmes to provide more skilled workers. She intends for students to complete the 800-hour qualifications within six months instead of a year.

The polytechnic had support from the Industry Training Federation and would work with the Ministry of Social Development to enrol those who were unemployed, Ms Nelson said. “(The idea is) to allow people on a benefit to come to polytechnic and still receive a benefit.

TEU members have expressed concern that there are limited local spaces available for work experience, and have questioned who will teach the programmes given these are specialist programmes and the present tutors already have full classes and full workloads.

One member said that management had not consulted staff on the proposal and staff did not hear about it until the announcement last night.

The polytechnic also planned to provide sets of tools for students, and hoped to give them an opportunity to work once they graduated.

Ms Nelson told the Timaru Herald that Aoraki would not be taking shortcuts. She said the polytechnic would employ more student support staff and would look at various ways of recruiting tutors, including hiring retired builders to take on a facilitating role.

“We will not cut corners. The student will get exactly the same education that they would get if they were here for a full year.”

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 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 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.”