Ministry of Education statistics show the average surplus as a percentage of revenue at public tertiary education providers climbing dramatically from 1.9 percent in 2006 to 5.2 percent last year.

In 2006 public tertiary education providers made a combined surplus of $66 million on revenue of $3.5 billion. Last year the same institutions made a combined surplus of $280 million on revenue of $4.4 billion.

Public tertiary institutions are supposed to meet a benchmark surplus of 3 percent of revenue each year. By exceeding that benchmark by a further 2.2 percent last year the institutions pocketed nearly $100 million dollars more than they were required to.

The large surplus last year does not seem to be a one off aberration according to TEU National Secretary Sharn Riggs. “They have grown steadily each year since 2006.”

The public institutions that have generated the largest surpluses as percentages of revenue include Waiariki (16 percent) Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi and SIT (13 percent each), WITT and UCOL (12 percent each), the Open Polytechnic, CPIT and Bay of Plenty Polytechnic (11 percent each).

“While we commend these institutions on careful and prudent management, we need to remember that surplus money is money that could have been spend saving jobs, teaching students and protecting quality education,” said Ms Riggs. “Too many good people have lost their jobs, gone without pay rises or been told to turn away students because of tight fiscal circumstances. It is galling to see that those circumstances were not so tight after all.”

Also in Tertiary Update this week

1. Negotiations across the nation
2. Voluntary student membership unlikely before election
3. Sleepover workers reject government offer

Other news

“Wanted: casual teaching staff. Postgraduate qualifications essential, PhD preferred. Minimum three hours work per paid hour; hours to be advised. No office provided. Three months work available; chance of more next year, after four months unpaid break.” Doesn’t sound very enticing, does it? But such is the lot of the sessional tutor — 70,000 in Australia, the NTEU estimates - The Melbourne Age

Two-thirds of English universities will have a maximum fee level of £9,000 and a third of them will charge the full fee for all courses. UCU said today that it was not surprised that all universities’ tuition fee hikes had been approved, leaving England as the most expensive country to study for a public degree – University and College Union

Almost a quarter of Australia’s universities expect to be over-enrolled by more than 20 per cent this year. And more than two-thirds of institutions began the year planning to take on extra students without any federal teaching subsidy to offset the cost. Australian universities are jockeying for position in next year’s demand-driven market. From next year, universities are promised teaching subsidies for every place they can fill – The Australian

Welsh ministers have been handed proposals for cutting the number of universities through mergers. A blueprint from the body that funds higher education would cut the number of universities in Wales from 11 to six. Education Minister Leighton Andrews, who last year said universities must “adapt or die”, is backing the proposals - BBC

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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.

The University of Canterbury has reached the midpoint of its three-year collective agreement and is negotiating to make variations to that collective agreement on issues not involving pay or money. The university has agreed to TEU claims to extend coverage to a larger group of general staff. It seems likely that the CPI adjusted pay rise for TEU members at the university will be five percent. (TEU members agreed that their pay rise for the second and third years of their three-year collective agreement would be based on CPI.)

TEU members at CPIT are disappointed by claims from their employer to ‘buy’ their discretionary leave and their workload limit on duty weeks off them with an offer of 4 percent and 2 percent over two years. Negotiations are continuing there.

TEU members at Weltec are also facing claims to remove their discretionary leave. Their employer wants to phase out discretionary leave by 2014, remove it entirely from all new staff employed before 2014 and, remove quarterly timetabled teaching hour limits and some entitlements to professional development. In return, Weltec is offering its TEU members 1.5 and 1.5 percent for two years. Staff are discussing, among other things, whether to take industrial action in response to the employer’s offer.

Academics at the University of Auckland have all been moved onto individual agreements on 30 June after their collective agreement expired over a year ago. Those 954 members will now be meeting on Wednesday 27 July to consider their employer’s latest offer and the TEU’s counter offer, and to decide whether to send the employer’s offer to ratification. In the meantime, industrial action and picketing continues at the university.

Negotiations are also underway or about to start at NMIT and Te Wānanga o Aotearoa and Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi, Massey University and Auckland University of Technology. TEU has initiated for its first ever allied (general) staff collective agreement at AUT.

Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi claims that when setting up the tertiary institution in 1992 it was given only $64,000 by the Government. It says that the amount of money was not equivalent to what other tertiary providers where given.

Mr Joyce says this is the last of the three Wānanga to be compensated. He says the money will build a library, a lecture theatre, and an exhibition centre.

Mr Joyce says the agreement completes negotiations between the Crown and all three wānanga over the 1999 Waitangi Tribunal Wānanga Capital Establishment Report (Wai 718).

The Tribunal supported the claim that wānanga did not get capital funding from the government equivalent to other public tertiary providers and, as a result, the three wānanga and their students were disadvantaged.

Te Wānanga o Aotearoa and Te Wānanga o Raukawa settled their respective claims under Wai 718 in 2001 and 2008.

Thanks to Br3nda @ Flickr for the photo

Mereana Selby, the tumuaki at Te Wānanga o Raukawa, saw her pay increase from under $100,000 in 2007 to over $160,000 in 2008.”  The tumuaki of te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiarangi saw his pay increase from a band of $110,000-$119,999 in 2007 to $180,000-$189,999 in 2008.”  The tumuaki of Te Wānanga o Aotearoa saw his total remuneration increase from a band of $250,000-259,999 to $290,000-$299,999.”  That is an increase of between 11 and 20 percent.

TEU national secretary Sharn Riggs says the figures add urgency to the need to treat other staff in wānanga and other tertiary institutions fairly.

“While some institutions appear to have shown restraint others have been offering very large increases to their chief executives and vice chancellors.”  But this shows that the State Services Commission is willing to offer its chief executives significantly larger percentage pay increases than it is willing to endorse for other staff.”

Te Wānanga o Aotearoa is about to enter collective employment agreement negotiations with TEU members on 12 and 13 November.

At some other tertiary institutions there were similarly large increases. The University of Auckland’s vice-chancellor saw his pay band improve from $520,000-$529,999 to $560,000-$569,999.”  The University of Otago the vice-chancellor’s pay improved by at least $60,000, and the two vice-chancellors that were employed at the University of Canterbury took home a combined total over $710,000 between them.

The Waikato Institute of Technology, already one of the highest paid chief executives at a polytechnic found his pay had improved by at least $30,000. Others to see large percentage pay rises included those in charge at the Manukau Institute of Technology, polytechnics at Christchurch and Whitireia, and the universities of Waikato and Victoria.

13 o Whiringa-ā-nuku 2009

He Mihi

He hōnore, he korōria ki te atua, he maungarongo ki te whenua, he whakaaro pai ki ngā tāngata katoa

Arohaina ngā teina me ngā tuākana. Whakanuia tō tātou arikinui me tōna whānau whānui. Paimārire ki a rātou.

Me mihi ki ngā tini aitua kua wheturangihia, moe mai rā, okioki ai i ngā ringa o te atua

Ko tātou ngā morehu o rātou mā, kia mataara, kia ita, ki te pupuru me te manaaki i ngā taonga, hei oranga mōu otirā mō ā tātou tamariki, mokopuna e haere ake nei.

Hei kupu whakakapi ake, me aro ki te hā o te whaktaukĀ« nei:

“Ehara taku tū i te tūtakitahi

Engari he tū takitini.”

Co-Branch Chairperson Message

E rere tonu ana aku mihi matakuikui ki a Hamiora rātou ko Jenny, ko Makuini, ko Yvonne e whakapau werawera ki te whakatutuki i ngā mahi o te tau kua pahure ake nei. Ko tētehi kaupapa nui tonu kei mua i te aroaro, koia ko te whakawhiti kōrero mō te ‘Collective Agreement’. Ahakoa i tĀ«mata ai ēnei mahi i te tĀ«matanga o te tau, kāore anō kia tau. Ko te tikanga kua āta whakatauhia i te marama o Paengawhāwhā, heoi, nā te nui o ngā kaupapa, e whakaauau ana i te wānanga, ā kua waiho noa ki te taha. I te marama kua taha ake nei, mātou hui tahi ai anō.

Ko tētehi o ngā kaupapa nui kua puta ake i tēnei tau, e hāngai ana ki ngā kōrero e whai nei;

Restructuring Decision

• To proceed with the proposal to cease offering Te Ataarangi programmes at the end of 2009.
• The Wānanga wants to emphasise that this decision is not related to the kaupapa of the Te Ataarangi programmes or the performance of staff within the programmes.
• We want to emphasise that the commitment of Te Ataarangi staff has been exemplary and that the Wānanga will continue to support the kaupapa of these important Te Reo Māori language programmes

The implication of this is that:

â”" ” ” ” ” ” ”  “ Te Ataarangi academic staff positions will be disestablished effective from 18 December 2009 (excluding BMIT positions which will be disestablished at a later date)

â”" ” ” ” ” ” ”  Te Ataarangi Programme Co-ordinator, administrative and general staff positions will be disestablished effective from 29 January 2010

(With the exception of the Administration Co-ordinator position which will be disestablished effective from 30 April 2010)

Ahakoa he kaupapa pōuri, ā ko te anga whakamua tonu te rongoā. Hei tā whaea Katerina, “E mau ki te kaupapa.”"  Kia kaua mā te waewae tutuki, engari mā te ūpoko pakaru mātou ora ake ai anō hei ngā rā e haere ake nei. Paimārire.

Finance

He $1301.36 te rahi o te moni kei te whare pūtea o ASTE/TEU Awanuiārangi, ā ko ngā kaitāmoko mō tēnei pūtea ko Makuini Hohapata rāua ko Yvonne Shepherd

• Balance as per statement 14^th August 2009

Kia mārama mai, ko ahau (Tamara Hapi) te Co-Branch Chairperson, ā ko Hamiora Werahiko kē te Chairperson, heoi, kua mutu kē i a ia ana mahi ki Awanuiārangi. Nō reira māku tēnei whāwhārua e whakakĀ« mō tēnei wā. Taihoa ake rā ka rapu haere i tētehi tangata hei takawaenga, tiamana ki Awanuiārangi, ā ka pai kē atu me he tangata e mahi atu ana ki Whakatane, Awanuiārangi hoki.

Membership

E 63 ngā mema TEU ki Awanuiārangi.”  Ko ētehi kei Whakatane, Awanuiārangi, ā ko ētehi hoki kei Te Ataarangi. Heoi, ko tētehi”  āwangawanga nōku, ā hei te mutunga tau ka mutu ake Te Ataarangi i raro i a Awanuiārangi, ā e 37 ērā mema ka ngaro atu, ā ko ahau anō tētehi. Ka toe mai ko te 26 noa ngā mema. E taea ana te pēwhea.

Branch Chairperson Hamiora Werahiko

Co-Branch Chairperson Tamara Hapi

Deputy Branch Chair Yvonne Shepherd

Treasurer/Secretary Makuini Hohapata

Strategic Plan and Goals 2009-2010

E whā ngā tirohanga nui hei āta kōkiri, hei whakaarotanga ake mā mātou: a) People Focus – He Aronga Tangata, b) Proficiency Focus – He Aronga Kaiaka, c) Place Focus – He Aronga Wāhi, d) Process Focus – He Aronga Tukanga.

Mā te titiro me te aro ki ēnei kaupapa, ā e tōtika ai te tautoko ka ahu atu ki ngā mema o Te HautūKahurangi o Aotearoa. He tirohanga noa nāku i tēnei wā, heoi mā te mahitahi o ngā mema e tutuki ai ngā mahi i roto i ēnei tirohanga e whā nei.

Nāku noa, nā Tamara Hapi

Co-Branch Chair

David Nicholson, the director of tertiary investment and monitoring at the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) was responding to comments by vice chancellors that they may have to turn students away rather than breach their TEC imposed EFTS cap and take unfunded students. Mr Nicholson said he recognised the difficult economic climate the capped funding system of tertiary funding presented. He said areas that were seen by the Government as a priority were invested in first and this included a focus on students who were under 25, as well as on strengthening the educational pathways for Māori and Pacific students.

TEU president Dr Ryan says this government sentiment stood in stark contrast to the actual effect of TEC policy which is forcing the down-sizing of the widely regarded Te Timatanga Hou course at the University of Waikato and Māori language courses at Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiarangi.

“While everyone is talking about giving opportunities to young people who would not otherwise be in study, the government’s EFTS cap, combined with TEC’s directions to universities to focus on degree and postgraduate teaching, is having exactly the opposite effect.”

“Ironically we now have universities devising ways to exclude students.”

The University of Auckland’s vice chancellor, Professor Stuart McCutcheon earlier told the Herald his university decided this year not to increase its roll numbers and was now selecting students with “high ability” for all its courses, with the aim of encouraging them through a graduate programme.

Awanuiārangi is understood to have 16 percent more students in 2009 than it is funded for by the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC). AUT also is significantly over its TEC-imposed cap for equivalent full-time students. Both are likely to respond to pressure from the Tertiary Education Strategy, which requires universities and university-aligned wānanga to focus more on degree-level and postgraduate teaching. With the cap on student numbers, the only way they can do this is by cutting pre-degree courses.

Awanuiārangi is understood to be preparing to cut its certificate and diploma Māori language courses, while AUT is likely to cut some pre-degree foundation programmes, as well as some arts and social sciences courses.

This news follows an announcement by the University of Waikato to its staff earlier this week that it is likely to propose a “significant and possibly total reduction in the number of pre-degree EFTS for 2010″.

“It is absurd that just when young people who wouldn’t normally go on to tertiary education are taking the initiative to do so, the very programmes that give them access to universities and wānanga are being cut back,” says TEU President Dr Tom Ryan. “These would-be students want to learn their way out of the recession, but instead a combination of ill-thought government policies is forcing them onto the dole queue.”

The first two days of negotiations for the nationwide universities collective employment agreement will take place this week on Thursday 23 and Friday 24 July.”  Hopefully you have already received an email with more information about what is going on, what you need to do and the agreed claims. If not you can visit our Stand as One Universities Negotiations 09 webpage for all the details.

Send a message of support to your negotiating team at our online forum.

ITP MECA Negotiations

The stopwork meetings that we notified ITP members at Wintec, WITT, Unitec, Whitireia, NorthTec and BoPP about last week have been postponed.”  The TEU negotiating team will now be meeting with employer representatives on July 30.”  Meanwhile negotiations are continuing at EIT, Tairawhiti,” NMIT, and Awanuiarangi.

Have your say at our online forum.

Pay Equity petition

Have you signed a copy of the pay equity petition? What about friends and colleagues at your workplace? Print off a copy and send back to TEU women’s officer Suzanne McNabb, PO Box 11-767 Wellington by 14 August 2009.

Tea for Burmese working women

The CTU Women’s council is selling” gift packs of Anisa tea for to support the Burmese Women’s Empowerment Project only” $20 plus postage and packaging. The project is supporting and organising migrant and refugee Burmese women workers” along the Thai border of Burma. The gift pack includes” three packs of tea”  – 200 grams of Scent of Bergamot (Earl Grey), 200 g of English Breeze and 100 g of Persian Tradition Premier Blend. You can see a photo of the tea here. To buy a gift-pack” of tea for only $20 plus P&P contact Suzanne http://scr.im/suzannem or 04 801 5098

State Services Commissioner Iain Rennie, who controls the salaries of senior state servants, including vice-chancellors and other tertiary-education chief executives, is saying that he expects all senior leaders across the state sector will exercise restraint in this year’s wage round. Mr Rennie has come under increasing pressure from politicians and the public to cap the salaries of highly ranked state servants.

Tertiary-education heads’ salaries range from those at Te Wānanga o Raukawa and Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiarangi where, according to the latest report of the State Services Commission (SSC), the chief executives were paid under $100,000 in 2007, to the vice-chancellors of Massey University and the University of Auckland who were paid in a band ranging from $520,000 to $529,999 during the same period.

Six of the vice-chancellors are recorded as earning more during 2007 than the prime minister’s current salary of $393,000.  Prime Minister John Key and Governor-General Anand Satyanand, have both requested that their salaries not be increased this year in light of economic circumstances.

Mr Key told the Dominion Post that other groups covered by the SSC’s remuneration authority should follow suit: “I’m sure judges and the like will also take a similar view … it is important that we, as well-paid New Zealanders, show leadership.” And the SSC was reported in the Dominion Post yesterday as saying that top civil servants can expect minimal, if any, increases.

The State Sector Act (s77ID) specifies that, while the conditions of employment of a chief executive at a tertiary-education institution may be determined by an the individual institution’s council, those councils first need to obtain the written concurrence of the state services commissioner to the proposed conditions of employment before they can be concluded with the chief executive.

In addition to chief executives and vice-chancellors, the SSC records that a further 2500 employees at tertiary-education institutions earn over $100,000 per annum during 2007.

TEU national secretary Sharn Riggs noted that it is more important than ever in the current economic environment that wages for low-paid workers continue to grow.

“Wage freezes for highly paid chief executives, whether in the public or private sector, are a valuable symbolic gesture of a changed culture, but other workers need more money if they are to help their families and communities through the crisis we currently face,” Ms Riggs said.

Also in Tertiary Update this week:

1. Doors open at Matapihi ki te Ao for more PTE students
2. Call for more planning at Victoria’s faculty of education
3. ITPNZ calls for ITP funding top-up
4. More te reo courses but fewer students
5. Tertiary education can join the economic rescue team
6. French academics to hit the streets again
7. Academic-freedom win at KwaZulu-Natal
8. Business-school graduates learn the real-world skill of cheating
9. Minister Gillard prepares to negotiate outcome of Australian Bradley Report
10. International MBAs risk becoming “globaloney” as economic crisis deepens

More international news

More international news can be found on University World News:
http://www.universityworldnews.com
TEU Tertiary Update is published weekly on Thursdays and distributed freely to members of the Tertiary Education Union and others. Back issues are available on the TEU website: www.teu.ac.nz. Direct inquiries should be made to Stephen Day, email: http://scr.im/stephenday

Thanks to omarrun @ Flickr for the photo