With less than two months to the Budget, Tertiary Update takes an extended look at what we can expect from the 19 May Budget and what we might need to see to ensure that our excellent tertiary education system is able to flourish.

In this week’s Tertiary Update:

1. Previous budgets
2. Earthquakes and austerity
3. Some big numbers
4. Specific issues:
   • Trades training
   • Student loans
   • The Tertiary Education Strategy
   • Tertiary education’s role in the recession
5. Other news

Previous budgets

For tertiary education the three defining features of the current government’s previous budgets have been::

• cuts around the edges of funding to programmes that the government has not valued;
• a commitment to the previous government’s capped EFTS policy leading to a failure to fund the number of people who would like to study; and
• the introduction of greater amounts of performance-based funding.

Inevitably, pressure has seeped from government funding cuts through into employment negotiations, with sustained attempts to diminish pay and conditions for those working in the sector.

After two and half years in office the government has put in place most of its stated policy framework for the tertiary education sector, so there are unlikely to be significant policy-driven changes coming from this year’s budget.

However, there could well be further capping of funding compared to the number of potential students. The government is preparing New Zealanders for an austere budget, but it has several times indicated that it will spare the Vote Education budget line from the worst of the cuts.

Earthquakes and austerity

Just before the second major Christchurch earthquake the minister of finance, Bill English said:

“The Budget this year will reduce new operating spending to around $800 million to $900 million a year, from the current allowance of $1.1 billion. We will prioritise new spending on health and education and set a path to meaningful surplus in 2014/15 – a year earlier than forecast.”

One month and one major earthquake later, the Prime Minister John Key said the government was abandoning plans to spend an extra $800 million in this year’s Budget because of the cost of the Christchurch earthquake.

Mr Key said the government still expected to increase funding to health and education but warned that money would now have to come from cuts in other areas, rather than through new funding – and the increases would not be as big as earlier indicated.

The Prime Minister has effectively said there are now two pools of money for the budget. One, education and health, will get between $600-800 million in new spending. The other, everything else, will suffer $600-800 million of cuts to pay for new spending in health and education.

Some big numbers

So what does $600-800 million of new spending mean for the health and education vote appropriations? The most recent Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) released in December last year shows education spending increasing from an actual expenditure in 2009 of $11.5 billion to a forecast $11.8 billion in 2010, up $324 million.

BEFU forecasts spending to grow a further $200 million this year and then remain relatively stagnant – at about $12 billion – until at least 2014.

Currently the government spends about $4.1 billion of that $12 billion on tertiary education. Most of that remaining $8 billion goes to compulsory education with early childhood education receiving much of the remainder. The budgeted increase for the entire education budget of 2.8 percent roughly keeps pace with inflation if GST is not accounted for.

The health budget is also roughly $12 billion and BEFU also forecasts that it increased in both 2010 (by about $770 million) and 2011 (by about $900 million).

However, the situation is not as good for tertiary education. BEFU currently forecasts that tertiary education funding will fall every year between 2009 and 2014. Most of this reduction is due to a tightening in eligibility for student loans, but it also includes falls in funding for tuition and other tertiary education spending. This BEFU is predicated on student numbers remaining at record high numbers, but not growing, due to the government’s EFTS cap funding policy.

Indeed, in cabinet papers relating to last year’s budget tertiary education minister Steven Joyce noted:

“The recession has increased demand for tertiary education in 2009 and 2010, and the increased demand is forecast to remain high in 2011 and beyond. At the same time the current funded baseline of places at ITPs and universities decreases from its current level in 2011.”

This was in contrast to public statements that high student numbers were a temporary circumstance that the sector simply needs to weather.

Therefore, the current BEFU see health and education receiving over a billion dollars of new spending this year and next and yet both sectors cope with inflation. It also forecasts that tertiary education, which sits within the larger education budget, will still face significant budget cuts.

Now the government is suggesting that new spending for health and education will be 20-40 percent less than forecast by Treasury, but that student numbers will continue to grow.

Specific issues

Trades training

Following the earthquakes there has been significant focus on whether there are enough qualified trades people to help rebuild Christchurch. Ironically, up until the earthquake the government seemed be waging a vendetta against trades training, with large cuts to industry training and polytechnics forcing many trades departments to make trades tutors redundant and to increase class sizes.

Earlier this week though Mr Joyce announced that there would be an increased focus on trades at polytechnics to cope with higher levels of demand during the rebuild of quake-stricken Christchurch.

The minister told NZPA the boost would involve re-prioritising courses toward the trades and an increase in funding. Expect the minister to provide greater detail about what this new funding and focus might mean in the weeks leading up to the Budget. If it is a feel good measure to placate concerns about how quickly Christchurch can be rebuilt, it will be a one-off targeted payment to mostly Canterbury based trades training providers. If it is genuine attempt to address concerns about a long standing skills shortage it will be an-going nationwide funding package that looks to strengthen existing capacity in polytechnics and industry training providers.

Student loans

The government has repeatedly said that the current interest-free student loans policy is fiscally unsustainable, should not have been introduced, and is preventing the government from being able to balance the books as it would like. It has however, also repeatedly affirmed its pre-election promise that it will not remove interest-free student loans. Some in the tertiary sector, such as Universities NZ have lobbied the government to redirect funding for student loans and support spending going tertiary education performance funding.

There are two useful points to make here. The first is that student loans are not directly a tertiary education funding issue – they are actually a tax issue. Student loans operate as a tax on education, and, because of the way they are designed, are a regressive tax that means the poorest students and graduates pay the most tax on their education.

The second point is the government is stuck with interest-free student loans, but it is likely to use the Budget to propose further changes to reduce eligibility to those loans. The danger for those working in tertiary education is that if any changes to eligibility are too restrictivestringent it may increase either the perception, or the reality that tertiary education is unaffordable or unattainable.

Expect to see the government sell changes to the public in much the same way as the recent welfare reform debate, with students portrayed as ‘bludgers’, and funding cuts described as ‘closing loop-holes’.

The Tertiary Education Strategy

Last year the government released its Tertiary Education Strategy 2010-2015 which guides its tertiary education policy until 2015. The Ministry of Education largely developed this document under former tertiary education minister Anne Tolley, and subsequently it has the look of a document that was developed mostly by ministry officials without the close fiscal oversight that one might expect from the current minister.

Thus, it lists among its key priorities increasing the number of young people (aged under 25) achieving qualifications at levels four and above, particularly degrees, increasing the number of Māori and Pasifika students enjoying success at higher levels, improving the educational and financial performance of providers and strengthening research outcomes.

Worryingly for the government it would struggle to show how its current funding and policy choices are meeting any of those goals. Last year roughly 9000 would-be students missed study places due to the cap on EFTS. Changes to funding models mean that pathways courses to get students who would otherwise not enter tertiary education into study closed in favour of funding for postgraduate study for students who have already succeeded. Polytechnics, collectively down about $50 million in funding, are cutting staff and raising class sizes to stay financially viable. And MāoriMāori and Pasifika students are facing the brunt of decisions that are aimed at making tertiary education more costly and exclusive.

The government will face an interesting test later in the year when the Ministry of Education measures tertiary education against the priorities the government set in its strategy. The government may need at least a few small examples of new spending, particularly around access for students that would otherwise miss the opportunity to study in this year’s Budget to demonstrate its commitment to its own strategy.

Tertiary education’s role in the recession

Good tertiary education is not just about jobs, training and the economy. It serves a broader social purposes that strengthens our communities, our democracy and our health. But currently it is no surprise that the economy is a dominant topic for many people as the Budget approaches.

TEU has repeatedly argued that tertiary education has a crucial role to play in supporting New Zealand to climb out of the global financial crisis. New Zealand has a world-class tertiary education system with world-class people working in it. With the right support our tertiary education system can give people who would otherwise miss out on new skills and qualifications, it can kick-start and change the direction of our economy, and it provides top-quality research that shows a way forward.

Many other countries, including Australia see increased funding and access to their tertiary education system as an investment rather than a cost. New Zealand can also make this choice, but the current ideology around funding – of austerity and cuts – will not make it easy.

Other news

A survey released by Statistics New Zealand, in association with the Ministry of Science and Innovation (MSI), shows that universities undertook $802 million worth of research and development (R&D) in 2010, a third of the nation’s total R&D spend. The biennial Research and Development Survey measures the level of R&D activity by the private sector, government departments and agencies, and universities. Since the last survey in 2008, university R&D increased by 23% from $653 million to $802. New Zealand’s total R&D expenditure increased 13% during this period – Universities NZ

As Japan struggles to contain radiation leaking from a damaged nuclear-power plant, some universities have postponed the start of their academic year, while administrators worry about the long-term impact of the disaster on recruitment of foreign students and faculty members – Chronicle of Higher Education

A swindle involving a Perth university employee charging Indian students thousands of dollars for fake English test results stretched across the country, with one student flying from Queensland to obtain dodgy marks – The Australian

Canadian higher education leaders on Tuesday praised their federal government’s budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year, which would significantly increase spending on higher education and research. The 2011 budget would spend tens of millions of new dollars to create research chairs and invest in brain research, and provide additional funds for student financial aid and study abroad. “[T]oday’s budgetary commitments to higher education are in line with a growing consensus among Canadians that Canada’s research universities play an integral role in advancing our economy and improving the social and economic well-being of all Canadians,” said Stephen Toope, president of the University of British Columbia – Inside Higher Ed

Private colleges in Swaziland have been given until the end of May to register with the ministry of education and training or face closure. Minister Wilson Ntshangase announced that the ministry has decided to register all private tertiary institutions in the country – Swazi Observer

Largely unaccredited US universities that purport to give students “career training” are charging upwards of US3000 but the students working at Wal-Mart and 7-Eleven – Chronicle of Higher Education

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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 dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS), Professor Daniel Zirker, says the process is still under consultation, but is blaming the extent of latest round of proposed redundancies on the government imposed funding cap on students.

“I am working closely with HR colleagues to make sure this is a very robust and transparent process, to fulfil our obligations to both staff and the university.”

In a letter sent out to staff with the attached proposal, he said the faculty was struggling financially due to the capped funding environment.

Current projections forecast the faculty running a deficit of $610,000 in 2011 with it rising to $1.5 million by 2013 if changes weren’t made.

TEU national president Tom Ryan told the Waikato Times he is “extremely concerned” that jobs were again being cut in the faculty.

“FASS over the past decade or so has continually been expected to bear major cuts in staffing while at the same time it has been expected to contribute higher amounts of profits back to subsidise other parts of the university,” Dr Ryan said.

Thanks to DeeKnow @ Flickr for the photo

The Otago Daily Times reports that the polytechnic will introduce a more stringent selection process where first-year students with strong academic records applying for high-level diploma or degree programmes will be accepted ahead of those who met only minimum requirements.

Chief executive Phil Ker said students with strong academic qualifications enrolling in degree and diploma courses would be accepted first and those with poorer educational records or enrolling in lower-level programmes might miss out.

One councillor Rebecca Parata said the policy would disadvantage the most vulnerable young people at a time when it was difficult for them to find work.

She said 8 percent more Dunedin people aged between 18 and 24 are currently receiving a benefit than the same time last year.

“As a country, we should be using the current economic environment to ensure we up-skill young people, not shut them out of further education … If we don’t get them into work or training they will be on the streets.”

Ms Parata said the policy could also affect mature students, who made up about 40 percent of Otago Polytechnic’s roll.

Another councillor, Dr Peter Coolbear, said the policy countered the reason polytechnics existed – “as engines of regional and economic development”.

A third councillor, Dr Malcolm Macpherson said the policy had been produced with the polytechnic in mind, not society.

Thanks to leighblackall @ Flickr for the photo

That is Massey University vice-chancellor Steve Maharey’s view of the EFTS cap system and universities’ moves to introduce widespread enrolment caps, as expressed to Off Campus magazine this week.

Off Campus argues that Clarence Beeby’s founding vision of New Zealand’s education system, “that all persons, whatever their ability… have a right as citizens to a free education of the kind for which they are best fitted and to the fullest extent of their powers”, is being undermined by the combined effect of the EFTS cap and the enrolment restrictions.

Thearticle traces the history of rapidly increasing student numbers since the 1990s (the proportion of 18 to 24 year-olds enrolled in tertiary institutions rose from 20.5 to 30.2 percent between 1990 and 2001), and decreasing government investment (between 1991 and 2002 government funding for universities dropped from 73 percent of total operating revenue to 42, and then 37 percent in 2006).

With a resumption of funding cuts to tertiary education under the current government (Off Campus estimates that government investment has now fallen to 35 percent, compared to about 46 percent in Australia), the government’s response has been to compel institutions to rein in their costs. As finance minister Bill English infamously noted to ITP chief executives last year:

“Don’t run out of money because I’m not going to give you any… You fix it or we will find someone else who will.”

In the Off Campus article TEU national president Dr Ryan agrees that the problem relates to government underfunding, and the government’s obsession with cost cutting in the public sector – at the same time as claiming to be catching up with Australia.

“We’re the seventh-lowest taxed country in the OECD… [and] we’re just had a budget that has given massive tax cuts to the top 5 percent of income earners…. Australia has a top tax rate of 43 cents to the dollar.”

“If we want to keep up with Australia… we should be investing proportionately – which would mean a couple of 0 million extra in tertiary education. With that level of increased funding, open entry could effectively be restored”, said Dr Ryan.

Thanks to EXMSS for the image

Otago University, 8 July 2010

Sharn Riggs

TEU National Secretary

Kia ora koutou katoa. Greetings from the President and Council of the Tertiary Education Union Te Hautū Kahurangi o Aotearoa. We have a strong and valued relationship with NZUSA and I am very pleased to be here today.

I want to begin today by telling you the story of one of our members, who used to be one of your members. Teurikore Biddle finished school in what I used to call the fourth form but which most of you will know as year 10. She spent several years in performing arts classes until 1997 when she enrolled in Waikato University’s Te Timatanga Hou course. Te Timatanga Hou was set up as a bridging course to help Māori students enter tertiary education.

Teurikore said of that course:

“The teachers there were committed to seeing Māori succeed. I am absolutely sure that had it not been for their efforts and the programmes they offered I would not have maintained my interest in tertiary education. To have started off at the main campus of the university on a BA would have been a grave mistake in my case. I needed to go to Te Timatanga Hou so that I was properly prepared.”

Teurikore eventually graduated from Waikato University with a BA Honours degree and then Victoria with an MA. Now Teurikore teaches Māori language and Māori performing arts at Victoria University. Last year she was awarded a New Zealand Fulbright travel award. She used this award to travel to a Native American and Indigenous conference in Minneapolis, USA. Teurikore participated in a panel discussion on Indigenous Activism as seen through the lens of Māori performing arts. She also received an International Science and Technology award in 2007/2008. She used this award to participate in a collaborative research project with Native American Indian academic staff from the University of Montana.

Teurikore told us:

“I have attended only one of my graduation ceremonies, and that was for the qualification I received from Te Timatanga Hou – I made a promise to myself that same day that the qualification from Te Timatanga Hou would be the only ceremony I attended until I complete my PhD.”

Some of you may know that Waikato University cut the Timatanga Hou course last year.  It is no longer available.

Teurikore’s story is important because it is about the hope that education can provide. The path from fourth form dropout to internationally recognised scholar can be a remarkably short one. Sadly, that hope is currently being challenged by a government that says it believes in the importance of Teurikore’s story, but is failing to match its actions with its words.

Let’s look at those words first:

Last year the government said that its vision for tertiary education is for a world-leading, world-class education system that equips all New Zealanders with the knowledge, skills and values to be successful citizens in the 21st century. In particular it wants to focus on  increasing the number of young people (aged under 25) entering and succeeding at tertiary education, particularly degrees, increasing the number of Māori students enjoying success at higher levels and increasing the number of Pasifika students achieving at higher levels.

The Tertiary Education Strategy 2010-2015 said education was important because higher education levels have been linked to better general well-being, better health and greater social mobility. Tertiary- educated people are more involved in the community and are more likely to vote and stand for public office. Tertiary education promotes debate, democracy, culture and expression. And not least of all, it is god for the economy. But, sadly, that’s not what people are always experiencing today in universities, in polytechnics and in wānanga around New Zealand.

Here are some of the events of the last year and half:

1. Adult and community education courses have closed in the face of a savage 80 percent cut in funding. This affected 15,000 night class tutors and up to 200,000 students whose learning was previously estimated to have an economic benefit to the economy of between $4.8 billion and $6.3 billion. All to save $16 million.
2. Polytechnic funding was cut at the very stage when the government was saying it wants to get more young New Zealanders into education, and particularly into skills and trades training. Most polytechnics now face shortfalls of millions of dollars in 2011 unless they can significantly cut costs.
3. University tripartite funding worth $50 million dollars was wiped away in last year’s budget. This money had aimed to help keep New Zealand’s world class academics teaching and researching here in New Zealand. It went some way to addressing the huge salary gap between lecturers in New Zealand and overseas. Without it vice chancellors are once again reporting that they are losing entire departments of staff and PhD. students to overseas and in particular Australian universities.
4. Student numbers have risen dramatically at the same time as there has been static or falling funding for services and staff at most institutions. At AUT for instance the number of equivalent full-time student (EFTS) increased last year from the previous year by over 10 percent to over 18,000 EFTS. What is not increasing however is the number of staff. Full-time equivalent academic staff numbers fell last year by 2.8 percent despite that dramatic growth in student numbers.
5. Like many other tertiary institutions AUT reported a net surplus of $8 million but its staff-student ratio rose from 16.8 students per staff member to 18.8 which may not seem much but that is an increase of two students per staff member or nearly 12 percent. For staff that number reflects workload. For students it is an indicator of quality.
6. The government removed local democratic governance from all 20 polytechnics.  It reduced the number of council members to eight rather than the previous 12 to 20. It gave its own minister the right to appoint four of those eight. It gave ministerial appointees longer periods on the council than their community appointed peers, and the right of veto over important decisions like electing the chair. It also removed the right of those people who work and study at polytechnics, staff and you, students, to have a seat on the council.
7. Roger Douglas’ voluntary student membership bill.  Well I don’t need to tell you about this.  Except to make two points.  The first is that this is an issue that affects staff as well as students at tertiary institutions, and we continue to support your campaign to prevent this bill becoming law.  The second is that we continue to hope that this is not part of the government’s greater plan for tertiary education but simply an aberration supported only by Roger Douglas and his small number of student disciples.
8. There has also been a concerted effort by employers, strongly supported by the Government and the State Services Commission to undermine working conditions at tertiary institutions.  For example at NorthTec, Unitec, BoPP, Wintec, WITT and Whitireia after a year of long protracted negotiations that included several days of strike action and months of industrial disharmony, the employers refused to accept an offer from academic staff of zero pay increases at four of the polytechnics in return for retaining their existing employment conditions. The employers remained adamant throughout the dispute, which is only now drawing to an end that they wished to increase duty days and reduce leave provisions for their staff.
9. The government has introduced a significant shift in the focus of research funding to favour research that has an immediate economic return for businesses. Its Tertiary Education Strategy reads:

“Better linkages between firms, universities and other public research organisations will inform firms of the research that may be relevant to them, and inform researchers of the research that firms want and need. We will ensure that the Performance-Based Research Fund assessment fully recognises research of direct relevance to the needs of industry and its dissemination to industry. We will also ensure there are further incentives for universities, other research organisations and firms to work together.”

Remember, this is not new money the government is talking about but existing public research funding that is being shifted to help private businesses.

Staff and students are the kaitiaki, the guardians of New Zealand’s commitment to public education. We cannot just defend the interests of those members who currently pay to belong to our organisations.  We must also speak for the students to come, staff yet to be employed, research yet to be done and communities that will benefit from a robust, well-funded, quality tertiary education system. If we don’t take on this responsibility there is probably no-one else that can or will.

In the 1990s the challenge we faced when defending our vision of public education was a determined effort by the government of the time to turn the tertiary education sector into a business.  Polytechnics and universities were encouraged to compete against each other for students and courses and funding.  International students were flown into the country in record numbers and advertising and marketing budgets blossomed as institutions did everything they could to meet the demands of what later derisively became known as the ‘bums on seats’ funding model.

A commitment by and organisation of staff and students and the public at the time turned back this challenge. In this decade the new challenge is not about turning tertiary education into a business, but rather into a tool for business.

Notice the subtle difference and the differing challenge it presents for those of us committed to protecting public education. We need a similar commitment today to defend that thing that makes public education most important to us – and that is hope.

Public education is a democratic tool that gives us hope.  It exposes us to new ideas, new people and new chances. Deciding that some topics are of less relevance to business or have no productive value undermines the democratic hope that education gives us.

Most New Zealanders support public education. It is a crucial pillar of our egalitarian democracy. It gives people like us, you and me and people like Teurikore opportunities. It helps bring social justice to our communities. It gives our economy real, sustainable economic strength and the competitive edge that the Government seeks. Through research and learning it expands our horizons and it connects our history to our future.

Private education might do these things incidentally, but not consistently and certainly not on purpose. Individual policy decisions like cutting adult and community education or limiting students’ access to tertiary education through an EFTS cap or allowing numerous low quality private providers to proliferate, all have an impact on the ability of our public education system to meet its egalitarian goal of giving opportunities to New Zealanders and our economic goal of moving out of being a low wage economy unable to compete in the global market.

New Zealand has an excellent tertiary education system. It produces world class graduates and is highly respected. All the people involved deserve credit for that. The best way to defend public education, to defend tertiary institutions and to defend those students who are yet to come, is to work together collectively and nationally. That is what NZUSA does and it is what the TEU does.

This belief that we are stronger together than we are separately was at the very heart of the merger that led to the creation of TEU.  The Association of University Staff (AUS) and the Association of Staff in Tertiary Education (ASTE) had different cultures, different habits and different voices and on one level, different interests, but they shared a common belief in the value of public education and in the value of the people who work to make that happen.

A merger such as the one we went through over the last few years is never easy, especially for local branches and organisations that understandably, but not necessarily rightly, want to devote more of their time, money and energy to their own local issues.  But luckily for us, throughout the process, our members continued to lift their heads and look towards the bigger picture, to look towards the shared common belief that binds us together.

Our union has a waiata, and a saying: Tu Kotahi – stand as one.  That concept of standing tall for what you believe in, as part of group, is what helped Teurikore become the woman she is today.  It is also what makes our organisation with our short history and yours with your longer history into the voices that we are today.

We will meet the challenge, you as students and we as staff, by working collectively and nationally for our shared common belief that education is important and the people involved in education are valuable. Our strength will come from our collective commitment to keep voicing our vision of education as one of hope.

A no reira, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā tātau katoa

Students with strong academic records will be offered guaranteed entry, but those falling below that standard will have to apply and take their chances based on the number of places available, the university council decided this week.

The university council this week approved a range of measures including halting new enrolments in five sub-degree diploma and certificate courses, discontinuing places for “interest-only” students and introducing enrolment caps for the Summer School and two foundation studies programmes.

Enrolment caps which come into force from semester two this year on 10 previously open-entry undergraduate degrees will also continue.

Vice-chancellor Prof Sir David Skegg told the council he had “no idea” how many students might miss out on places.

The university’s domestic enrolments this year were 4.4 percent higher than last year and by the end of the year they were expected to exceed the Tertiary Education Commission’s EFTS cap by 520 to 550 EFTS.

Meanwhile the North Shore Timesreports that Massey University will close second semester enrolments earlier than planned and also cut back summer school in semester three. The university’s vice-chancellor Steve Maharey says it will introduce preferential entry next year as a result of the government’s freeze on funding for extra enrolments. Mr Maharey says the earlier closing date is in an effort to ensure the university stays within tertiary education commission guidelines this year.

The Manawatu Standard reports that students are worried that second chance learners, Māori and pacific islands students could all miss out under new tighter enrolment policies – even though they’re considered a Government priority.

Thanks to _setev at Flickr for the photo

Universities around the country have introduced tighter new entrance criteria in response to the EFTS cap imposed on them by the Tertiary Education Commission. The recession and a demographic bulge in 18 and 19 year olds has seen an increase in people wanting to study, at the same time as the government-imposed funding cap.

The Secondary Principals Association wants universities to relax the toughened criteria for higher NCEA pass rates to enter previously open-entry courses next year.

Association president Patrick Walsh told the Post he had pupils at his school worried they would miss out on university.

“How do you tell someone who has worked really hard to give themselves the chance of going to university that they might not get in? It’s very disappointing when students capable of making a very good contribution to the economy for years to come are turned down. Instead, it could lead to more students being unemployed, which is not a good situation.”

New Zealand Students Associations Union co-president Pene Delaney told the Dominion Post there is no tracking of what happens to people who are turned away from study

“It is possible that thousands of people may continue to languish… on the unemployment benefit due to these changes.”

Tertiary education minister Steven Joyce said there were likely to be several factors that could free up university places for school-leavers. These included the country coming out of the recession, student loans being linked to academic progress, and an extra 5600 government-funded places next year.

Thanks to cthoyes @ Flickr for the photo of the dole queue (get it?)

The Otago Daily Times reports that enrolment caps have been placed on 20 undergraduate and sub-degree programmes in the next semester, with vice-chancellor Prof Sir David Skegg saying caps also will be required next year.

He said that enrolments were increasing faster than the university or the government funding agency, the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC), had expected.

This is the first time the University of Otago has restricted entry to first-year study or open-entry courses.

Prof Skegg said Otago’s domestic EFTS this year were 4.4 percent up on the corresponding time last year, and it appeared that the final domestic enrolment result would be slightly above its TEC imposed 103 percent cap.

Unexpected enrolment growth also affected staffing, Prof Skegg said. Already, the student-to-academic-staff ratio at Otago had grown from 14.6:1 in 2007 to 15.9:1 this year.

“We can’t afford to hire more staff and we have no offices for them anyway, because we are short of space.”

The University of Auckland introduced enrolment caps from the start of last year, and NZPA reports that Victoria University in Wellington had advised that undergraduate student places would not be guaranteed from the second semester of this year.

New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations co-president David Do told the New Zealand Herald  it was “quite concerning” that universities were bringing forward their deadlines for admissions changes.

“This is yet another symptom of the Government failing to properly support increased demand for higher education and failing to support access to those who need education and upskilling at this time,” said Mr Do.

Thanks to Danny McL at Flickr for the photo

The students were all enrolled above the 103 percent EFTS cap imposed on individual tertiary institutions.” 

The commission’s figures show Waikato and Massey universities and Tairāwhiti Polytechnic exceeded their subsidised enrolments by more than six percent.

Nelson-Marlborough Institute of Technology came close to six percent, while the University of Canterbury and the Southern Institute of Technology were more than four percent.

TEU national president Dr Tom Ryan says the government caps have not adequately taken into account either a baby boom of young adults currently passing through tertiary education or the increase in students as a result of the recession.

“The current EFTS cap system means either potential students miss out on the chance to study through no fault of their own, or institutions, and ultimately staff, carry the unfunded workload that comes from extra students.”

Education Directions has data on individual universities, wānanga, polytechnics and OTEPs.”  Its chief executive Dave Guerin believes that despite the government’s stated hard line on breaches of the EFTS cap it is likely that institutions will work out individually negotiated solutions with the commission:

“The final result will be a matter of negotiation, and negotiations will have been going on for some time, as this trend would have been apparent back in 2009. Many ITPs had money clawed back in 2008, and this was used to fund extra provision in 2010.”

Tertiary education minister Steven Joyce wants to create incentives for tertiary institutions to provide better pastoral care for students.”  The minister met with TEU national president Dr Tom Ryan and national secretary Sharn Riggs yesterday, for the first time.”  At the meeting the minister said the new performance-based funding system for tertiary institutions that he will introduce will be focused on student completions and that he will be looking to see that institutions have “a success rate commensurate with the sector”. The minister stated he was looking for a reasonably straightforward system.”  He”  does not want anything as complex as the PBRF funding system but is willing to consider different completion levels for different types of programme, such as foundation courses, vocational courses and so on.

Dr Ryan agreed that there needed to be a strong focus on pastoral care to support student completion rates, and hoped that the government would be looking to support pastoral care rather than just pressuring tertiary institutions to find funding for it out of their existing budgets or to add to the already significant workloads of current staff.

Mr Joyce also used the meeting to discuss the EFTS cap, saying that while” this year” there were more student places than ever before, it would be a challenge maintaining those levels in 2011; previous predictions that student numbers would start to fall again have not been borne out, with numbers likely to stay close to 2010 figures. The government and institutions will then need to find a way to maintain these numbers within current funding allocations. He also agreed that there were some short term issues with the current EFTS cap system but said that the focus after the budget would be on long term student enrolment trends and workforce requirements.

Also in Tertiary Update this week:

1. Tairāwhiti and EIT to merge?
2. Students are bearing burden of underfunding
3. GST, the cost of living and wages
4. Commission to audit industry training funding

Other news

To help bankroll tertiary education, Steven Joyce plans to increase international student numbers and encourage commercial university research. Tertiary institutes will not feel pressure to deny places to students with poor school grades, he said – Manawatu Standard

Tertiary education minister Steven Joyce is defending a government move to cut spending on workplace health and safety training, saying the Tertiary Education Commission should not fund courses designed to meet the legal obligations of employers. However Business New Zealand chief executive Phil O’Reilly says the Government has to be careful about its spending, but it does have responsibility for workplace health and safety training – Radio New Zealand

Otago Polytechnic has passed a statute abolishing its staff and student representation on council but establishing staff and student subcommittees to advise the reduced board. An election will be held to decide the staff subcommittee, of up to fourteen members – Otago Daily Times

The Guardian asks what led to a rise of academic bureaucracy in Britain. Statistics show that while in the UK higher education sector in 2003-04 there were 10,740 managers,” by 2008-09, this had grown to 14,250, an increase of 33%. During that time the number of academics increased by just 10 percent” while the total number of students rose by 9 percent. – The Guardian

American colleges and universities are outsourcing marking to a company that uses markers in India, Singapore and Malaysia. The benefit for the colleges is that they believe they can get more consistency and timeliness than from graduate teaching assistants. The company turns around essays in 3-4 days for US$12 per essay – Education Directions

The Australian government’s higher education spending is slanted to universities, colleges and research institutes in Labor electorates.”  $1.5 billion in allocations from the Education Investment Fund show Labor seats have received 84 per cent of spending from the first two funding rounds of the “nation-building” program controlled by Education Minister Julia Gillard – The Australian

A pay survey in Times Higher Education reveals that universities spent 10 percent more on vice-chancellors’ pay and benefits in 2008/09 than they did in the previous year, despite saying a year ago that bumper pay deals were unlikely to continue. Embarrassingly, the news of the huge rises for vice-chancellors comes just days after universities offered the higher education unions a pay freeze for this year – The University and College Union (UCU)

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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, email: http://scr.im/stephenday