Weltec was required at the time to disclose in its Annual Report that the metro polytechnics’ fee to Saunders Unsworth ($33,000) because the institution’s government appointed chairperson, Roger Sowry, is also a partner at Saunders Unsworth. Mr Sowry is also the government appointed chairperson at Whitireia polytechnic and a former National Party minister.

If passed, the new bill will set up a register of lobbyists and a lobbying code of ethics. It is modelled on a public disclosure regime used in Canada.

The register will require any paid lobbyists acting on behalf of a third party for the purposes of lobbying government or representatives to be on a register of lobbyists, and to comply with its provision. Failure to register would be an offence.

Returns of lobbying activity will be filed with the Auditor-General and will disclose who is undertaking lobbying activity, who is being lobbied and what they are being lobbied about. It will be an offence to engage in lobbying activity and to not file returns with the Auditor-General.

TEU national president Dr Sandra Grey says it is disturbing that large public tertiary education institutions currently spend tens of thousands of dollars of public money so that a private lobbyist can get them access to the minister of tertiary education.

“Changing the law to shine some light on who is engaging private lobbyists is important as it would show how tertiary institutions, among other publicly-funded institutions, are attempting to buy power and influence.”

Employment negotiations for thousands of university staff at seven of New Zealand’s eight universities will begin in three months’ time, and union members are already working out what the main issues they need to see addressed to improve their working life.

One of the biggest issues facing many staff is increasing workloads because of staff numbers not keeping pace with student numbers. TEU members across all seven universities will be claiming employment protection for staff whose workload increases because of redundancies or restructuring.

The nationwide claim says if within six months of a review, restructuring or management of change process concluding, employees believe that their workloads are excessive, or that staffing levels are not sufficient, they may request a review of their workload. If the review finds that workloads are not safe, equitable, or reasonable the university must take appropriate steps to remedy the situation.

TEU university academic vice-president John Prince says the short-term effect of reviews is stress and job losses, but the long-term effect, if reviews are poorly conceived, is increasing workloads.

“We want an assurance that the many reviews currently taking place are not just about cutting staff numbers and shifting all the existing work onto those staff who remain.”

Employment negotiations will begin at the end of June for staff at the universities of AUT, Canterbury, Lincoln, Otago, Massey, Victoria and Waikato.

If you have a workload story to support TEU’s negotiations, leave a comment below.

Also in Tertiary Update this week:

1. Restructuring affecting 500 workers
2. New super ministry to manage commission
3. Farewell Ray Fargher
4. Auckland ports back down on contracting out
5. Aussie tutors join the ‘Precariat’ workforce
6. International trade agreement akin to asset sales

Other news

There is a nasty narrative creeping into the national conversation New Zealand is having about education these days, that of the superhero teacher. If you’re unfamiliar with the plot line, it goes something like this. There is a massive achievement gap in academic achievement and this gap is because of bad schools. Since teachers are the most important things in schools, if the schools aren’t delivering then it must be because teachers aren’t delivering. Enter the superhero teacher - Teaching the Teacher

A Cambridge student was suspended from the university for two-and-a-half years today for his part in a protest during a speech by the Universities Minister David Willetts. The “unprecedented” sentence handed down to Owen Holland, a PhD student in the Faculty of English, came on the same day as students marched in London and walked out of institutions across the country to demand Mr Willetts’ resignation - The Independent

A private computer training institute with hundreds of students has gone bust owing more than $8.3 million in tax, penalties and interest. Computer Power (NZ) Ltd, which runs Computer Power Institute campuses in Wellington, Christchurch and Auckland, was put into liquidation in the High Court at Wellington this week. The institute has about 750 students including about 150 international students. The 47 staff have been paid until the end of the month - Dominion Post

An Indian immigration consultancy claiming to operate in NZ (and actually operating in India) has used a murdered US student’s image in their marketing (seemingly lifted from the Internet). It works with, among others, Canterbury, AUT, BOPP and Unitec - ED Blog

TAFE has hit the wall in Victoria’s open training market, with unprecedented private college growth relegating the public provider into minority status and throwing its financial viability into question. Details from an unpublished quarterly report from Skills Victoria, which shows that TAFEs now have less than half of the government-supported enrolments, emerged the day after Prime Minister Julia Gillard said states needed to protect their TAFEs -The Australian

“500 members are about 5 percent of our membership. When one in twenty people are having their job changed or taken away from them we know we do not have a very stable environment for ensuring teaching and education.”

“But the worst part is that we seem to be in a state of never-ending reviews. TEU’s national council has been tracking reviews for a year now and they just keep coming,” said Ms Cormack.

New reviews have recently started at Manukau Institute of Technology, NorthTec, Wintec, University of Auckland, AUT, University of Canterbury, Massey University, University of Otago, University of Waikato and Te Wānanga o Aotearoa. Ms Cormack says TEU has recorded 49 confirmed redundancies because of those reviews via voluntary or compulsory severance so far.

“500 members is about five percent of our membership. When one in twenty people is having their job changed or taken away from them we know we do not have a very stable environment for good teaching and education.”

“In November last year we recorded 55 reviews at 12 institutions. In October 44 reviews at 17 institutions, in September 43 reviews at 18 institutions, in August 58 reviews at 20 institutions, in July 77 reviews at 24 institutions and so on,” said Ms Cormack.

Brett Alcock says his previous job at a privately owned tertiary institution was a string of short-term contracts.

“Many teachers, including myself when I was there, have their contracts rolled over. But the fact that they are not on permanent contracts creates a pervasive sense of insecurity as the contract renewal is often, as was my case after 10 years, used to ‘bump’ people out of jobs with minimal notice. When this happened to me I was immediately excluded from my computer files and from the campus.”

Mr Alcock now has a permanent job at Massey University but many of his colleagues there are on short-term contracts.

In response to last week’s story on the rise of short-term contract work in Australia a range of tertiary education workers contacted Tertiary Update about the situation in New Zealand, most of whom who wanted to remain anonymous. One former senior tutor had a full-time contract come to an end and then spent the next 18 months working part-time as a casual tutor. She was being contracted paper by paper, teaching the same number of papers at the same university she had previously worked for, but for about a third of the pay and, with no guarantee of on-going employment.

Another told us, in her team of six tutors and senior tutors, there is only a permanent contract for one paper for two teaching semesters; the equivalent of 0.3 FTEs. Currently she is still waiting on two temporary contracts for this semester and will be teaching across three different departments with no hours allocated to become familiar with the course material. Over the last summer, she marked assignments for a paper in yet another department.

TEU national president Sandra Grey says there is increasing evidence that tertiary institutions are excessive in their use of casual labour.

“It’s not only bad for employees, it’s bad for a stable learning environment where staff can plan and develop their courses, keep up-to-date with research, and invest time in the pastoral care of students. There are consequences to the quality of education when employers opt for cheap labour over secure, on-going jobs.”

Also in Tertiary Update this week:

1. Joyce wants new governance for institutions
2. Global student numbers to double by 2025
3. Christchurch mergers
4. PPTA warns about TPPA
5. Kiwis warn Australia of tertiary education managerialism

Other news

Tertiary education is not just about science and economic development says TEU national secretary Sharn Riggs. Ms Riggs’ comments follow news that Steven Joyce, the minister of science, tertiary education and economic development agencies is considering restructuring all three agencies at the same time - TEU media release

Even our cash-strapped universities appear happy to play the game. At the University of Auckland, Vice-Chancellor Stuart McCutcheon was paid $640,000 last year – up 75% on the $360,000 John Hood was reported to have received 10 years earlier. Meanwhile, Auckland’s teaching staff – who are also vital to the competitiveness and quality of any university – received an average pay increase of 47% over the same period - The Listener

The number of academic staff at public tertiary education institutions continued to decrease from 2009 to 2010, reflecting restructuring in some institutions. The non-academic staff also continued to increase, a pattern that started in 2007 - Ministry of Education

Wellington Institute of Technology (WelTec) and Whitireia NZ  announced the formation of a single, combined academic board and the appointment of Dr Peter Coolbear as the inaugural chair - Whitireia NZ

Five schools for international and local students are in trouble with authorities for a range of alleged offences, including immigration breaches, student cheating and reporting dubious qualifications - New Zealand Herald

Overseas non-governmental organisations have been raising the alarm over worker exploitation in factories in China that produce the Apple iPad and other consumer electronic products. A new report by a Hong Kong-based labour organisation has found that many of the exploited are students working as interns as a compulsory part of vocational courses -University World News

The Irish Examiner wrote at the time the €22,000 fee paid by UCC is the normal charge paid by most institutions taking part in the QS Stars programme.

UCC vice-president for external affairs Trevor Holmes told the Irish Examiner there are plans to raise the proportion of international students from 13 percent – one of the highest of any Irish college – to 20 percent.

“Should UCC’s participation in QS Stars result in attracting a single additional, full-time international student to study at UCC then the costs of participation are covered,” he said.

Massey University’s assistant vice-chancellor (academic and international) Professor Ingrid Day, who commissioned Massey’s evaluation, says it is a strong first-up result that demonstrates to students and research partners that Massey’s core strengths – its teaching, research and the reputation and quality of its academic staff – are not only world-class, but also supported by a multi-campus infrastructure of superb facilities and student support systems.

In a paper entitled “College of Education Academic Reform”, the university is proposing radical change to initial teacher education. It proposes to discontinue all undergraduate teacher education by cutting its three-year Bachelor of Education Early Years degree and the four-year Bachelor of Education Primary. That would mean students could only study teacher education through a one year, graduate diploma.

It is also proposing to merge the Massey University College of Education into an Institute of Education beneath the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, with an increased focus on attracting post-graduate research. This move may threaten the jobs of teaching staff involved in initial teacher education, who aren’t classed as “research-active”.

Young and new members of the teachers’ union NZEI Te Riu Roa believe the proposals could be incredibly damaging to teacher education in New Zealand. Jennifer Langridge, currently studying a graduate diploma through Massey says “although post graduate study can produce quality teachers, post-graduate students often agree that the pressure-cooker situation of being pushed through training and out into the ‘real world’ often leads them to be burnt out and feel under-prepared in some areas of the classroom.”

NZEI says is wants to see the university challenge the growing assumption that post-graduate research is superior to undergraduate teaching.

However Massey University spokesman James Gardiner said the proposed changes create “an exciting opportunity to position Massey University’s teacher education as an international leader.”

“It also proposes new pathways into postgraduate education that will lead to more highly qualified teachers who are effective professionals and professional leaders throughout their lives.”

Mr Gardiner said international evidence suggested the best outcomes would be achieved by providing teacher education to those who already had undergraduate degrees.

“What is proposed is by no means a radical change – we have numerous excellent teachers in the profession now who have completed one-year graduate diplomas … having first completed undergraduate degrees,” Mr Gardiner said.

Massey University has sent its staff a glossy magazine encouraging them to set up regular donations back to the university. The direct-from-salary donations will all go to the Massey University Foundation – a registered charity that supports teaching, learning and facilities at Massey.

“We all recognise that we want to build and maintain Massey as a world-class facility. We are, therefore committed to significantly increasing our income to invest in our future,” the brochure tells Massey employees. “This fund will ensure that vital areas such as teaching, research and learning remain first class, allowing us to drive New Zealand forward and compete in the global academic market place.”

Staff can choose either to have their donation go towards unrestricted projects, or they can specify a specific cause, such as the Massey University Staff Fund Appeal, which will support academic and general bursaries for the development of staff.

Massey notes if each of its 3000 full time equivalent staff gave $6 per fortnightly pay Massey would gather around $9 per employee or $650,000 a year.

TEU national president Sandra Grey says it is astonishing that well a regarded university should feel the need to ask its own workers to dip into their pockets so it can ‘remain first class’.

“Luckily, for Massey one of its alumni is currently the tertiary education minister. Perhaps it should be asking him, rather than staff, for the funding to ‘remain first class’?”

Also in Tertiary Update this week

1. New rules for student services funding
2. Trades training sparks political debate
3. Draper and Francey to contest vice-presidency
4. Synchronised student protests draw police response
5. TEU women celebrate Suffrage Day and MMP

Other news

“The sector sorely lacks strategic leadership, in part because of the games played between university managements as they deliberately construct a faux market in which they pretend to compete. That approach is, in my opinion, the single most damaging dimension of the university sector. I am often tempted to advocate a return to the University of New Zealand as an antidote to corporatisation and its effects” –  Nigel Haworth

“The annual increase in food prices of 6.6 percent in the August 2011 year has outstripped wage increases of just 1.9 percent as shown in the Labour Cost Index”, says CTU Secretary Peter Conway – CTU

“The QS World University Rankings last year raised questions over the investment in teaching resources in New Zealand as faculty to student ratios slipped across the sector,” QS vice-president John Molony said – New Zealand Herald

Australia has dramatically improved its position with among the highest proportion of 25 to 34 year olds with a degree, according to a new OECD report – The Australian

More students enrolled in higher-level qualifications in 2010, while the number in lower-level certificates continued to decline. Participation rates in tertiary education increased for younger people. Upward trends in international student numbers continued in 2010 – Ministry of Education enrolment data

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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.

“We’re well-managed, but don’t mistake that as we have the money coming from the Government to guarantee quality education forever,” he told the Manawatu Standard.

Mr Maharey’s denial followed a report from the Tertiary Education Commission earlier in the week that revealed publicly funded universities, wānanga and polytechnics all generated surpluses significantly greater than the 3 percent of revenue the commission requires of them.

Polytechnics had surpluses of 8.3 percent of revenue, universities 4 percent and wānanga 7.3 percent. TEU’s national president Sandra Grey said that in total, public tertiary institutions hoarded nearly a hundred million dollars of public money last year that they could otherwise have invested in quality education.

“Because they failed to spend this money students now have larger class sizes, highly respected staff lost their jobs and departments have shrunk or shut,” said Dr Grey.

The tertiary education minister Steven Joyce says he is pleased to see that institutions are responding strongly to the government’s focus on value for money and fiscal responsibility.

“While the government’s budget remains limited, it’s good to see tertiary institutions managing their finances and assets responsibly and positioning themselves to continue to make a strong contribution to New Zealand’s educational needs.”

Dr Grey said that by making cuts and under-spending their budgets institutions were justifying the government’s austerity measures for tertiary education.

“Hoarding gives the government a false justification for its relentless on-going budget cuts to tertiary education funding,” said Dr Grey.

Thanks to Ewan McIntosh @ Flickr for the photo

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.

Saunders Unsworth lists among its past and present clients Massey University, Otago University, the Metro Polytechnics, Victoria University of Wellington, and the Industry Training Federation.

Weltec was recently required to disclose the Metro Polytechnics’ fee to Saunders Unsworth ($33,000) in its Annual Report because its government appointed chairperson, Roger Sowry, is also a partner at Saunders Unsworth. Mr Sowry is also the government appointed chairperson at Whitireia polytechnic and a former National Party minister.

Tertiary Update wrote to the Minister of Tertiary Education asking if he believes it is necessary for publicly funded tertiary education institutions to engage the services of a private lobbying agency such as Saunders Unsworth in order to share their views with him as their relevant minister. We also asked if he believes that publicly funded tertiary education institutions that hire a private lobbying company get any better access to him as a minister, or more influence than other tertiary institutions that do not employ such an agency?

A spokesperson from Steven Joyce’s office replied that the Minister meets with a wide range of stakeholders.

“While tertiary institutions receive government funding for student places, they are autonomous organisations who make their own financial decisions.”

Thanks to KMar Tsai @ Flickr for the image http://www.flickr.com/photos/kmar/2436892584/