TEU’s national secretary Sharn Riggs says this bodes well for collective agreement negotiations, which start soon at seven of New Zealand’s eight universities.

Victoria University reported a $14.5 million surplus (4.3 percent of revenue). AUT had a $9 million surplus (3.1 percent of revenue). The University of Auckland posted a $32 million surplus (3.5 percent of revenue) and the University of Otago had surplus of s $26 million, (4.5 percent of revenue). All except the University of Auckland are due to begin negotiations soon.

The University of Canterbury reported an overall loss of $115m (39 percent of revenue) once costs relating to the earthquakes were accounted for. Lincoln, Waikato and Massey have not published their annual reports yet.

AUT, Otago and Victoria all reported surpluses that are higher than the three percent target that the Tertiary Education Commission requires them generate.

“University vice-chancellors consistently say that New Zealand needs to invest it its university employees, and that their pay and employment conditions need to be internationally competitive,” said Ms Riggs. “Now that they are in a stronger financial position than the government requires of them, they are in the ideal position to invest in solving the problem they themselves have identified and decried.”

TEU’s written submission told the commission staff whose institutions had targeted them in this way suffered limited career progression opportunities and, in some instances, in redundancy.  It supported processes that offer the better protection against using PBRF performance as a rationale for making changes to employment conditions.

Meanwhile, Otago unviersity’s branch co-president Dr Brent Lovelock today told the Otago Daily Times people were losing their jobs because universities were “desperately trying to maintain or improve” their positions on PBRF tables.

“The PBRF process … has put alot of stress on staff and resulted inthe largest number of redundancies,in terms of academic staff, in my memory and I have been here for 12 years,” he said.

Associate editor of the New Zealand Journal of Psychology Associate Prof Neville Blampied told theOtago Daily Times PBRF was distorting research by discouraging some academics away from studying local issues.

“[Some may] have chosen to study something that is a hot topic internationally … and not to study stuff which is of very local interest but isn’t likely to sell internationally,” Prof Blampied told the paper.

TEU has just won a significant employment authority case that challenges the use of confirmation at Otago University.

The employment authority found yesterday that the University of Otago breached Dr Jane Millichamp’s right to natural justice and its own duty of good faith when it failed to confirm her as a lecturer after ten years on a fixed-term employment agreement.

Dr Millichamp began as a Psychological Medicine lecturer at Otago University in 1998 but was subject to confirmation – an employment agreement where academics go on long-standing trial periods while the university assesses the academic’s suitability for the position. TEU has long argued that confirmation is an unfair and illegal use of fixed-term-employment trial periods. Confirmation is currently only used at the universities of Auckland and Otago.

Dr Millichamp’s department was in disarray during her confirmation period because, among other reasons, her head of department, Dr Colin Bouwer, murdered his wife. There were a number of workload pressures that meant her teaching load grew significantly. The university extended her confirmation period several times, until 2007, at which point the university chose not to confirm her because it did not believe she had published a sufficient quantity of research. Instead, it offered her the choice of dismissal or going from being a lecturer to a teaching only fellow.

Dr Millichamp appealed but the university rejected her appeal.

TEU then took a case for her through mediation and then to the Employment Authority. The authority finally heard her case in 2010, but the authority member who heard the case resided in Christchurch, and the files for the case were lost in one of the earthquakes.

The authority has recently retrieved its files and finally found in favour of Dr Millichamp. The authority found that the university failed to follow its own appeal process by referring her appeals back to the original review committee rather than a new independent appeals committee. Added to this, Dr Millichamp was not permitted to appear before the review committee to give evidence on her research and was not told about two people who gave evidence against her, nor was she given a chance to respond to their allegations.

TEU deputy secretary Nanette Cormack said the case is an important win for academics on fixed-term agreements.

“Confirmation is unfair – it is not fair to employ people on trial periods that can last up to a decade with no employment security. In addition, it is also unfair to decide people’s futures and make judgements about them without first giving them a chance to tell their own story and respond to allegations that others have made.”

Also in Tertiary Update this week:

1. Turia quiet in tertiary education role
2. Member’s bill to extend paid parental leave welcomed
3. Lobbying bill could end secret tertiary education lobbying
4. Domestic students staying loyal to CPIT

Other news

A student coalition has formed to oppose the cuts to University of Canterbury programmes. “You Are UC” condemns the consultation process, as university management has still failed to release to students the details of their proposed changes - You Are UC

The Agricultural and Marketing Research and Development Trust has issued its spending priorities for the next three years. The trust distributes up to $3 million per year by way of grants from a $70 million investment fund, to encourage growth in the agri-business sector. Chairman Jeff Grant says three-quarters of that funding traditionally goes to Lincoln and Massey universities. But the bulk of the funding will now be directed to commercial ventures, focused on market access - Radio NZ

Since the 1970s, a radical shift has been occurring in higher education, as growing numbers of institutions turn to contingent (or adjunct) faculty to cut costs, while keeping pay as low as possible for the support staff who keep campuses running. Students suffer, as the number of available services are reduced, class sizes increase, and educators are less able to provide direct assistance and mentoring to the students they are there to teach. Now, employees in higher education are fighting back, and facing real challenges from administrations when they do - Salon

Tertiary education, science and innovation minister Steven Joyce today announced the appointment of three new convenors to the Marsden Fund Council. The new appointees are Dr Ian Ferguson, who will convene the Cellular, Molecular and Physiological Biology Panel; Professor Jari Kaipio, who will convene the Mathematical and Information Sciences Panel; and Professor Robert Hannah, as convenor of the Humanities Panel. The minister has also appointed Dr Grant Scobie for a second term as Convenor of the Economics and Human and Behavioural Sciences Panel - Hon Steven Joyce

An unholy alliance is slowly forming between traditionalist defenders of the university as an “ivory tower” and market-obsessed modernisers determined to transform higher education into a consumer good. Both have come to the – mistaken – conclusion that the idea of the public university must be abandoned. For very different reasons, of course -The Guardian

A Texas community college district’s move toward standardised and electronic textbooks has raised the hackles of faculty members, who say the process threatens academic freedom and instructor autonomy because individual sections will be limited in their ability to have individual book requirements - Inside Higher Ed

Tertiary Update is our weekly bulletin about news in the tertiary education sector from the perspective of people working in the sector.

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.

At least nine New Zealanders have joined a global boycott of Elsevier, the world’s largest scientific journal publisher. The protest has rapidly gained momentum since it began as an irate blog post at the end of January. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education by Tuesday evening, about 2,400 scholars had put their names to an online pledge not to publish or do any editorial work for the company’s journals, including refereeing papers. Protesters accuse Elsevier of charging too much and supporting laws that will keep research findings bottled up behind a company pay-wall.

Employees of the universities of Auckland, Lincoln and Otago have signed the pledge as well as one staff member at NIWA.

Brett S. Abrahams, an assistant professor of genetics at the USA’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine, told the Chronicle, “The government pays me and other scientists to produce work, and we give it away to private entities. Then they charge us to read it.” Mr Abrahams signed the pledge on Tuesday after reading about it on Facebook.

According to the boycotters, Elsevier, which publishes over 2,000 journals including the prestigious Cell and The Lancet, is abusing academic researchers in three areas. First there are the prices. Then the company bundles subscriptions to lesser journals together with valuable ones, forcing libraries to spend money buying things they do not want in order to get a few things they do want. And, most recently, Elsevier has supported a proposed US law that could prevent agencies like the US National Institutes of Health from making all articles written by grant recipients freely available.

However Elsevier rejects the complaints saying, globally, the amount of research that is published is going up every year but library budgets are not keeping pace.

Also in Tertiary Update this week:

1. WITT gains from PTE closure
2. TEU negotiates improved Canterbury timetable
3. University of Auckland pushes Teach First
4. Student loan debtors escape on OE

Other news

Wintec settled a collective agreement with its academic staff late last year. NorthTec is now the only one of the old ITP MECA polytechnics not to settle a collective agreement with its staff. NorthTec wants an employment agreement which allows it to direct staff to work any days, evenings and weekends. Tutors have not had a pay increase since November 2008.

“The government should be focusing on creating jobs and getting money into the pockets of low and middle income people by stimulating the economy rather than an inflexible deficit target,” says CTU Economist Bill Rosenberg. “We have had over 150,000 unemployed and 250,000 jobless almost constantly now since mid 2009. The unemployment rate at 6.6 percent is barely below its financial crisis peak in December 2009.” – CTU

Lower Hutt is in danger of losing its last provider of adult community night classes. Hutt City Workers’ Education Association (WEA) president Maurice Payes confirms a funding squeeze has forced the group to lay off its two part-time workers, who are owed wages. Four Lower Hutt colleges abandoned running adult community courses in 2010 when the National Government cut $13 million out of the $16m annual Adult Community Education (ACE) budget. That left the WEA as the last provider – Hutt News

United States President Obama brought his campaign for college affordability to an audience of Michigan college students last week, pledging that his administration would be “putting colleges on notice” over rising costs and issuing a call for continued public support for higher education by states so that the USA does not become a nation where education is reserved for the well-to-do – Chronicle of Higher Education 

CTU President, Helen Kelly said “The Ministers of Labour and Women’s Affairs have told us that new legislation is not needed because workers can already find out pay information by asking a Labour Inspector to investigate a complaint. We do not believe inspectors have the capacity to do this role and think that if workers are able to have the information first – then complaints to the inspectors will be based on knowledge of pay inequality rather than relying on the inspectors in the first instance to inspect all workplaces. However the Minister has said the current system will work and we are going to test it!”

“We’re not aware of anyone ever using the mechanism that the Ministers say exists – but that needs to be demonstrated”.

Tomorrow is the last day to submit petitions. So far TEU branches at Waiariki Institute of Technology, the University of Otago and the University of Waikato have all submitted petitions. If TEU members at other branches wish to submit a petition, either individually or as a group they should contact their branch women’s representative.

TEU members will be meeting in the next two weeks to vote on whether to ratify the agreement or not.

Thanks to _setev at Flickr for the photo

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/