Tertiary education - are the corporate vandals at the gates?

Media release

Tertiary Education Union - Te Hautu Kahurangi o Aotearoa

21 February 2012

Tertiary education - are the corporate vandals at the gates?

World expert on tertiary education David Robinson will be visiting New Zealand for the first time later this month and giving a series of public lectures on increasing corporatisation and privatisation of tertiary education around the world.

Dr Robinson, who is a highly regarded, and sometimes satirical, speaker from Canada, is the senior higher education consultant to Education International, the global union for teachers.

He will be giving three public lectures at:

Auckland, 27 February at the University of Auckland

• Lecture Theatre 018, Level 0, the Clocktower, 22 Princes Street

• 5.30pm - 7pm

• What are the international directions in tertiary education policy? What do they mean for vocational training and higher education?

Christchurch, 28 February at the University of Canterbury

• LAWS 108 Lecture Theatre

• 6pm - 7pm, with drinks beforehand

• Lessons from Hurricane Katrina and other disasters - what happens when natural disasters are being used to radically reshape the tertiary education provision in a city.

Wellington, 1 March at Victoria University

• GBLT1, Government House Law School

• 6pm - 7pm, with drinks beforehand

• The paradox – in New Zealand successive governments say tertiary education is one of the most important things in which to invest. Yet the system itself and people who work in it are under more pressure than ever before.

The Tertiary Education Union Te Haut? Kahurangi o Aotearoa is organising Mr Robinson’s visit.

ENDS