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20 redundancies likely this week at Manukau

Manukau Institute of Technology has announced it will cut seven and a half full time staff from its Schools of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, with a further 12 redundancies a very real possibility in the Faculty of Business later this week.

The institute announced on Tuesday that it will reduce the two Engineering Schools by 7.5 full time equivalent positions.  It will make further announcements about staffing for the Schools of Information Technology and Communications on Friday. TEU anticipates that a further 12 FTE positions could well be disestablished as a result of those announcements.

The Institute is currently proposing that their School of Information Technology loses 7.9 of its 21.6 current FTE positions - a reduction of 36 percent, and their proposal would shrink the School of Communications from its current allocation of 14.6 FTE academic staff to 10.2 - a reduction of 30 percent.

TEU national secretary Sharn Riggs says the formula that MIT is using to allocate staff to its schools is simplistic and undermines good teaching and learning.

"Essentially MIT is telling its schools; 'here is the budgeted number of students, here is the staff: student ratio, divide one by the other and get your complement of staff'."

"Its formula does not take adequate account of a whole host of academic staff contributions, including the positions of responsibility staff hold, requirements to be research active, or be involved in curriculum development, or many other time consuming aspects of their jobs including pastoral care."

Ms Riggs said such a formula makes any consultation with union members feel like a farce.

"If MIT is going to base its staffing on such a simplistic formula then we need to be consulted on how it budgets for students (EFTS) and staff student ratios."

Ms Riggs said such a formula makes any consultation with union members feel like a farce.

"If MIT is going to base its staffing on such a simplistic formula then we need to be consulted on how it budgets for students (EFTS) and staff student ratios."

Also in Tertiary Update this week;

1. $18 million advertising for students they can’t take


2. TEU challenges need to close school of engineering


3. Victoria rejects own advice to retain gender department


4. Whitireia and Weltec consider merger


5. Pay equity review at Victoria


6. Other news

$18 million advertising for students they can’t take

Universities, polytechnics and wānanga are spending millions of dollars advertising to students even though there are more students than there are places in New Zealand.

“Why would tertiary institutions spend all this public money promoting themselves when many of them are complaining that they have too many students already?” asked TEU president-elect Dr Sandra Grey.

Dr Grey was responding to figures from a Parliamentary Library query by Green Party tertiary education spokesperson Gareth Hughes. The figures show 16 tertiary education institutions are collectively spending over $18 million dollars of public funding and student fees to advertise and market themselves. New Zealand’s other fifteen public tertiary institutions that are not included in the survey either failed to respond to the parliamentary request for information, or have so far refused to provide the information.

“It’s appalling to see so many institutions that are struggling so much that they regularly lay off staff spending 1, 2 or even 10 percent of their budget advertising for students that they end up turning away”, said Dr Grey.

“If the government wants value for its investment why does it let institutions compete amongst themselves with our money?  Advertising is not the best way to give students important information about education and career choices.”

“While these figures should be read with caution because of the wide and varying definitions of marketing we still reach the conclusion that, on average, these institutions are spending over $1 million each promoting themselves when they don’t need to,”  said Dr Grey.

TEU challenges need to close school of engineering

Twenty five Massey staff within the School of Engineering and Advanced Technology at Wellington campus face having their positions disestablished before Christmas. A management proposal released last week calls for the complete withdrawal of Massey’s current face-to-face engineering offerings  on its Wellington campus.

TEU is awaiting confirmation that Massey University Council will decide this matter at their December 3 meeting and will be advocating to the Council against the closure.

If the decision proceeds it will mean the end of the country's only product design engineering degree.

The university says it would compensate the 50 affected students, and offer them the option of continuing their study at either Palmerston North or Albany.

TEU member and School of Engineering and Advanced Technology senior lecturer John Heath told the Dominion Postmost of the 25 staff would probably lose their jobs if the move went through, while students already enrolled for 2011 would have to make alternative arrangements.

While the school did not have a strong roll, it had been increasing. "It's nothing to do with performance, it's nothing to do with quality, it's to do with budgets and bottom lines and spreadsheets," said Dr Heath.

TEU national secretary Sharn Riggs agreed saying the union would be arguing the proposal before the university's next council meeting.

"This is yet another round of redundancies that students don't want, tertiary education doesn't need and New Zealanders cannot afford. How will we give people the skills and knowledge we need if we keep cutting away at courses like this?"

Victoria rejects own advice to retain gender department

The Gender and Women’s Studies programme at Victoria University could close down despite a recommendation from a university working group that it should continue.

Following the retirement of one of its two permanent academic staff, the university unilaterally cancelled intakes to GEND 101, the Gender and Women’s Studies Major, and all postgraduate courses of study. Despite these setbacks, the university's Academic Board has several times reaffirmed its commitment to the continuation of the programme.

Last year the Academic Board re-stated its support for the programme while agreeing to a working party to "consider the issues". The working party concluded 'If any university should withdraw the subject, it should not be Victoria".

Instead it found that the programme is currently understaffed and cannot continue in its present form.

However, four months after the report was completed, a change proposal claiming to be based on it was released.  The Change proposal argued that the programme could not continue in its present form; no further investment can be justified; and transitional arrangements for the termination of the programme should be put in place.

The TEU National Women's Committee and the Victoria University branch have been lobbying to retain the programme. Last Friday they submitted that the university should support the spirit and intent of successive Academic Board resolutions, and the recommendations of the working party report that the programme be retained.

TEU national Women's officer Suzanne McNabb said that university gender equity remains a key issue in academic institutions which needs both on-going analysis and action.

"Staff members of Gender Studies programmes have often been at the forefront of the analysis and actions on their own campuses. While they are not the only staff who would take an interest in gender equity issues, analysis, and programmes, they are uniquely placed due to their research and teaching expertise to contribute to these conversations on campuses."

Whitireia and Weltec consider merger

Whitireia and Weltec are moving closer to a merger according to an internal memo from Weltec chief executive Linda Sissons.

The ‘Students First’ Project, which starts this week, looks at ways the two polytechnics can work more closely together.

Dr Sissons told Weltec staff:

"We’ve actually been working together since 2006 on a variety of joint projects to seek greater efficiencies in delivery and better value for money for both institutions. In December 2009 there was a change in the legislation relating to governance arrangements for ITPs."

Earlier this year the minister for tertiary education Steven Joyce made four shared appointments to the governing councils (out of eight councillors each).

"We and our Councils now want to take this work further and develop some clear and informed recommendations about where to from here and TEC has agreed to fund this project.  All opportunities and options for working more closely together need to be canvassed and considered in this project, from complete integration or merger to shared academic, delivery and support services and all relevant options in between," said Dr Sissons.

One of the councillors for both councils, Dennis Sharman had previously told the media there were no plans for a merger.

The project work will take place between now and February next year and will result in a report and recommendations to the Councils of each institution.

Staff at both institutions have been told to that an external consulting company, Focus Consulting, has been appointed to do this work and that they (staff) will be required to "respond positively and as quickly as possible to their requests for information".

Pay equity review at Victoria

Victoria University of Wellington this week launched a focused Pay and Employment Equity Reviewin partnership with TEU.

TEU national women’s officer Suzanne McNabb who is a member of the review committee said that while this review is limited to the university library and IT staff, it is being based on the methodology of the PaEE reviews developed by the Pay and Employment Equity Unit established under the previous government.

As with the comprehensive review well underway at Massy University, the review at Victoria will focus on whether or not women and men have an equal share of rewards, participate equitably and are treated with fairness and respect. A survey based on these equity indicators will be conducted amongst library and IT staff before the end of the year as well as an analysis of salary data.

Canterbury University and the Auckland University of Technology also agreed as part of the bargaining process to undertake reviews most likely in the coming year.

Other news

Heather Smith, the pharmacy worker sacked under a 90 day clause, has called on Parliament to spare other workers the experience she suffered as a result of the 90 day ‘fire at will’ law. Heather made the call as the Employment Relations Act Amendment Bill passed its second reading today - CTU

Changes to the oversight of private training establishments (PTEs) involved in export education will result in greater accountability and higher standards in the export education sector, says tertiary education minister, Steven Joyce. The changes are designed to give NZQA stronger powers to monitor, investigate and enforce the compliance of PTEs and raise the threshold for PTE registration to ensure transparency and appropriate quality of PTEs when they are registered.

More than 209,000 would-be students were left without a university place this year in the UK, official figures show. This was 52,938 more than in 2009. Figures from the university admissions service show just under seven out of 10 applicants found a place at university compared with 75% the year before - BBC

Australian tertiary education minister Chris Evans has reiterated the need for a higher education watchdog with teeth. This follows fraught talks with universities last week that have delayed the finalisation of legislation for the new regulator until next year. "Students must be protected in a more market-based system because they can't simply take a qualification back and exchange it for another," Senator Evans said. –The Australian

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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: stephen.day@teu.ac.nz

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