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Recovering from the earthquake

As details of Tuesday's horrific earthquake continue to emerge it seems that hundreds of TEU members and their families have seen their workplaces and homes shaken or destroyed

TEU national president Sandra Grey said, according to the sketchy reports the union has received so far, no members have been seriously hurt or killed and we hope that remains the case.

Our thoughts are with everyone, not just in the tertiary education institutions, but the wider Canterbury region, and especially those who have lost loved ones in this tragedy.

Dr Grey and TEU’s vice presidents moved quickly to establish a $5000 fund for TEU members who experience financial hardship because of the earthquake. TEU’s national executive will also meet within a fortnight to work out how else it can help the people of Canterbury and in particular, how it can support the Council of Trade Union's efforts to support affected workers in Canterbury.

"Like all New Zealanders, we are ready to offer what will be needed in the days and months to come," said Dr Grey.

Education Directions has been providing regular updates about the state of the various tertiary intuitions around the region on its website. It states that both Lincoln University and the University of Christchurch report no deaths or serious injuries.

Local TEU staff are currently on leave, so any CanterburyTEU members needing assistance are urged to contact the national office at 0800 278 348 or teu@teu.ac.nz

Also in Tertiary Update thie week:

1. Students to Aoraki: ‘sort it out or we’re off’


2. University of Auckland academics stop work tomorrow


3. No room to study for beneficiaries


4. Waiāriki reinstates accidentally cancelled course


5. Other news

Students to Aoraki: ‘sort it out or we’re off’

Dozens of outdoor education students have decided to stay at Aoraki Polytechnic, at least until the end of the week, writes the Timaru Herald.

About 40 students had planned to withdraw from their courses earlier this week because they said management had failed to address their concerns. Their course is in disarray after four of its five tutors went on sick leave, citing work-related stress as their reason. Three of the tutors have subsequently resigned.

Students told the Herald they had decided to wait before quitting, following a meeting with management yesterday afternoon. One student said a representative of the Tertiary Education Commission was at the meeting and his presence had helped ease students' concerns.

Students had already approached Otago Polytechnic, CPIT and Tai Poutini Polytechnic about joining one of their programmes, and said each institution had been "extremely helpful".

However most students have already financially committed to Timaru and most other institutions are also operating in a tightly capped environment and do not necessarily have places to offer. TEU has been talking to the commission advocating that all the students have access to a safe, well-staffed course.

TEU national secretary Sharn Riggs said that TEU is focused on making sure that the students got their education they needed and that Aoraki's remaining staff could be sure they had safe well-respected jobs.

"The problems of workplace stress are widespread across all the campuses of the polytechnic, not just the outdoor recreation course. We are working with Aoraki to give all staff and students a safe, healthy place to work and study," said Ms Riggs.

University of Auckland academics stop work tomorrow

University of Auckland academics are stopping work tomorrow to decide how to respond to an offer from their employer that strips many of the core working conditions from their collective agreement and places them in policy documents where they can be changed or whittled away without debate or vote.

Many of the academics that Tertiary Update spoke to individually are already committed to a significant public campaign that may include industrial action. They say that conditions like research and study leave, or the ability to share their expertise with other organisations outside the university, are a core part of being an academic. 

TEU vice president Kim Dirks, who is a senior lecturer at the university, has emphasised the academics are not seeking to improve their own benefits or conditions - simply to retain what already exists as standard practice in the university.

“This can be resolved easily and we want it resolved quickly. We are not asking for anything new or unreasonable,” said Dr Dirks.

As part of their campaign the academics have launched a website at http://saveourconditions.org with information, media releases, posters, videos and other information.  They are inviting supporters to submit their own comments or message of support via that website.

No room to study for beneficiaries

The government’s Welfare Working Group released its final report on Tuesday, giving the government 43 recommendations it believes will drive beneficiaries off benefits and into work or study.

The report focuses on lowering the number of people on welfare benefits from about 360,000 to 260,000 within 10 years, by setting work obligations and harsh penalties if people do not comply.

Welfare Working Group chairwoman Paula Rebstock told NZPA she was confident the reform package would have a positive impact on people, their families and the wider community.

One of the many recommendations in the report was merging all existing categories of benefits, including the sickness and invalid benefits, into a single Jobseeker Support payment.

The group also suggested solo parents work 20 hours per week when their youngest child reached three years old.

Recipients who do not meet a range of new obligations would get a 25 percent payment cut for the first failure; 50 percent for the second; 100 percent for the third; and a 13-week stand-down for a fourth or any subsequent failure.

While some of the recommendations around young people who are unemployed are less punitive than some parts of the report, TEU national president Sandra Grey says they are problematic in the current environment.

Sandra Grey said that there is no point telling young beneficiaries that they should be in study if there are no spaces available for those young people.

“The government has currently capped the number of students that our polytechnics and tertiary institutions can teach. That means thousands of students are already missing out on places.”

“If tertiary institutions are so full of students that they are turning them away, as many have been for the last two years, you can’t then blame would-be-students for being on a benefit. They have done exactly what the government asked of them. It is the government’s cuts to tertiary education funding and cap on the number of funded students that is at fault.”

Read more at http://welfarejustice.org.nz

Waiāriki reinstates accidentally cancelled course

Waiāriki Institute of Technology has reinstated a diploma course after it was mistakenly axed according to the Rotorua Daily Post.

A group of students studying the institution's Diploma in Interior Design contacted the Daily Post late last week after being told the diploma they had spent thousands of dollars to work towards would not be going ahead. The students had completed a Certificate in Interior Design and were going on to the diploma.

One of the students, Kim Wilson, who has studied part-time towards the diploma since 2009, said she went to class on Wednesday afternoon where nine students were handed resources for the course.

She said the head of the department arrived and told them he was the bearer of some bad news and that the course was not going ahead as there were not enough students.

A meeting was arranged between chief executive Dr Pim Borren and the students on Friday, after several of the students sent letters to him expressing their displeasure at the course being canned and the late notice with regard to the cancellation.

Dr Borren said the course should never have been be scrapped. He said there was a new director of the school of computing, technology and communication and a new head of the arts department, and there was confusion among staff there.

"They got confused between cancelling a class as opposed to a course... Somewhere we all got wires crossed... It was a simple mistake. We have apologised."

Other news

Work and Income New Zealand has announced that, from 1 April 2011, there will be a 3.75 percent increase to student allowances, and the living costs component of student loans (to $169.51 per week).The increase in these payments reflects the increase in the Consumer Price Index for the year to 31 December 2010 - Work and Income

Auckland University law professor Jane Kelsey has slammed secrecy surrounding the Trans Pacific Partnership negotiations. "They're not negotiating a private contract. They're actually negotiating an international treaty that will bind New Zealand for the next century and we need to know what they're doing," she said - TVNZ

The expanding Frocks on Bikes movement is set to take off in Palmerston North, promoting cycling as a normal, everyday mode of transport that can be carried out in regular clothing. Massey University information services librarian Kate Stanton said Palmerston North's flat contour and cycle lanes made it an ideal location for cycling as a routine part of a normal day. "Generally, I cycle in my work clothes." - Manawatu Standard

Tri-Valley University in northern California is an unaccredited school with a capacity for around 30 students, according to the Chronicle story, yet it enrolled 1,500 students from India. The story hit the headlines when the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities found out about the situation and began rounding up the “students” and putting radio tracking devices on many of them - Inside Higher Ed

Can academics be funny? For many academics, lecturing to a hall full of bored students can be daunting enough. So the idea of delivering course notes to a tough crowd at a comedy gig might seem positively terrifying. But that is exactly what happens at Bright Club, a monthly comedy event in London described by organisers as 'the thinking person's variety night' - BBC

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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.

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