A BRIGHTER FUTURE? Tertiary Education in a Restricted Environment

1. A BRIGHTER FUTURE?Tertiary Education in a Restricted Environment Dr Tom Ryan, National President, TEU To NZUSA Conference, 28 Jan 2010 Tertiary Education Union – Te Hautū Kahurangi o Aotearoa - 0800 278 348 - teu@teu.ac.nz

2. TERTIARY EDUCATION UNIONTe Hautu Kahurangi o Aotearoa • Formed one year ago from merger of two other main tertiary sector unions, AUS and ASTE • 35 full-time staff, national office in Wellington, plus regional offices around country • Publisher of widely read weekly sector web news sheet, Tertiary Update • Currently has 11,000 members (6,000 academic staff, and 5,000 general staff) • Most are concentrated in 30 public institutions across NZ: i.e. 8 Universities, 20 ITPs, 2 Wananga

3. The New Zealand Tertiary Education Sector, c2009 • 30 main public tertiary education institutions • Also - ACE, OTEPs, REAPs, ITOs, & PTEs • 35,000 employees • 500,000 enrolled students • 30,000 international students ($300m in fees) • $5 billion per annum public funding (includes student loans), or 2.8% of GDP • Many stakeholder groups…… eg. NZAUS, TEU

4. Major issues facing TEU:1. Industrial • 2009 budget cuts kick in fully by 2011 – major reductions in institutional incomes predicted • ITP multi-employer (MECA) collective agreement still unsettled –stuck on issues of ‘productivity’ • Govt efforts to limit pay increases – most recent agreements less than cost of living, even zero • Official sidelining of gender pay equity initiatives • Relativities with Australia a serious risk – increased public funding there, sector av 4% pa salary growth

5. Major issues facing TEU:2. Professional • Original intention of PBRF was as mechanism for alternative funding stream. Now widely abused via staff appointments & promotion processes • A risk that teaching performance/course evaluations may be similarly abused by institutions, or lead to grade inflation & pressure on staff • Likewise course completion auditing – e.g. such data can ignore external social factors like students’ family issues, illness, financial pressures

6. Major issues facing TEU:3. Political • A Government overly committed to market philosophy and reduced public spending • New law eliminating student, employee, etc representation on polytechnic boards • Major threats to the economic viability of some ITPs, and private/public regimes • ‘Voluntary’ student association legislation threatens basic student rights, democratic tradition, & management of resources

7. Major issues facing TEU:4. Global • Academic freedom under threat – reflected by intrusions of SIS into tertiary campuses under guise of students/staff procurring WMDs, training for terrorism, etc • Free trade agreements – a major issue, especially with USA, as it would demand deregulation of sector, & full access for their private operators to set up in NZ • Academic staff demography – aging will hit tertiary education internationally over next decade. Relatively low salaries & cuts in postgraduate training bode badly for NZ