Tertiary Education Union – Te Hautū Kahurangi o Aotearoa 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 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

The New Zealand Tertiary Education Sector, c 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

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

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

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

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