Waikato general staff win new pay rates
TEU organiser Megan Morris hopes a new collective agreement at the University of Waikato will make it easier for general staff to seek and gain higher rates of pay. The collective agreements include two pay increases of 1.2 percent each over the two-year term, and a $300 lump sum payment. The big improvement for general staff however is new minimum rates in two of their pay scales and new minimum and maximum pay rates in the three higher levels of pay scales.
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Global conference denounces proliferation of ‘taxi-cab’ professors
Casualisation in tertiary education is becoming a big issue worldwide, according to TEU national president Sandra Grey who has just returned from Education International’s Higher Education and Research Conference in Buenos Aires. Tertiary education union leaders there told how in Latin America, excluding Brazil, nearly 80 percent of academics are so-called “taxi-cab” professors. That is, they get jobs on a temporary and often per-course basis and are forced to shuttle between different institutions in an attempt to earn a living.
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Academic freedom is a campaign not a right
Tomorrow is World Teachers’ Day and Academic Freedom Day but, sadly, academic freedom remains a value to aspire to rather than a reality. Columbian academic Dr Miguel Ángel Beltrán Villegas was prosecuted for his academic work and went to jail for two years without trial, during which he suffered torture and other bad treatment. In 2011, he was released for lack of evidence to support the charges against him of “rebellion” and “conspiracy”.
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World watches NZ’s performance measures
Tertiary unions around the world are watching New Zealand’s plunge into goal-setting, performance management, accountability, and auditing of the education sector to see what it means for them. TEU president Sandra Grey says countries all over the world are extolling the virtues of performance based-funding and external accountability measures in the education sector, but New Zealand has done more than most to impose these New Public Management accounting techniques onto its education system.
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Union membership pays off for kiwis
Pay increases in collectives over the last 20 years have been markedly higher than employees in general have received. CTU economist Bill Rosenberg has been reading the latest data from the Industrial Relations Centre at Victoria University and says it makes a compelling case for belonging to a union.
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Extramural students claim tertiary strategy is biased
Massey’s extramural students’ association (EXMSS) believes the government’s Tertiary Education Strategy is pushing school leavers to take on study debt rather than gain valuable employment skills, life experience and resources in preparation for a well-considered education choice.
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Other news
TEU has a few A1 International Trade Union Confederation posters to give away celebrating World Day for Decent Work. If you are a TEU member and want one for your workplace, send us a message - poster
A woman who made tens of millions through contracts with Te Wānanga o Aotearoa while her father was the boss was put forward by the Māori King as his representative on the institution's governing body. But Susan Cullen, daughter of founder and former head Rongo Wetere, was rejected by the Wānanga council as it believes her past association would have a negative influence - the New Zealand Herald
The working conditions of U.S. adjunct and contingent faculty—and, by association, the learning conditions of American college students—came under fire in a recent report by the Center for the Future of Higher Education. The report finds two significant issues for those who make up the majority of the higher education workforce. Many are hired "just in time" to teach courses that are to begin three or fewer weeks after faculty are notified, and they have limited access to pedagogical resources - American Federation of Teachers
Many universities in Australia are trying to define what is acceptable – and unacceptable – for their staff members to say online. Academics too, are exploring the boundaries between expression of academic freedom and the obligation to their institutions in an age when anything you say or write can be easily posted online - the Conversation
Large lecture theatres are disappearing and will soon be gone from university campuses say Australian vice-chancellors. “At UTS we’re in the middle of spending a billion dollars on our campus and as part of that we’ve got two new buildings going up … there’s a not a single traditional lecture theatre in either of those new buildings,” University of Technology Sydney UTS deputy vice-chancellor Shirley Alexander said - the Conversation
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