News 11 Mar – Telford and Lincoln to Merge?

March 11th 2010 at 7:42am, By Dave Guerin

Lincoln University and Telford Rural Polytechnic are considering merging in 2011, according to an ODT story today. Telford spokespeople have referred to cuts in funding for short courses as a driver, along with the potential for lower running costs. The two institutions both operate in the primary sector but run complementary courses.
Tertiary reforms
- Steven Joyce and Maryan Street were on Close Up last night to discuss tertiary education reforms – mainly stating their previous positions. There was also a further story on TVNZ last night, whcih had interviews with Tom Ryan (TEU) and Alasdair Thompson (EMA Northern), which is worth a look for a broader perspective.
- After initial confusion in the media over whether the quals review was going to cut courses with poor completion rates, NZPA has cleared things up, but not before a rash of stories came out with the wrong interpretation. To be fair to them, the Minister did drop a lot on their plate on Tuesday.
- Pita Sharples of the Maori Party had to be placated by Steven Joyce after a communications mix-up, but who could blame Pita given all the vague media stories!
- Yesterday TEC released information on public reporting of performance data on TEOs from July.
- The TEU asked why Steven Joyce can find more money for roads but not tertiary education.
Anne Tolley, Minister of Education, announced yesterday that the MOE would have to find $25m of savings and it was immediately claimed that this would end all good things (or something like that). Time will tell what the impact really is.
Well, I’m looking forward to moa coming back from the dead, now that scientists at the University of Otago have extracted moa DNA from fossils - or maybe I’m confusing that with a film.
The University of Auckland has enrolled the junior winner of the PM’s Science Prizes. Science New Zealand congratulated all the winners too.
Victoria University has got in the paper for charging a late fee for late enrolments. The paper suggests that this is to help reduce enrolments, but all it will do is encourage people to enrol earlier, so there may be a misunderstanding here. Victoria is also being criticised by staff for “Magoo Management” – yes their headline did the trick by attracting attention, but the story looks a bit convoluted to go further.
NMIT is sponsoring the Nelson Giants (basketball) and Tasman Rugby Union, with $9,000 in fees for players of each sport.