News 6/4 – Tairawhiti merger, ITO Audits and Glenn Beck

April 6th 2010 at 8:27am, By Dave Guerin

  1. Tairawhiti and EIT Merger Tairawhiti Polytechnic and Eastern Institute of Technology may merge, largely as a result of financial pressures on the former. This was on the cards a few years ago but extra funds were put into Tairawhiti to help them get back on their feet. Those funds end in December, but there has been no silver bullet to boost revenue in the interim. There have been rumours about this event, but this is the first media story. This is the second merger proposal for small polytechnics this year, with Telford Rural Polytechnic looking to merge with Lincoln University – Dairy NZ supported that merger on Thursday.
  2. ITO Audits The Dominion Post has run a story on ITO audits today, stating that 12 ITOs are to be audited by June to look at some serious funding claims made by TEC. TEC is playing it down but the Minister is quoted as saying that any major issues found should be referred to the police! Jeremy Baker (ITF) and Maryan Street (Labour) both say that there may be some issues but they won’t be significant. I’m quoted briefly in the story, based on this 1 March post on the earlier consultation paper on audits, but my role is described as Executive Director of ITP New Zealand, a role I haven’t held since 30/9/09! Hopefully the paper acts on my correction request before too many people see it (Update: was fixed within 2 hours online, but will live on in print).
  3. Otago Poly Council The shape of Otago Polytechnic’s new Council has been set, with the four local members appointed on the basis of skills, with no guaranteed positions, other than one member being Maori. Two new staff and student consultative committees will be established. Meanwhile, the TEU has written to all ITP Council Chairs asking that they consider how to preserve a voice for staff on their Councils – a good idea, but a bit late.
  4. Wintec Designs Wintec’s first international Masters graduate and first Masters in Design graduate has carried out a design project on campus to finish her degree (pictured at left).
  5. Wintec $$ Wintec had a good 2009, with the bottom line $2m above forecast and 12% student growth.
  6. MIT and Diabetes A Diabetes clinic will now run out of MIT’s nursing school.
  7. Business School Rort API Institute of Education lost its PTE registration in February and the Sunday Star-Times printed allegations of misplaced fees and grading rorts. More on this later in the day.
  8. Otago Software Tender The University of Otago is looking to replace its student management and timetabling software.
  9. Performance Funding A Bay of Plenty Polytechnic lecturer has weighed in on performance-based funding.
  10. Glenn Beck Fans of Glenn Beck, a US TV and radio host (he has a popular show on Fox News), got a nasty surprise when they left a Beck event at the University of Central Florida. Fake “event parking” signs had been taken down and 53 cars had been towed from a fraternity carpark people had mistakenly used – and the towie made $125 a pop.

2 Responses to News 6/4 – Tairawhiti merger, ITO Audits and Glenn Beck

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Darel Hall

April 6th, 2010 at 10:58 pm

Hmmm, about time for ITO audits but I’d be surprised if more than one is found to be less than 95% compliant. But one can tarnish all. Do you have the list of the 12?

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Dave Guerin

April 7th, 2010 at 9:35 am

I don’t have a list of the 12, but I think only 95% compliance is an issue – Phil Heatley lost his job (temporarily) on a proportion of his spending that was less than that.

There will be some poor results but that’s what you’d expect when you start auditing things properly.

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