Our series of guest posts on the Budget starts today at 11am. Tom Ryan, TEU National President, is first off the blocks. I’m really looking forward to this series, as it’s a chance to get more voices in the tertiary education debate – including yours in the comments.

1. New Loan Fee The Government is looking at adding a $50 annual fee to student loans, extending an existing $50 fee charged each year new money is borrowed. This is essentially interest, and would be included as the cost of finance in any commercial finance agreement. I think upping student loan costs is a great idea, as we flush a lot of money down the drain on the scheme, but its a bad political idea as it undermines National’s no interest on student loans 2008 election policy. In tomorrow’s post, I’m sure I’ll be covering releases by NZUSA and Labour on National “betraying its promises”.
2. No Whitireia/WelTec Merger? The Dominion Post ran a story yesterday stating that the fears of a merger between WelTec and Whitireia have been laid to rest.The fears were raised by a Porirua City councillor worried about service cuts, but have been allayed by the previous Whitireia chair (and new appointee to WelTec and Whitireia Councils) Dennis Sharman. While I respect Dennis’ view, I’m not sure his response allays the fears - a merger, or collaboration with similar effect, could still occur. In a mostly unrelated story, WelTec’s employer survey has shown good results.
3. Security Guard Training Problems? The Unite union has accused a security guard company of giving staff the answers in assessments overseen by the Electrotechnology ITO (ETITO) – the company can also allegedly access hundreds of dollars in subsidies from ETITO. Unite is asking NZQA to investigate.
4. Auckland Research The University of Auckland is putting $4.8m (pa or over 3 years, your guess is as good as mine) into 4 new research themes - BioPharma, Auckland as a sustainable city, indigenous research, and food and health.
5. Slow MOE This is a schools issue but interesting. On Sunday, the PPTA basically had a media release run about upcoming teacher shortages, basically as an opening gambit in wage negotiations. The MOE put a media release out on Tuesday refuting the claims, but about 10 media cycles later. C’mon MOE – it’s going to be a bad negotiating season for you if you can’t respond quicker than that.
6. Otago Restructuring There’s more restructuring at the University of Otago. Is it just the ODT’s coverage or is Otago doing the most restructuring of anyone?