The third post in our pre-Budget series will be up at 11am. Tim Cullinane of Independent Tertiary Institutions writes from a PTE perspective.

1. Five Year Party Elam School of Fine Arts will be celebrating 60 years of being part of the University of Auckland this year, but will continue the party for five years until the 125th anniversary of the School’s establishment. The Elam Free School of Art and Design was founded in 1890 as a trust, funded by a bequest by Dr J E Elam. It was one of several schools in the four main centres, but the others merged with, or became the basis, of polytechnics. Anyway, enough of your history lesson.
2. Aoraki and TEU Settle Aoraki Polytechnic and the TEU have agreed a new collective employment agreement, with just under 2% increases pa.
3. Unitec and TEU Don’t TEU is pressing Unitec to spend its surplus on TEU members as facilitated employment negotiations get under way.
4. Otago Changes There’s an ODT piece today on restructuring at the University of Otago.