News 14/6 – New CPIT CEO & Honey Dispute

June 14th 2010 at 8:27am, By Dave Guerin

New CPIT CEO SkillsTech Australia director Kay Giles (pictured at left) will be the new CEO of CPIT, starting on August 9. She has headed the 10-campus Brisbane TAFE since Oct 2007, according to The Press, but the SkillsTech website puts it at 8 sites and Oct 08. SkillsTech is apparently the largest provider of trade and technicians training in Queensland and Australia, with 20,00 students pa. Giles also headed Queensland’s Wide Bay TAFE for a decade (about 10,000 students). She seems to be very qualified for the role and I’m sure many people will look forward to hearing more.
Canty PTE Closes The Canterbury College of Natural Medicine will close this month after being sold to a North Island provider. Presumably the buyer was looking to add their EFTS to its cap, but it would be interesting to learn more. The closure affects 130 current students.
Minister Wants Input Anne Tolley wants feedback on her options to revise teacher training and retention.
New Ideas in UK The UK’s new higher education minister is proposing that chains of universities should teach the same courses to save development costs, make quality education available across the country and allow more institutions to focus on teaching. The response has been robust so far, but the situation is little different to what is being proposed in NZ now at L1-6.
Trans-Tasman Architecture University of Queensland and University of Auckland architecture students have exchanged visits to explore indigenous architecture needs and issues.
Study Harder! Bay of Plenty school students are responding to tougher uni entry criteria by studying harder. Meanwhile, a Bay of Plenty Polytechnic tutor has advised students not to use Wikipedia.
Sour Honey Comvita has clarified its position in relation to the University of Waikato’s WaikatoLink after a court decision last week over their honey research contract. NZPA has produced a detailed story about the saga that is well worth reading for those interested in commercialisation. In an unfortunate coincidence, WaikatoLink put out a general promo release on Friday about their participation in Fieldays – they’re running a seminar on “why innovative products often miss their mark and how to avoid failure”.
ACE Honour Maryke Fordyce, who led schools in their fight against ACE cuts last year, has been awarded the Charlie Herbert Award, available to outstanding ACE practitioners.
Joyce at WelTec WelTec has put out a release about a recent visit by Steven Joyce to the campus.
Waikato River & $$ The University of Waikato is co-publishing a book on the Waikato River. And their CFO thinks that Budget was OK for the University.
UCOL On Stage UCOL performing arts students will be on stage this week.
Council Appointee Tony Sewell, CE of Ngai Tahu Property, has been appointed to the University of Canterbury Council.
Food and Gender The Manukau hub of the new Food and Innovation Network has run into a ruckus over the lack of women on the board. It’s associated with Massey University.
Massey Hybrid No, not a new animal, but Massey will be the only organisation in NZ to trial a new Toyota Plug-in Hybrid Prius. Massey also received $3.9m in Health Research Council grants.
Otago Uni Corner The Otago VC, Prof Sir David Skeggs, has been given a good grade in an editorial by the ODT. You can find out more about molecular chaperone proteins, treatment of latent tuberculosis, the impact of oil industry growth on Dunedin or details about the Christchurch campus expansion.
Charity House Otago Polytechnic’s charity house concept could soon be copied by others around the world.
Bridge Death Hearings continue and continue on the trial of a man in relation to the death of a Massey University student.