News 21/6 – University Access, All Blacks and Gondolas

June 21st 2010 at 7:40am, By Dave Guerin

ODT Feature on University Access The ODT has a story and a long feature on university entrance issues quoting Steven Joyce, Pete Hodgson, a BNZ economist and me (rambling on a bit). The articles cover a lot of ground and show the increasing interest in access issues. One argument that I made didn’t seem to come across very well (you may well identify more!), which was the one about challenges for Otago in a restricted entry world. What I was trying to get at was that, while Otago and Auckland compete over the “NZ’s top university” title, Auckland has an advantage in a restricted entry world because it has a bigger applicant pool and can afford to be more picky. Over time, I would expect Auckland to become more selective than Otago and attract students with higher entry marks (although Otago is boosting first year scholarships, which will help). The feature also refers to me as a “former Treasury policy analyst” but I’ve never worked there.
Using NCEA for Access The ODT has an op-ed by Auckland teacher Peter Lyons on the problems in using NCEA as a ranking mechanism for university entry.
Failing Students Radio NZ ran a story on Friday about the high number of students failing more than half of their courses - the numbers came from a Written Question by Maryan Street of Labour (ED Insider subscribers got these stats ten days ago – just sayin’…).
Drill, Baby, Drill I don’t usually get excited about media releases but Tai Poutini Polytechnic has put out a great release on their drilling programme and how they’re working with a coal seam gas drilling company (the Greens don’t like that industry, but they’re probably not so keen on TPP’s digger school either…). The release gives a really good outline of how TPP is working with this industry.
Sheep Drench and Keen Girls A Lincoln student was named Young Inventor of the Year at Fieldays for his Adjustable Drenching Race. A former Taratahi Agricultural Training Centre student, Jaimee-Mairie Schimanski, came second in the Good Keen Girl competition at Fiedlays.
Grant Robertson GayNZ.com has a profile of Labour’s new tertiary education spokesperson Grant Robertson.
Loans for the Elderly TV3 ran a story out of the blue last night about elderly people getting student loans, and being unlikely to pay them back.
BOP Provision The University of Waikato and Bay of Plenty Poly are looking forward to developing their provision under a new plan. Sunlive covers it, while a Bay of Plenty Times editorial welcomes the idea of a push for a central CBD-based presence for the University.
Top Journalists The University of Canterbury is celebrating journalist grads who won Qantas Media Awards - I’ll add to the list my friend and Canterbury grad Jonathan Milne, Acting Editor at the Herald on Sunday, which won best weekly newspaper and overall best newspaper.
Chinese Tour and Entrepreneurs I’m impressed the the University of Auckland has taken 14 architecture students on tour of the Pearl River Delta/Guangdong area to look at Chinese architecture. The pace and size of development will give them a completely different perspective. The Uni is also running an entrepreneurs’ challenge, with $1m up for grabs in investment and advice.
All Black Bros The Whitelock brothers (Sam and George) are both All Blacks and also both study at Lincoln University. Sam earned his first cap against Ireland 10 days ago and he’s pictured at left (he’s the one with the beard, with Lincoln VC Roger Field next to him).
Uni Network The University of Auckland has joined the Worldwide University Network.
HSI Awards The Dept of Corrections is happy they won at the HSI Awards.
Dodgy Gondola Numbers You may remember coverage of the proposed gondola from Palmerston North’s Square to Massey University. Well, would you believe it, it seems that the revenue numbers were inflated? Seems the backers used visitor nights, not visitor numbers (1/3 of nights), although a planner has also pointed out that Massey University isn’t the best tourist attraction anyway.
Otago Corner
- Healthcare has outstripped education in the Dunedin economy, which is interesting, since Dunedin usually focuses on boosting education’ although it would be good for them if they could grow the private sector.
- The University has picked up $540K from Canada for TB research.
- I admire the ruthlessness of the University of Otago’s decision to flick some money to the Gardies’ pub owner to get them to close a day early and avoid the inevitable PR problems of a big final day party. It was probably well worth the money.