ED » TEO & ITO Annual Reports

News 23/8 – Libya. TEI $$. Don for TWOA.

Dave Guerin — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 18:57:52 +0000

Libya Good riddance to Gaddafi and let’s see how long it take to clean up the mess. I’d pick 5-10 years, but if you want to see what a real expert thinks about Libya, Otago Uni’s Robert Patman has been all over the news (TV3, RadioLIVE).
TEI $$ The Minister and TEC released 2010 financial stats for universities, wananga and ITPs yesterday. Media focused on the increased surpluses in each subsector (The Press, Dom Post, ODT) while the TEU said the institutions should have spent the money rather than hoarding it.
Sporting Stars Kayaker Lisa Carrington, from Massey, won the K1 200m event at the world champs. Motorcycle racer Avalon Biddle studies at Massey in her spare time. SIT student Jenna MacKenzie is going great guns as she shoots for a place on the London Olympics NZ shooting team (too many puns?).
Don for TWOA ACT leader Don Brash is holding up a TWOA-overseen school as an example for the country, which is quite a turnaround from when ACT was gunning for TWOA in 2005 or so.
Bad Interweb Victoria’s James Liu has spent more than 1 minute looking at YouTube and has realised the comments are full of racist views when videos raise race themes in some way. It really is a cesspool out there sometimes, but that’s what a lot of society is like outside the elite edited media, which is why politicians are regularly able to gain support by playing to those views.
Chasing Loans IRD is laying court claims against 45 Australian-based student loan borrowers who are greatly in arrears.
Environmental Research Waikato is bringing all of its environmental research into a new Environmental Research Institute, building on its strengths in terrestrial, freshwater, coastal marine and Antarctic ecosystems. It sounds like a good idea.
Benchmarking Victoria is hosting an Assn of Commonwealth Universities conference on benchmarking.
Political Expenses Otago Uni’s Bryce Edwards on a possible Helen Clark expenses scandal or a storm in a teacup, over whether the taxpayer paid for a trip home on which she will speak to a Labour fundraiser. It may backfire on him, although I’m sure he didn’t know that she had returned a few weeks ago to visit her dying mother – the funeral was held on Sunday. Somehow I don’t think anyone is going to care about the airfare.
RWC Auckland’s Peter Watts is helping train choirs to sing national anthems at games.
Top Model A real top NZ model is now studying philosophy at Auckland.
Short Bits Victoria: Prof James Belich picked up a $60K PM’s Award for Literary Achievement yesterday. Waikato: group of students on the Live Below the Line challenge. Quad bike training. Otago Uni: the NZ AIDS Foundation welcomes research on AIDS (good work, Shaun!); research on polycystic ovarian syndrome; conference on dignity; workaholic/alcoholic link; successful physics textbook. BOPP: helping out a budding rock band. UCOL: PM is featuring on their open day (sort of); hairdressing competition. Massey: Prof Usha Haley is off to speak at a conference organised by The Economist; Coroner has decided to release info about a suicide on Massey’s Wellington campus in 2009 (NewstalkZB); award for chief flight examiner; Spanish lessons in Palmie. AUT: Glenn Yungnickel on men’s fashion.

News 16/5 – Tighter Loans. Handley to Crete. ITP $$ + TEU-Wintec Stoush.

Dave Guerin — Sun, 15 May 2011 19:37:23 +0000

Tighter Loans Steven Joyce has given more detail on student loan tightening, which will include stopping over 55s borrowing for living costs, and tightening borrowing for student pilots and those who borrowed previously. This should reduce the loans write-off from 47c to 43c in the dollar and save $60m pa.
Handley to Crete WITT CE Richard Handley is heading off to Crete to mark the 70^th anniversary of the WWII battle there – he’ll be taking the diary of his father (a lieutenant at the time). Hope you enjoy it Richard!
Brash’s Letter …to John Key touched on Key not making the hard decisions around interest-free student loans. Brash is right that National backed off things like student loans, but it made a political call about what was possible and decided that keeping promises would be good for National’s long-term prospects. And in the end, Key is high in the polls so the straight political call was right – we could all argue the policy issues forever. Anyway, Massey’s Claire Robinson thought the Brash letter was spin (which is a good example of a journalist ringing someone to say something obvious to fill a space in a story).
Term Time Following up on last week’s story about Aoraki Poly’s non-links to primary school terms, Unitec does link to them but is thinking about changing in 2013.
Trades for Christchurch Following on from last week’s announcement, MIT said they were helping out (and Campbell Live spun an ongoing series on MIT’s Tertiary High School into a Christchurch-related story – never mind that, the story is interesting in itself), and the ITF’s Jeremy Baker liked it – as did the Contractors Federation, the BETA group of ITOs, Business NZ, Tai Poutini Polytechnic and Unitec.
Telford Drink-Driving Two more Telford students have been caught drink-driving after an ODT story last week.
ITP $$ +TEU Wintec Stoush NMIT students were surprised at NMIT’s surplus, asking why they had fee rises and service cuts (Nelson Mail). Bay of Plenty Poly celebrated a good 2010 too (as did its partner Waikato Uni). Wintec’s Council got grumpy at the TEU’s “untrue claims” about Council remuneration (ie that Wintec’s council had voted themselves more $$), which must have made the TEU happy because normally people don’t bite at the hooks they throw out in the TEU’s newsletter (newsletter link is here). The Waikato Times even wrote a story about it. Anyway, since I give the TEU a hard time sometimes, I’ll help them out on this one – the Minister for Tertiary Education set MAXIMUM fees for ITP council members last June. Wintec’s council decided how much they paid themselves within that limit and while I broadly agree with the amounts they chose to pay, it is quite incorrect for Wintec’s council chair to claim that: “The fees are not set or agreed upon by council members.” There was nothing wrong with the TEU’s claims that Wintec’s council increased their own pay – the Minister gave Wintec a chance to increase pay and they chose to take it.
Business Links The Dom-Post has a good profile of the latest university roadshow for businesses, run by Victoria this time.
Tonga-Fiji Stoush Tonga has given sanctuary to a Fijian army officer accused of mutiny – Canterbury’s Malakai Kolomatangi offered comments on the situation (NZPA).
Dairy Trainee of the Year…was won by Ben Smith of Wairarapa – Agriculture ITO supports the awards.
Canterbury Relocation Rod Carr has confirmed that Canterbury Uni will not be moving into the city, but is proposing a medical research and teaching complex – it’s unclear whether he’s talking about helping to boost Otago Uni’s campus or creating a new medical school!
PBRF Impact Waikato Uni’s management school is proposing to cut all tutor position to ensure all staff are engaged in research – I assume it’s related to the PBRF.
HRV Etc Home ventilation systems have been marked down by Otago Uni’s Inga Smith for heating/cooling a house, but they should be OK for moisture reduction, which wasn’t tested for (NZPA, Stuff). Consumer NZ felt a myth had been busted.
Prague Win Massey student Ana McGowan won a Prague set design competition.
Scandal? I don’t think there’s that much to the accusations about the SAS in Afghanistan, but Governor-General designate Jerry Mateparae faced protestors at the Massey graduation parade before he was given an honorary doctorate last week. It will be interesting to see if that continues, as it would be unusual for NZ’s stand-in head of state to have war crimes protests when he goes overseas.
Rector of Wall St The Rev Dr James Cooper of NYC is speaking at Victoria today on a religious perspective on Wall St.
Koi Carp Reduction Waikato Uni is helping to reduce koi carp.
Baby Boomers Prof Natalie Jackson of Waikato was on TV3′s The Nation to discuss baby boomers.
Poetry An Otago Uni grad who died in Christchurch’s CTV building, Rhys Brookbanks, has had a poem republished by the ODT, along with a profile of him.
Auckland Property An NZ Herald feature on residential property had quotes from Massey’s Claire Matthews, while stories on earthquake-prone buildings had quotes from Auckland’s Temitope Egbelakin and Jason Ingham (and Canterbury’s Stefano Pampanin, and again).
Loan Software IRD has put a student loan software project on hold.
Short Bits Canterbury: geologist Mark Quigley on redeveloping Christchurch; a student was caught up in a Katy Perry concert brawl; the Uni is supporting a youth vision development meeting; Deak Helton on managing post-quake change. Otago: Prof Andrew Geddis on Hone Harawira et al (audio); author Paddy Richardson has a residency; students offering health checks; Prof Malcolm Wright on the mobile phone market; students’ research on violence in Queenstown; Disney World was recruiting on campus for interns; a student had his car written off by a tree. Victoria: Paul Callister is surprised at the extent of remittances from NZ expats back home. Massey: David Tripe on banking issues; a new honours organisation for students; Prof Bob Hargreaves on growing houses; saddleback dialects; TWOA’s CFO Hinerangi Raumati has been made a director of Te Ohu Kai Moana Trustee Ltd. Auckland: Prof Jane Kelsey wants a Human Rights Commission inquiry into the TPPA; Prof Manying Ip advises against giving skinheads too much attention and opportunity to cause trouble; a series of books by writing fellows is starting. Unitec is helping to sponsor some business awards in West Auckland. Science Media Centre followed up on academic responses to John Key’s querying of water pollution research. Otago Uni and Bay of Plenty Poly will help on a shipwreck dive. New Horizon College of English celebrates their ENZ top student. AUT and Auckland academics on Nurofen. AUT’s Scott Duncan on Healthy Homework. UCOL is boosting trades education in Whanganui.
Media Mentions Lincoln’s Charley Lamb on surveying. Otago’s Prof Paul Tapsell on toi moko (and other academics here). A Christchurch “refugee” is now working at AUT. AUT’s Kelly Sheerin on getting fit to avoid sporting injury.

News 9/5 – Humboldt Award. Circus in Town. Telford Drunk Drivers.

Dave Guerin — Sun, 08 May 2011 18:32:56 +0000

I’m off to Auckland for an exciting session to plan a qualification review (really, I am excited), so this post was drafted a little early and may miss a few of this morning’s articles.

Humboldt Award Massey’s Professor Peter Schwerdtfeger has won a Humboldt award. Apparently he focused on the chemistry and physics of gold, so hopefully he’ll discover alchemy and fix our current account deficit. Seriously, though, this is a major award both in prestige and $$ (60,000 Euros) and we should celebrate it.
Post Quake Students The Press highlights some research from Lincoln’s Charles Lamb on Christchurch students’ post-quake experiences.
Circus in Town The circus has arrived in Christchurch to lift spirits – all the performers were trained at CPIT.
Telford Drunk Drivers 14 people aged under 25 have been convicted of drink-driving in Balclutha District Court since the start of the year, and 7 of them were Telford students. There are only 120 Telford students on campus, but campus head Jonathan Walmisley didn’t think they had a bigger problem than anywhere else. I like Jonathan, but having 6% of your students convicted of drink-driving is not normal.
Hair Training Aoraki Poly has taken on some CPIT hairdressing students.
VSM Pro-VSM group Student Choice argues that the Labour/Greens filibustering of the VSM bill is sabotaging the ability of students’ associations to prepare for the change.
Gene Testing Canterbury Uni’s Prof Jack Heinemann has found deficiencies in ERMA’s review of an AgResearch project to look for horizontal gene transfer. The Soil and Health Assn of NZ is all over it (and again – these guys get a bit excited).
Earth Food Education NZ is hosting an earth food festival in Auckland during the RWC (ie cooking in earth-like ovens). (Also story on an agent speed dating event.) Speaking of the RWC, Massey is going to have some life-size robots competing with people to kick goals – cool. There’s much more on the robot stuff here (plus Dom-Post story).
Massey-TEU Case There’s more concern from employers about the latest Massey-TEU Employment Court case result.
Otago Economic Impact Otago Polytechnic has released a report that apparently shows it has a great economic impact.
Wintec $$ Wintec has finally made a good surplus – almost 6% – and things seem to be coming together.
Youth Unemployment Youth unemployment was a big issue at the end of last week after employment stats were released. There’s a summit being planned in Nelson, with NMIT participating, while Business NZ said pathways between education and employment need improving.
Maori Media Waiariki is planning a Maori media reunion, building on its 26-year-old Maori journalism course.
Good Years SIT had a good surplus last year and is looking to attract European students this year.
Play Charity A Waikato teacher education grad is setting up a charity to build playgrounds in the Pacific – nice idea.
Just Be. AUT has helped form the Be. Institute, a new organisation aimed at fostering accessibility. Tariana Turia helped launch it.
Kids Playing Up? If they’re aged 3-6, you could pop them into an Auckland Uni study and maybe get some help.
NMIT Chefs …on risotto, along with some handy rice trivia.
No Diet Day NZUSA and its members celebrated International No Diet Day on Friday.
“Simple” Health Changes Auckland Uni researchers say that health could improve if we had less tobacco, less salt, more exercise, less fat, less sugar, less alcohol, better drugs…you get the picture. As long we do lots and lots of things better and change our culture, it’ll all be fine.
Short Bits Massey: study on small business health; Peter Lineham on the Apocalypse (seems people are making good money out if it); Prof John Birkbeck on energy drinks; the background to Friday’s horse on the treadmill video; student Sheridan Bignall has made the NZ under-21 netball team; Prof Roger Morris on foot and mouth disease; and Prof Malcolm Wright on mobile phone market share (media release). Auckland: looking for smoking cessation product triallists; Prof Bill Hodge on flag-burning (and name suppression); a Urewera 15 appeal supported by Prof Jane Kelsey can go forward; and census of school students. Victoria: the kiwi bach is now open for viewing on Wellington’s waterfront; Claudia Geiringer on extending Parliamentary hours; video kiosks and calls for IT support; and Paul Callister on expat Kiwis. Otago: awards for researchers; planning for staff retirements; 45 people have been trespassed from campus in the last 2 and a half years; and Black Ferns prop, and Trevor Mallard’s daughter, Beth Mallard, graduated with a doctorate. Canterbury: PhD student Charlotte Brown on post-quake recycling; Jim Tully on media priorities; student Argène Montgomery-Hönger is climbing Mt Kilimanjaro to raise funds for Christchurch; and universities recovering from natural disasters. The driver of a car that crashed has been sent to jail – his friend, an EIT student, is still in hospital with a brain injury. A deaf student at AUT is training to be a teacher. Lincoln’s Prof Caroline Saunders is joining a climate change speaking tour. South Island draining apprentice of the year. A UCOL lecturer’s sculpture will be funded for the Whanganui riverbank. EIT’s Prof Kay Morris Matthews comments on the new Children’s Commissioner. Ex-Wellington halfback Jason Spice might turn out for Bay of Plenty this year at 36 – he’s doing a teaching diploma at Bay of Plenty Poly. UCOL staff and student on baking. An Otago Poly student has had his ceramic work accepted for a Japanese competition.

News 29/10 – Improving ITOs. Happy Teachers’ Day! High Pay.

Dave Guerin — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 18:59:54 +0000

ITOs to Improve The ITF is seeking to move on from recent bad news stories by pointing out that ITOs are committed to improve, reflecting the government’s shift from participation to outcomes. Seems like a good move.
Nice ITo Annual Reports I meant to mention this a couple of weeks back, but the Agriculture ITO, Competenz and the Building and Construction ITO are 3 of the 5 finalists in the NZ Institute of Chartered Accountants’ best annual report by a non-profit organisation award. The winner is announced Nov 30.
World Teachers’ Day It’s World Teachers’ Day today, according to an NZ Teachers’ Council media release. Except that when I Googled that phrase I found out that World Teachers’ Day is actually October 5, but Australia and NZ celebrate it on a separate day, which seems quite monumentally stupid. Anyway, it’s the thought that counts, so best wishes to all teachers out there in tertiary education – you do a great job and make a real difference.
High Pay VC Steve Maharey has defended the pay of senior staff at Massey, after the number paid over $100,000 jumped by 250 between 2007 and 2009. This was probably due to a large bulge juts under $10K along with larger than normal salary rises under the extra funding that universities had for salaries in the period. The TEU focused on high salaries in their latest newsletter too, looking at the VC’s pay rises at the University of Auckland and the large gap between the lowest paid staff and the CE at Unitec.
The Hobbit VUW’s iPredict service got the Hobbit outcomes right. An Auckland Uni academic criticised the Hobbit-related employment law changes. Meanwhile, a grip took an SIT building course this year to prepare for Hobbit work.
Real World Lecturers Otago Poly lecturers have just won top awards for their wine and olive oil.
Commonwealth Games Manawatu Commonwealth Games athletes were honoured on Wed night – 37 athletes associated with Massey won 27 medals in total!
Business Skills The University of Auckland, working with Thunderbird University (they really are very, very good at international business, even with that name), are getting $1.3m from the government to run a global business skills programme. Sounds like a good idea and a good partnership.
Nelson Teachers The University of Canterbury’s possible closing down of their Nelson campus for teacher training is not popular locally.
Short Bits EIT’s new head of trades is profiled. Lincoln has some advice on managing dairy farms. An academic lawyer at Auckland Uni defends whistleblowers. Museums are the theme for this year’s UC Macmillan Brown Lecture series. Otago Poly’s Council is discussing disaster management today. SIT student journalists went on a herbal high buying sting.

News 29/9 – Great TEI Finances, Homeless at Unitec and Legal Outrage

Dave Guerin — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 18:42:13 +0000

Great Finances Universities, wananga and ITPs have finances to die for, according to the Minister for Tertiary Education (NZPA story and Herald story with more detail). Universities NZ agree that universities are great financial managers, but argue that they just don’t have enough money(heard that before?). Funnily enough, it is of course the core negotiating period for 2011 funding, so the Minister is setting up TEIs as rich organisations, while TEIs will shortly start complaining that they don’t have enough money. My advice is to take the average of money claimed and offered and then add or subtract 20% based upon your political leanings. With that figure in hand, you should then opine loudly about what funding should be – really, it’s not too different from what happens behind closed doors.
Who’s Homeless at Unitec? (and other news) Unitec CE Rick Ede is going to be sleeping rough (well, in a secure covered carpark) along with other celebrities to raise money for the homeless – good on him and if you like the idea, contribute some money at the link. Unitec has also established a human performance lab and is running forums for Maori and Pacific voices in the Super City.
Legal Outrage A group of 27 legal academics have written an open letter protesting the passage of the Canterbury Earthquake Response Recovery Act. Read the open letter, the blog posts by signatories (Andrew Geddis and Dean Knight), a response at Kiwiblog, an NBR story, a Radio NZ story (with Gerry Brownlee’s response), .Andrew Geddis from the University of Canterbury (his blog here) and Dean Knight from VUW (here’s his blog) have been playing a great critic and conscience role over this legislation and deserve your time if you haven’t checked out the issue already.
MIT Art MIT staff are involved in exhibitions of jewellery and baskets.
Quake Size A UC doctoral student got onto Campbell Live on Monday with his theory on the size of the Chch quake.
Short Bits A Waikato Uni lecturer won the WEL Networks Environmental Science Award in Hamilton for work on rivers, while another Waikato Uni academic got an award for research on weasels, amongst other things. VUW’s theatre programme celebrates 40 years this October. An AUT academic says NZ is lagging behind in its efforts to look after disabled tourists. A UC professor of engineering lauds the contribution of UC engineers to earthquake preparedness. Freshwater fish are at risk according to an Otago Uni academic. NZUSA has a conference this week. Cook a BBQ with Otago Poly. A Lincoln academic commented on Fonterra’s financial results.

News 26/8 – Fake Websites Gone. WITT in the Black.

Dave Guerin — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 19:39:35 +0000

Fake Websites Gone The fake websites of 41 NZ tertiary providers that were put up in China have been taken down after complaints. I was chatting to a regular blog reader yesterday who had uncovered it, so it shows we’ve got a smart audience!
WITT Posts Surplus!!! WITT had a $1.2m surplus last year and even improve cash holdings.
Gas leak at Wintec There was a gas leak yesterday at Wintec after some construction workers hit a gas line.
Top Butcher The Young Butcher of the Year and the Retail Meat ITO Butcher Apprentice of the Year were named on Teusday night.
Otago Uni Just over a quarter of the staff in the University of Otago’s design department will lose their jobs (5.5 FTEs). The University of Otago’s building at the Forsyth Barr Stadium will only be partially completed by next year’s Rugby World Cup.
BOP Friends Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi has joined a partnership with the University of Waikato and the Bay of Plenty Polytechnic to meet the education needs of the region.
CPIT Food a journalist from The Press tastes CPIT’s Toque D’Or winning menu.
Bits and Pieces The BCITO’s Buildability Challenge has resulted in a new kindergarten seat. An Aoraki Poly grad has won a national barista competition. Many academics are part of the NZ Herald historical series on Auckland: Tale of a Supercity.
CSI Dolphins The University of Auckland is helping DOC with DNA profiling of Maui’s dolphins.
Liggins Farewell The University of Auckland has also farewelled Dr Graham Liggins.
Snow Games Students studying Adventure Tourism Management at the award-winning Queenstown Resort College have “high hopes” of medal placings at their first ever Uni Snow Games in Wanaka next week.
Patent Dispute Technology developed by Lincoln University to deliver a nitrification inhibitor by spraying or irrigating grazing pasture is the subject of a patent dispute by two fertiliser companies.

News 28/6 – Big Waihi Language School and What You Can Buy for $1.8m

Dave Guerin — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 19:53:07 +0000

If you have a minute, check out NZQA’s new website - it looks attractive and replaces the old, rather less attractive site. It has a more accessible navigation structure and the search function has useful subcategories all in one place.

$45m Waihi School A $45m development outside Waihi is starting to open its doors to foreign students. The Waihi Academy of Studies will take up to 320 students and is focused on intermediate and high school students - the location and facility are designed to stop students getting into trouble, like some do in the big city. The formal opening isn’t until next year and they haven’t decided who will run the operations yet – some trial groups of 50 students are coming through this year. It has been set up by The Flying Phoenix Trust, a group of Taiwanese NZers, but they haven’t set up a PTE themselves. It’s a new development for export education in NZ and it’ll be interesting to see how it goes.
How R U Feeling? The Open Polytechnic is part of an international wellbeing study. You’ve got until June 30 if you want to be part of it.
Students’ Struggle Allison Rudd at the ODT had a long feature at the weekend about students struggling to pay the bills, with a smaller story about an Otago Poly student using the foodbank. And some Massey students were without power for a week when rats created an electical fire, althrough the rats end up being quite crispy.
What you can buyfor $1.8m The University of Otago paid $1.75m for the Gardens Tavern, which might now be used as a study centre. The University has denied paying extra to have the pub close a day early – I think I suggested that, amongst others, and I’m happy to withdraw my comment. Meanwhile the University of Auckland has got a $1.8m gift to be used for fellowships in brain and bioengineering research.
Nappy Art An Otago Polytechnic student is making garments out of disposable nappies – there’s a good story and a photo here.
Boat RaceFirst year engineering students at the University of Waikato took part in an annual boat race last week on a campus lake.
Model Patient/Students The University’s of Otago’s Chch campus has just installed a human simulator (Alex) that can “speak, bleed, cough and pass urine”. Down in Dunedin, school students were taking part in an innovation challenge.
Aoraki Result Aoraki Polytechnic’s annual report is out and they had a bigger surplus than in 2008.
House Building Bay of Plenty Poly carpentry students are building 2 houses this year to sell for charity. You can follow their progress on this blog set up by the Poly.

News 7/5 – SIT Surplus, Guinea Pigs & Robots

Dave Guerin — Thu, 06 May 2010 20:07:27 +0000

The Industry Training Federation’s Budget wishlist will be published at 9.30am today, the second in our series. NZUSA’s view will probably be published on Monday.

Student Loan Fees David Do of NZUSA was on Breakfast yesterday to chat about proposed new student loan fees. The Manawatu Daily Standard has supported the change in its editorial.
SIT’s Big Surplus SIT has announced a surplus of $3.5m for 2009, up from the budgeted $104,000.
Hide that Degree A WINZ staffer is being excoriated for telling a grad to take her degree off her CV when applying for short-term low-skilled work before entering the Navy in July. Seems like a sensible idea to me.
Guineapig.com The real site is called GetParticipants.com and, since its December 09 launch, it has helped improve recruitment for involvement in research studies.
Medical Research Sticking with the medical topic, Tony Ryall launched the Medical Research Centre in Wellington yesterday. It has the University of Otago, Massey University and Whitireia Community Polytechnic as partners so I might look into it more later.
Study or Work A Bay of Plenty Polytechnic student would rather have the work, as he struggles to pay the bills and eat, and is standing with a sign (“will swap sign for work”) at one of Tauranga’s busiest intersections. On a related note, UCOL students shaved their heads in return for donations to the local foodbank.
SIT at Cannes An SIT student is showing his short film at Cannes this year – SIT is giving him $5K towards costs. There’s a review of the film here.
Building Robots NZ teams did well at the Vex Robotics World Championships held in Dallas, Texas. Two NZ school teams, mentored by Massey University academics, joined up with a Chinese team to win the grand prize. The University’s student team also did well.
Is Otago a Sieve? It seems that way sometimes, with staffing changes taking mere hours to leak to the ODT. Here’s the latest one, about changes in the commerce department. The interesting part is the ruthless approach to increasing research outputs. I have no objection to that, as universities can have a tendency to announce, rather than implement, strategies.
Safer Streets Auckland City Council and partners has helped to fund a 15-minute DVD on safety in the city for international stduents.
35 Canterbury Librarians …are facing the chop under a restructuring proposal, according to the TEU, although I’m not sure how many new positions will be established.

News 21/4 – Unis Cause Inflation, Still Ask for More

Dave Guerin — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 19:37:58 +0000

In our ongoing series on delivery in 2009, we’re covering other tertiary education providers at 11am this morning. They’re an interesting bunch with unique approaches. We covered universities on Monday and wananga on Tuesday

Unis Cause Inflation Statistics NZ’s latest inflation figures include university fees as one of the big upward movements (6.1%), caused mainly by new student services fees being charged by some universities (plus UCOL – see earlier post). NZUSA is concerned.
Otago Asks for MoreThe University of Otago is asking for more money. drawing upon comparisons of funding with Australian universities. The ODT also reports on a 20% increase in distance learners for the University.
WelTec’s Stellar Or so the media release says about WelTec’s 2009 results - we’ll be reviewing their annual report on our sister site, ED Insider, shortly, so sign up for a free trial.
Autumn Recipes WITT chefs have some tips for surplus capsicums.
No Undie 500 Marlborough is rallying around to repel Canterbury engineering students wanting to bring the Undie 500 car rally to town. There’s even a Facebook page against it

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

Dave Guerin — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 19:27:46 +0000

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.
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).
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.
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).
Wintec $$ Wintec had a good 2009, with the bottom line $2m above forecast and 12% student growth.
MIT and Diabetes A Diabetes clinic will now run out of MIT’s nursing school.
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.
Otago Software Tender The University of Otago is looking to replace its student management and timetabling software.
Performance Funding A Bay of Plenty Polytechnic lecturer has weighed in on performance-based funding.
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.