ED » Ako Aotearoa

Spotlight – Peter Coolbear, Ako Aotearoa

Dave Guerin — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 21:58:42 +0000

Spotlight is a series of posts where ED Blog asks 5 questions of interesting people in tertiary education (see other posts). Today, we have Peter Coolbear, the Director of Ako Aotearoa.

1. What’s the biggest challenge on your desk right now?

Developing, at the Minister’s request, a new business model for Ako Aotearoa, as we become more ambitious about how we best support New Zealand’s diverse tertiary education sector to provide the best possible outcomes for all learners. In return there is an expectation that we will gain more support from the sector.

2. Ako Aotearoa has helped broaden the uptake of the Australasian Survey of Student Engagement? What impact has that had?

The AUSSE is a hugely powerful source of data on how students are learning. One of the things we’ve been supporting tertiary education institutions to do is to work through ways of using the complex data sets that result from using this tool. The AUSSE data identifies priorities for improvement within organisations from a learner perspective and it is really encouraging to see that many universities and ITPs are beginning to incorporate findings from their surveys into their strategic planning. It is also great to see the AUSSE results being used as a focus for collaboration for quality enhancement across different parts of the sector, in particular our recent joint publication with ACER (Student Engagement in New Zealand’s Universities) that was launched towards the end of last year.

3. What has Ako Aotearoa done lately to share ideas from Teaching Excellence Award winners?

Members of the Ako Aotearoa Academy of Tertiary Teaching Excellence (our association of past awards winners) continue to contribute to a wide range of professional development workshops on teaching and learning. Probably the most notable event last year with a significant contribution from the Academy was the First Year Biology Educator’s Conference held in Wellington in November.

4. What did you learn from your recent stint at TEC?

That, personally, I could make more of an impact on the quality of teaching and learning in tertiary education through Ako Aotearoa.

5. What made you smile about your organisation this week?

Lots of things. The new business model is coming together well, we are in the process of finalising dissemination plans from some great work resulting from our National projects and I am very excited about the prospect of developing a stronger three way partnership, between ourselves, the Industry Training Federation and The National Council for Vocational Education Research in Australia.

News 28/10 – Welcome Back Peter. PBRF Rort? Air Crash Email.

Dave Guerin — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 20:01:24 +0000

CEISMIC Canterbury’s earthquake digital archive is live and will have a launch event tonight.
Welcome Back Peter Peter Coolbear has gone back to lead Ako Aotearoa after a short stint at TEC in the ITP investment team. I admire Peter for giving it a go, but I’m not surprised he left.
PBRF Rort? Eric Crampton has details of an investigation into PBRF irregularities at Victoria. My guess is that this will turn out to be rather unremarkable as it seems like a QC has been engaged to over-investigate the claims of academic Martin Lally, who can make quite a noise (in this case he sent concerns to the TEC and the University Council). I’m sure there will be some issues at the margin but I suspect there’s no enormous problem.
Bryant Hall…celebrated 40 years at Waikato and that lovely man Norman Kingsbury was at the festivities.
Cruden Mania Manawatu AB Aaron Cruden was welcomed back to the area and promptly got $5,000 for the first year of fees at Massey (NewstalkZB, Manawatu Standard, Fairfax – latter has lots of comments).
Air Crash Email A Coroner’s inquiry had an email read out from a senior Massey aviation staffer Frank Sharp but he denies ever sending it (and seems to be right) – Police are checking it out (RNZ, NewstalkZB).
Elections NZUSA has put out a voter guide for students.
AB Rumbles Auckland’s Annie Zaino had a seismometer under Eden Park at the weekend and reports on the data.
Nice Workplace ATTTO is a finalist in the JRA Best Workplaces Awards.
Learning Reps A NZCTU-Ako Aotearoa review of Learning Reps has been released.
Service Academies ERO has done a review.
Exhibition Review The Dom Post reviews Massey’s 125^th anniversary design exhibition – the reviewer thought there was too much stuff, but recognised the quality of what was there. I think I’ll pop up on Monday.
Hagfish Slime Check out a Massey video of the hagfish’s slime defence.
Art in the Blood UCOL student Bridget McArthur has created a colourful artwork inspired by her previous work as a nurse. UCOL has a whole lot of art events coming up.
Rena Stuart Hunter’s wildlife post-mortems and more on looking after the alive birds (and again).
Hamilton Radio…won’t have a student station for a while yet.
Builders BCITO on need for more builders.
Short Bits Otago Uni: Prof Tony Kettle on new anti-inflammatory drugs; Bob Lloyd protesting about climate change (ODT). Massey: Angie Farrow’s new play; new online enrolment system; Massey-British Council design scholarships (Massey release); Science Minister visit; Elizabeth Marvelly’s studies; Tim Harvey gets citizenship; Mike Joy on river pollution; Claire Robinson on Phil Goff; Sam Richardson on RWC. Waikato: thesis in three winner and another; award for Anne Hume; new Maori research centre; grad off on Rhodes Scholarship (RNZ); top student research. AUT: Wheel Blacks student; Grace O’Sullivan on dementia. CPIT: showing off interior design. Wellington Adult Learning Awards. Fulbright scholar. Canterbury: Pedro Jose Lee on broken gas pipeline. Paul Henry confuses the SIS and SJS.

News 19/8 – $500K Course Grant. New Legislation. Arm Wrestling.

Dave Guerin — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 20:28:56 +0000

$500K Course Grant Victoria has scored a $500K grant from MSI to help develop a new computer graphics option for its masters degree. The aim is to build capability in the long-term to support New Zealand’s digital industries. MSI and Grow Wellington are quoted in the story but no industry representatives. Now I wonder how often MSI actually supports new courses (I would have thought seldom), whether this is the best use of such funds (couldn’t Vic have funded this itself) and whether Vic (or Massey Wellington) should have done something like this a long time ago. I’d welcome comment on this one. Nothing wrong with the idea, just wondering about the approach.
New Legislation Steven Joyce put out a release about the passing of the Education Amendment Bill (No. 4) under urgency (NZPA, RNZ). The Bill covers ENZ, PTE rules, course approval and student services fees.
The Student Loan Scheme Bill also passed under urgency.
Storytelling Otago Uni is running a ScienceTeller Festival that sounds absolutely great. It’s all about storytelling in science.
Arm Wrestling WITT has attracted a top Indian arm wrestler to compete in the lucrative ITP arm wrestling circuit…no, actually he’s here to study engineering.
VSM UCOL students protested VSM on Wednesday as did Wintec students, with 200…queuing for a sausage sizzle.
Ako Aotearoa Award Ako Aotearoa has won an international award.
Sir Paul Reeves AUT VC Derek McCormack on Sir Paul’s contribution.
Working Dogs Here’s an update on Massey’s Centre for Service and Working Dog Health – did you know that it existed?
Happy Feet Massey’s John Cockrem comments on the release plan for the big penguin.
Asperger’s Canterbury’s Jenny Smith has written a piece on Asperger’s Syndrome and education.
MBAs Lots of institutions commented in a Management roundup of business education.
Top Training ATTTO has named a tourism training ambassador.
Short Bits Auckland: three students sharing a watercolour art prize; Otago Uni: AIDS stats; gamelan music; act on obesity video. AUT: students helping out at a rugby league tournament. Waikato: Dame Susan Devoy lecture; Chris Pugsley’s new WWI history; student rower. Victoria: lecturer keen to organise parking survey. Massey: Spanish lessons; Malcolm Wright reckons Telecom will be fine after their ad cock-up; Claire Matthews on KiwiSaver tinkering. Aoraki: students won an art competition. Otago Poly: successful link with an employer. BOPP is ripping up an orchard, but it’s a bit more complicated than just sending in the bulldozer.

News 5/8 – AUT Arrest. Teaching Excellence. VSM.

Dave Guerin — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 22:16:47 +0000

AUT Arrest The Police arrested AUT’s former employee Jonathan Kilpatrick and he appeared in the District Court on false accounting and related charges. It seems that he had been putting false invoices in the system since 2002 and paying the proceeds to himself. The 82 invoices totalled $665, 985.25. Stories were up on TVNZ, TVNZ, TV3, RNZ, NZ Herald, NZ Herald, Auckland Now and NZPA – the second NZ Herald story is the best to read. Kilpatrick will apparently plead guilty when he reappears on 17 August.
Teaching Excellence Releases about Teaching Excellence Award winners have gone out for Unitec’s Ksenija Napan, Otago Poly’s Leoni Schmidt and Peter Bilous, Auckland’s Michael Walker, Canterbury’s Prof Jon Harding, Victoria’s Prof Kevin Gould and Otago Uni’s Tony Zaharic. Ako Aotearoa has also put out profiles on each winner.
VSM NZPA and NZPA on VSM. Heather Roy says that if the Bill doesn’t get thru on Members’ Days, she will ask the government to adopt it, but she thinks it will get thru via Member’s Day. Students associations have commented negatively on the Bill’s progress from Lincoln, OUSA, OUSA and OUSA again. Otago Uni Labour Candidate (for Dunedin North) was appalled. The TEU is concerned about the impact on staff and learning. Kiwiblog says freedom is moving closer and also points to some rather uncouth comments by OUSA’s president (which he has since retracted). The Dim-Post also comments. In related news, Massey PN paper Chaff may go monthly next year.
Vic Protest Students and staff protested against proposed staffing changes at Victoria yesterday – looks like about 100-200 turned up. The Dominion Post did stories here and here, while NewstalkZB and TV3 also covered it. The TEU has photos and video and a comment in their newsletter.
Top Climber A Wintec grad won the world tree-climbing competition.
Wananga Rawiri Taonui was either misquoted or knows nothing much about wananga – he said that Te Whare Wananga O Aotearoa (which doesn’t exist – no Whare in TWOA) was the only wananga with postgrad students, whereas TWOA has no postgrad students going by Education Counts figures and the other two do. He may have been referring to Te Whare Wananga O Awanuiarangi. On a more interesting note, Che Fu sparked a gun scare at TWOA in Mangere.
Napier Design EIT students are part of a competition to design options for Napier’s Marine Parade.
Great Race The Waikato Uni rowing eights will face off against two opponents this year rather than just one.
CPIT Strike The TEU provides some context about the CPIT strike, while CPIT is happy that negotiations are on again.
SJS Changes The Waikato Times has an interesting article on the closure of Student Job Search offices – they actually interviewed students and employers, rather than upset workers and student politicians.
Poet Laureate Auckland’s Ian Wedde is the new poet laureate (speech by Minister).
Sealions & Squid The squid fishery is causing a decline in sealions according to Otago Uni’s Bruce Robertson (RNZ).
Cooks Trip NZ Chiropractic College students (45 of them) and staff have gone to the Cooks to offer free care.
Westpac Fashion Finalists have been named in the Westpac Young Fashion Designer Competition and they come from AUT, CPIT, Whitecliffe, Otago Poly and Massey. The public can vote on the designs on Facebook here.
New Medical Role AUT and Unitec are helping to educate practice assistants, a new medical role – a GP says it will be like on the job training.
Cancer Research Auckland is researching ways to starve cancer cells of glucose and another drug is moving on to clinical development (TV3).
Blind Body Clocks Auckland’s Guy Warman has been looming into the difficulties blind people have in managing their body clocks.
MasterChef… is at Aoraki Polytechnic over the next couple of days.
Short Bits Massey: Jason Wargent on crop growth: David Tripe and Claire Matthews on mortgage rates; Andy Asquith doesn’t like selling Council assets; big open day; Sam Richardson on RWC economics. Otago Uni: Japanese drumming group; Winsome Parnell on a food costs survey; law students winning in Sydney; a student filling the Octagon with snow; Michael Baker on meningitis and legionnaires disease. CPIT: a teacher’s exhibition; Tom Rainey on jazz. Canterbury: Stephen Todd’s torts book is going online; CompSci students won an award in Thailand. MIT: a shipping student at MIT is in a wheelchair but still flies. Auckland: TV3 checked out academics’ election calculator. BOP dairy trainee of the year. Waikato: Linda Smith on a constitutional panel. Unitec’s new Albany campus. AUT: journalism student who is a top Paralympics swimmer. Waiariki kaumatua on poi. UCOL has a new programme to train truck drivers. The New Zealand ITO sponsors a bacon competition. Lincoln: hotel mgmt students off to Sydney. Competenz skills research. ATTTO is helping to offer first impressions to NZ RWC training to secondary schools (Dom Post).

News 4/8 – VSM in 2012. Top Teachers. Why Save Birds?

Dave Guerin — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 19:55:45 +0000

VSM in 2012 Yesterday I wrote to ED Insider clients that it was exceedingly unlikely that the VSM Bill would be debated that day. I’m happy to admit to that, because no-one else knew that Labour’s filibustering would end other than Act and (presumably) National. The story is below.
- Early in the day, Phil Goff was defending Labour’s filibustering, Parliament Today put up a post titled Return to the Filibuster and the Homepaddock blog was grumpy about Labour’s tactics.
- Labour had been stretching out debate on the Royal Society Amendment Bill for a couple of months but Act found a simple loophole. The video is here and in the first couple of minutes you can see the stunned reaction by Labour’s Grant Robertson’s and his rapid grab for a copy of Standing Orders to check the rules. Labour tried to recover the situation and stall for time, but ACT had finally found a way to get their Bill moving (Newstalk ZB, NZPA, Grant Robertson at Red Alert).
- The Bill is now likely to pass in mid September. Labour may delay things a little, but it seems very likely now that the Education (Freedom of Association) Bill will pass before the election and that all students’ associations will have voluntary membership from January 2012.
- NZUSA is claiming that National MPs reneged on an assurance, but they haven’t named who gave them the assurance and it was obviously given before they realised there was an out. Other responses came from UCOL students (a release), an Otago Uni student plan to protest at a library that John Key is opening on Friday and EXMSS’ Dave Crampton.
- The upshot of all this is that a long period of time-wasting by Labour, utilising Standing Orders that allow for lengthy debate, has been ceased by another section in the Standing Orders that permits deferral of debate. Now that the procedural matters have been put aside, a very serious change looms for students’ associations with compulsory membership, and the TEIs where they are based. A lot of work needs to be done to develop a new approach to service provision for 2012.
Top Teachers I didn’t know that the Ako Aotearoa Teaching Excellence Awards were on last night until I ran into some attendees around Parliament when I popped down to see the VSM debate. I would have loved to prep a full story (or a series of them) for you but I wasn’t sent the basic media release and it came thru via Scoop’s RSS feed at midnight, while the full citations still weren’t up on the Ako website at 8am. I can tell you that Auckland Uni’s Prof Michael Walker won the top award because his employer put out a media release. Auckland Uni staff Rena Heap, Prof Robin Kearns and Ross McDonald also won awards. I may write more later.
Great Chairs FITEC’s trainees make furniture as their entries into the national awards and you can check this one out or go to the Danske Mobler showroom in Auckland’s Mt Eden Rod and see all of them.
Why Save Birds? Wayne Linklater of Victoria asks the hard questions about whether saving injured birds is just done for media profile and ego trips rather than doing any real good for the birds. It’s a strong case, although you can wipe out any memory of it with 5 seconds of watching Happy Feet J
New House UCOL students are helping to build a house for a local family that is heavily involved with UCOL study.
Natural is Good Natural and complementary therapies might be better than modern drugs in some cases, according to Victoria’s Shaun Holt.
No Red Zone Building? Canterbury’s Jarg Pettinga says that it’s probably best not to rebuild in the Christchurch red zone.
Pasifika Anne Tolley reckons the Pasifika Education Plan is making good progress.
Short Bits TWOA’s Yvonne O’Brien on Maori learning success. AUT: Elaine Rush on All Blacks’ bodies. Massey: Geoff Watson on declining rugby support; transport to campus. Otago Uni: Prof Jim Mann on the price of milk. Waikato: Chris Pugsley, military historian, is getting an alumni award. RNZ on SJS. Vic’s Michael Manning is criticised over climate change. Canterbury: helping out a Paralympic skier. BOPP: fitness students meeting a rugby player; research expo. UCOL: photography exhibition.

News 27/7 – AUT’s Missing $500K.Trans-Tasman Test. School Hols.

Dave Guerin — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 21:34:05 +0000

AUT’S Missing $500K AUT called in police on Monday to investigate $500K that seems to be missing.
Sir Paul Reeves… has cancer and will be stepping back from most areas of public life, but will keep his role as AUT Chancellor.
RNZ’s Tertiary Morning Nine to Noon on RNZ had MIT’s Stuart Middleton on the Tertiary High School and Otago Uni’s retiring VC David Skegg on his time at the Uni.
Trans-Tasman Test 700 students will sit an Australian Council for Educational Research Test for medical and health sciences students. Students at Auckland and 12 Australian universities will also sit the test, which focuses on students’ problem solving, people skills and non-verbal reasoning. It might be the only such Trans-Tasman test at tertiary level and for that along it is interesting.
Top Photographer…Catherine Opie is giving a lecture at Massey Wellington. She’s a Professor of Photography at UCLA and I imagine there will be good use of PowerPoint, going by the photo published at right.
TEC CE’s Expenses If you want to see some boring expense claims, check out the TEC’s CE’s expenses for March to June 2011.
Peter Coolbear Farewell Ako Aotearoa farewelled heir head, Peter Coolbear, as he moves across to TEC.
Fabians The Fabians, a Labour party group, has presentations from Victoria’s Geoff Bertram and Auckland’s Rhema Vaithianathan.
School Hols SIT is criticised by students for not aligning school holidays with SIT’s holidays, but this seems to be a widespread issue this year, especially with the RWC changes to school terms.
Are Men Needed? In schools that is. Well, Otago Uni’s Steven Sexton thinks not and the ODT interviewed several people who agreed with him.
Yummy Apples…cooked by WITT’s John Hudson.
TVNZ Charter Victoria’s Peter Thompson writes a long column on the TVNZ charter.
Short Bits Massey and Victoria might link up with a Chinese ocean research centre. Auckland: new HRC projects. Canterbury: the engineering students’ media release on their cancelled Dunedin trip; uni students helping a good cause. Victoria: Rawinia Higgins on kohanga reo funding; a couple of All Blacks fans. Massey: speech by a student on whitebait; brief mention of sleep centre
innovating students. AUT: Project Energize by Prof Elaine Rush. Waiariki was involved in a Maori school science programme. National MP Simon Bridges inspired BOPP students.

News 15/7 – Tax Experts. TEI Surpluses. What Women Wear.

Dave Guerin — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 21:43:01 +0000

Tax Experts Tax experts have weighed in on Labour’s proposed new suite of taxes, including Auckland’s Craig Elliffe (before and after), Lincoln’s John McDonagh and Waikato’s Alan Simpson.
Climate Change The Dom Post had a few stories today n climate change, quoting Victoria’s Prof Michael Manning and Prof Lionel Carter.
TEI Surpluses The TEU is protesting the size of TEI surpluses in 2010 but I wonder if they are just to be expected in a period of high demand – I’m certainly expecting some much tighter results in a year or two. TEUI does note that surpluses have risen since 2006, but for ITPs and wananga the early years were boosted by various one-off transition funds that have now gone.
CER Stuart Middleton proposes a Closer Education Relations agreement.
Drugs Complaint Prof Mark Glue of Otago Uni is the subject of a complaint about the prescription of ketamine at Dunedin Hospital.
Coolbear to Oz Ako Aotearoa’s Peter Coolbear is speaking in Australia today on Vocational education research in New Zealand: old issues and emerging opportunities from a funder’s perspective.
Radio One The Otago Uni radio station made TV3 News.
Team OneBuzz It’s not a herbal high, but a Microsoft Imagine Cup team from Auckland Uni that got into the top six at the global event in New York. Congrats to them. (media release)
Aoraki Hub Aoraki Poly might build a student hub, or not, but the local paper is curious.
Alan Williams RIP Emeritus professor Alan Williams of Massey has died and the Manawatu Standard has a good obituary.
So Gay Victoria’s Laurie Bauer on the meaning of the word gay and whether its use can be banned in some cases.
NZSO Photos Another story on the Massey grad who went off to photograph an NZSO tour of Europe.
What Women Wear Massey’s Deborah Russel compares cultural norms for women in NZ and some Muslim societies. It’s a nice piece.
Negotiations TEU has a handy update on employment negotiations.
Skinhead Tattoo Canterbury’s Jarrod Gilbert on why the government should pay to remove a skinhead’s tattoo – it says “SKINHEAD” across his forehead.
Short Bits Waikato: Prof Bruce Clarkson on eco islands; law students won an award at a Danish competition. UCOL: sponsoring Maori business award. Canterbury: competition to win a student flat; KiwiNet membership; Susanne Ledanff on the Holocaust. Otago Uni: student market; student inspired by rally training. Victoria: debaters won the Australasian champs; Maryanne Gary on the Internet as a memory tool. MIT: has a Shortland St actor studying horticulture. Auckland: Icehouse teachers Chris Woods and Deb Shepherd. Waiariki: student art exhibition. Lincoln: big report on the tourism industry for TIANZ by Prof David Simmons. EIT welcomes extra trades funding. Learning State is involved in a very boring-sounding compliance project. AUT: Gail Pacheco on minimum wage impacts; PhD sound sensitivity research.

Weekend Reading 27/5

Dave Guerin — Fri, 27 May 2011 01:30:25 +0000

Every once in a while I go through all those links I’ve saved because they don’t fit the daily news post format, but I still meant to write a post about. Many are from overseas and hopefully they have some interest for you.

Journal of Universal Rejection My friend Evan Roberts sent me a link to the wonderful Journal of Universal Rejection site. As they write: “The founding principle of the Journal of Universal Rejection (JofUR) is rejection. Universal rejection. … You may claim to have submitted to the most prestigious journal (judged by acceptance rate). … You retain complete rights to your work, and are free to resubmit to other journals even before our review process is complete…. Decisions are often (though not always) rendered within hours of submission.” You can check out their blog too.
Academic Freedom A few weeks back Sandra Grey of the TEU did a guest post for ED Blog on academic freedom and there was a good debate, but Stanley Fish showed how good he is in this NY Times post on academic freedom – you can agree or disagree with him, but he is a great thinker and writer (there’s a profile on Fish here).
Profitable Courses A UK consultancy has pointed out the obvious fact that some courses make money and others lose it, but went on to argue that the shift to much higher student fees leaves providers’ cross-subsidisation vulnerable to specialist (private) providers focusing just on the profitable courses. Obviously you could offer a cheaper price on nursing if you weren’t cross-subsidising five other courses.
NZ Research Ako Aotearoa has just held its Tertiary Research in Progress Colloquium. You may be wondering why you weren’t invited and it’s probably because you weren’t doing any research on teaching and learning in tertiary education funded by Ako Aotearoa. Luckily you can find out what is being worked on at the Ako Aotearoa website. There are short briefs on the various projects and some presentations. Well worth a look.
Bait and Switch I liked this NY Times article about law schools in the US that offered generous scholarships contingent upon high grades – and then rationed the high grades so people ended up having to pay full fees towards the end of their study!
Student News Wintec student journalists are now publishing their work on The Waikato Independent, their own news site.
Quake Recovery Some time back I was sent this video about using drama and art to help children recover from quakes – in China and Christchurch. It involves Assoc Prof Peter O’Connor from Auckland Uni’s Faculty of Education.

Taking Stock – where to next? (Ako Aotearoa)

Peter Coolbear — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 22:46:15 +0000

This is a guest post from Peter Coolbear, Director of Ako Aotearoa.

Ako Aotearoa has just released its stock-take report on qualifications and support for tertiary teachers, which was undertaken for us by Projects International. We commissioned this work because a search of qualification databases indicated there were 106 different qualifications for tertiary teachers. This seemed a ridiculous number for a small country.

Our first finding – not surprisingly – was that the databases themselves aren’t as helpful as they might be. However, of that initial 106, 25% were discovered to be misleadingly characterized by their metadata. A further 20% were then found to have been inactive for a while, which finally left us with 62 active qualifications.

Whichever way you look at it, this seems excessive and confusing. In all, there are 28 active certificates or diplomas at levels 4-6, 10 certificates and diplomas at level 7 and a further 15 postgraduate certificates or diplomas. Still a bit of a mess.

The immediate questions for me are: Are all these different qualifications necessary? How many of them are really different? Do we need some national agreement on base competencies for beginning tertiary teachers? How context-specific might these competencies be? Can we distil this out of the present published graduate profiles of existing qualifications? And perhaps most importantly – Is gaining a tertiary teaching qualification a prerequisite for becoming a good tertiary teacher?

Needless to say I have my views, but they probably need to be challenged. I encourage you to have a look at Taking Stock on our website (or contact us for a hard copy if you prefer). It would be great to know what you think.

News 13/8 – SIT Sets Record Straight on Hostel

Dave Guerin — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 20:35:51 +0000

SIT’s Grand Hostel SIT CE Penny Simmonds has an opinion piece in The Southland Times about the Grand Hall of Residence, subject of recent student complaints. It is a comprehensive review of the complaints and forceful defence of SIT’s actions. It appears that some of the complaints were non-existent or trivial, while others have been fixed. Penny has addressed the apparent conflict of interest between two managers having a relationship by stating that the hostel manager has always reported directly to Penny, rather than the person they are in a relationship with. The only thing that surprises me was that some of these issues could have been dealt with straight away by good media management, but instead there was a vacuum for weeks. Good on them for sorting it out now.
Trade Training Te Ureroa Flavell (Maori Party MP) has restarted the Maori refrain to reinstate Maori Trade Training, which surely must be the most-missed tertiary education programme ever.
New Languages An Auckland Uni academic advises that any growth in language learning, such as Mandarin, should be at secondary, not primary, school.
Local Elections A UCOL student, and son of a Hells Angels gang member, is standing for Wanganui District Council with Michael Laws’ support. And you thought your life was complicated!
Staff Losses Otago Uni has cut 9 jobs in printing and payroll departments, while another 20-odd seem to be at risk in academic departments. It’s unclear what new jobs are being created in the Uni – I’m sure there is growth elsewhere.
US to Massey The US Ambassador is going to Massey Uni today.
Tongan ArtMaster of Architecture scholar from The University of Auckland and Tongan multi-media artist, Sēmisi Fetokai Potauaine, has just returned from an art residency at Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
Ako Hui Ako Aotearoa’s Tuia Te Ako 2010 is running now, bringing together around three hundred people, who work for and with Māori tertiary learners, to discuss Māori advancement in tertiary education.
Suicide Massey Uni’s health service is covered in a coroner’s decisions yesterday that proposed greater detail in reporting on suicide.