1. Flight School Buy Helipro has bought Bay Flight Aviation, a flight school that went into liquidation.
2. Fake Quals Immigrants are being caught out by NZQA for fake (overseas) quals.
3. Extras: Massey and Hawke’s Bay Region Council signed an MOU; chat with Otago Uni Burns Fellow Fiona Farrell.

Research & Innovation

1. Extras: two Otago Uni academics are publishing a book on early NZ photography while Graeme Downes is co-authoring a book on Dunedin sounds; new musical work by Otago Uni’s Prof John Drummond and an opera by Chris Adams.

Public Issues

1. Toi Moko Revival? Waikato’s Prof Pou Temara says that some Maori are thinking about reviving the practice of preserving heads.
2. Clean and Green Mike Joy of Massey had a Dom Post op-ed on our clean and green record.
3. Extras: CPIT’s open day has speakers on Christchurch’s recovery; Victoria’s Brandon Chen on food prices; Auckland’s Duncan Ledwith on validating markets.

Students

1. Fashion Comp Students from various providers are in the 2012 iD Emerging Designer Awards in Dunedin.
2. Extras: school students at Victoria summer school; Massey triathlete; state of student jobs market; Otago Uni anatomy museum visitors; goals of new Canterbury student president; Otago Poly design student.

Stakeholders

1. Extras: glass scholarships causing waves in Wanganui.

Teaching & Learning

1. Teach First Bernadine Vester writes an op-ed in support of Teach First, noting that a six week block course is followed by ongoing education and mentoring.
2. Arts Education Auckland’s Ralph Buck helped to draft a UNESCO arts education agenda.
3. Extras: Otago Uni performance coach.

Those coming to the site today will notice a design change. We’re still tweaking it so I’ll give a full description in January, but you should still be able to find everything J

Policy & Management

1. ERA Award St George Institute of Learning principal Kevin Moncur came in for strong criticism over an employment dispute where a staff member was awarded $10,500.
2. UCOL Building UCOL has an ambitious summer building programme, adding to its trades facility and upgrading weak buildings.
3. New Professors Otago Uni has promoted 14 staff to professor level.
4. SIT Praised The Southland Times has written an editorial praising SIT’s development over the last decade or so.
5. Extras: Bay of Plenty Poly farewelled its retiring kaumatua Tamati Tata; NZQA report on Otago Poly.

Research & Innovation

1. Medical Grants Auckland academics have picked up $1.8m from the Auckland Medical Research Foundation.
2. Childhood Memories Otago Uni’s Fiona Jack et al have done some research into young children’s memories (NZ Herald, NZN, Fairfax).

Public Issues

1. Comet Lovejoy Canterbury’s Alan Gilmore on Comet Lovejoy, in our skies this week.
2. Quakes Victoria and Canterbury academics on NZ’s quakes.
3. Rena Massey only has 15 penguins and one dotterel left in care and they’ll be taken to Palmie for Xmas (NZN).
4. Extras: Massey’s one-liners of the year; a large Pacific PTE wants to be a charter school; Victoria’s Robert Ayson on the SAS; Auckland’s Pauline Tapp on a man who may have two wives; AUT’s Simon Milne on tourism (specifically the impact of that horrible attack on the 5 year old girl); student volunteers getting to work in Nelson.

Students

1. Grad Teachers…at Otago Uni might have a tough time finding a job.
2. Proposal A Victoria student had a big proposal and accepted.
3. Extras: 1980s sociology reunion at Massey; NZ’s top makeup student from Aoraki; EIT’s student art exhibition sold $13k of art.

Stakeholders

1. Extras: Massey and Police connection; SIT sponsoring motor racing again.

Teaching & Learning

1. Extras: EIT’s new music teachers.

1. Agencies Differ Over Pilot School A Palmerston North flying school, Wings Flight Training Academy, seems at high risk of closure after the International Education Appeal Authority found that accommodation and settling in of students were not up to standards. The IEAA has recommended six months suspension for the provider, during which time no students could be enrolled. On the other hand, NZQA’s EER report in June had the following text (you decide who is right – NB NZQA has made a statement in the comments for this post):

   “Students are guided and supported well from the time they arrive in New Zealand to when they leave. They are met at the airport on arrival and introduced to New Zealand culture, which is very different to Indian culture. Most stay in the accommodation provided by WFTA which has separate houses for the male and female students, an arrangement the students’ parents expect and appreciate. As discussed earlier in this report, the chief flying instructor acts as a respected father figure which encourages parents to recommend WFTA to their children and helps students feel safe and secure, as they would at home.

   Students interviewed by the evaluation team commented that they were disciplined and counselled which showed that the academy was concerned for them and believed that they could succeed. They agreed that the accommodation provided, including the separation of the men and women and the bans on smoking and alcohol, were appropriate and helped them to stay focussed on their study and to make the most of their time at the academy.”

   The rating for learner guidance and support area was excellent for performance and self-assessment.

2. Grant’s Back Grant Robertson is back as Labour’s tertiary education spokesperson, while David Shearer keeps science and innovation. Recent Otago Uni hall of residence warden David Clark picks up associate tertiary.
3. Extras: Ag ITO’s AgExcel expands to quad bike tutors.

Research & Innovation

1. Fish Ears An Otago Uni PhD student is doing geochemical analysis of fish ear bones and it has a useful purpose.
2. Smoking Auckland’s Natalie Walker has been trialling some low nicotine cigarettes, which sound promising as part of a smoking cessation programme. This story also cites Otago/Auckland Uni research.
3. Canterbury Treasure A new book on Canterbury’s treasure is being launched in March, profiling the Library’s best holdings.
4. Extras: Otago Uni Maori research report; $100K donation to Otago Uni zebrafish facility.

Public Issues

1. Medication Labels Otago Uni’s David Reith wants medication packaging to focus on active ingredients rather than brands, to reduce the risk of over-medication.
2. Domestic Violence Retiring academic Ruth Busch (Waikato) says domestic violence is not dealt with well due to biases in the legal system.
3. Extras: Robert Patman on Kim Jong-il; Otago Uni’s Jim Mann on sedentary Kiwis (people); Otago Uni HIV figures cited; Victoria’s Dean Knight makes the news in Southland over knighthoods.

Students

1. Hitchhiking A UCOL student hitchhiked from Dannevirke to Palmie four days a week this year.
2. Extras: school maths teacher developing skills at Massey; Auckland law student at Durban climate change conference; Waiariki students raised $4K for a hospice.

Stakeholders

1. Queensland Trouble A jilted sculptor is trying to get Auckland’s Michael Parekowhai to withdraw from his sculpture competition win.
2. League Whitireia is linking up with a local league club.
3. Extras: Victoria mourns passing of Vaclav Havel; the wife of Prof Leon Phillips is spotting bears while he is on a fellowship in Colorado; Auckland-National Library collaboration on map records.

Teaching & Learning

1. Extras: Otago Poly trades academy ready to start in Central Otago in 2012;

The US Government Accountability Office has been doing a great job for many years in checking out educational rorts. Their latest report is titled For-Profit Schools – Experiences of Undercover Students Enrolled in Online Classes at Selected Colleges. Their students tried to enrol in 15 colleges using fake high school diplomas and got into 12 of them. The students then failed to attend classes, submitted plagiarised assignments and some were still passed for poor or incomplete work. There is some debate in the US about the report’s methodology and the severity of the problems uncovered. I don’t know (or care) enough to check out all the details, but you should be aware of the debate at least.

What I found most interesting was the potential for similar mystery shopper approaches to be used in New Zealand. Some ongoing work around visa and qualification fraud could have some quick returns, especially when combined with NZQA’s new investigative and enforcement powers. There might well be some problems in recruitment of the mystery shoppers in the international student market but it still seems worthwhile checking it out. I can’t see many other ways to find the information when students and providers are currently colluding over soft marking and dodgy qualifications (the NZ Herald covered the issue well last November).

It would also be great if we could generate thematic reports of the GAO’s rigour in NZ on quality assurance issues. NZQA’s focus on individual tertiary education organisations leaves a gap for systemic analysis of specific issues. ERO does do some good thematic reports but even they could learn a bit from the GAO. I first read some GAO reports around 1996 and it’s a pity that they haven’t been reviewed more widely in NZ.

So, what do you think? Are mystery shoppers a good approach to try in tertiary education quality assurance?

1. Quake Skateboard A Canterbury engineering student has designed a skateboard to deal with quake-created terrain.
2. Rena Grounding Over 1,000 birds have died and 130 have been rescued and are at the Massey-run rehab facility (they are contracted by Maritime NZ), included some birds collected proactively to avoid them getting in trouble (Manawatu Standard, 3 News, NZN). Massey’s Malcolm Wright on NZ’s branding and a student off to help on the ground. Waikato’s Willem de Lange offers some thoughts on the spread and impact of the oil slick and Chris Battershill on the oil dispersant used (media release about Waikato’s input). Chris Battershill has been doing so much he rang Canterbury’s Prof David Schiel to come up and help him (The Press). Bay of Plenty’s Poly’s Dean Tully on the long-term marine impacts, while a student and her peers are doing great with the Rena Kai Run to feed beach workers (including a FB page). Otago Uni’s Tom Brooking on other major environmental messes in New Zealand’s history, and a design student using ingenuity to pick up oil on the beach.
3. Tourism Dropped Otago Uni has dropped its tourism offering from a specialist degree to a major within the commerce degree, which is an interesting turnaround from the trend that grew in the 90s for degrees to have more specific names. A win for the traditionalists.
4. Compulsory English? It looks like NZQA might require PTEs to use an international test like IELTS to determine course entry, after many have offered dodgy assessments to boost course numbers (and subsequently award dubious qualifications).
5. Quake Stuff Waikato’s Gail Hutcheson is checking out why people moved from Christchurch to Hamilton; Canterbury’s Jarg Pettinga to give quake-related testimony, while other staff want longer training for structural engineers and better testing facilities.
6. Student Stuff OUSA president Logan Edgar easily won re-election (release), while ten top Uni teachers were named. Lincoln students had a big end of year Garden Party on Friday (The Press, which also covered the Canterbury Tea Party). An op-ed on VSM. The Waikato Times has a big article on the impact of VSM at Waikato and Wintec.
7. Child Witnesses Here’s a good overview of the work on child witnesses done by 5 AUT academics.
8. Cauliflower…cooking has got a Nelson and Napier students into the HSI national schools competition.
9. Dolphins Will Die…according to Otago Uni’s Liz Slooten after a change to fishing regulations.
10. What You Eat Otago Uni’s Winsome Parnell and AUT’s Elaine Rush on nutrition, and then Winsome Parnell and Massey’s Pam von Hurst on the importance of breakfast.
11. Protest More pics and video from the protest at Victoria, via the Workers Party (and more videos). The Dom Post wrote a story on the tensions between having a clear message and a broad church in this and other protests.
12. RWC Normally I only cover NZ tertiary education stuff, but this RWC marketing piece on The Conversation by Adam Karg at Deakin University is well worth a read (as is The Conversation as a whole, which is simply fabulous).
    More on robots vs Mehrtens and one of the robots predicting an Aussie win over NZ (Dom Post, APNZ). Nadege Stoffel of Waikato is supporting her native France (as am I until they meet the ABs). Wintec officemates from NZ and Oz were bantering over the game. Victoria’s Marc Wilson on singing the national anthem. Massey’s Steve Stannard on drinking before the game.
13. Short Bits Waikato: Kudos award for Anne Hume; underground maps; PR business case competition. Brazilian export education opportunities. UCOL: building shift for students; award-winning work by a grad. Otago Uni: Bob Lloyd on solar energy; lots of students in the Miss Otago pageant; Prof Robin Gauld on health quality improvement and with Prof John Highton on population-based funding; piece on the latest Nobel chemistry prize winner by Dr Blackman; Liz Franz on dexterity loss research; student debaters. Canterbury: digitised textbooks. Massey: Andy Asquith on Auckland politics; student photography exhibition; David Tripe on Rabobank’s credit rating. Auckland: Rhema Vaithianathan on bad managers. Victoria: Philip Morrison on home ownership; Prof Matt Visser on the empty universe. Otago Poly: distance student wins ceramic award. Labour’s Grant Robertson on the Refugee Study Grant. AUT’s Emma Beatson analysing a dead whale. Wintec: success for SODA.