1. Fees up Lincoln’s fees are up 4% but the story also has some enrolment stats which show that it’s down, but nowhere near as much as Canterbury (media release, NewstalkZB). Here’s also an AUSA media release on fees and the Auckland protestors’ demands.
2. Quake Stuff Canterbury’s Prof Jarg Pettinga spoke yesterday at the Royal Commission on faults, including the need for a new tool to find hidden faults (RNZ, TVNZ with the video, NZ Herald). Canterbury’s George Parker has an op-ed on bringing the circus to town. New Canterbury scholarships and management students are helping out in the community.
3. Hall of Fame Massey’s design hall of fame has four new inductees, including the design school’s founder (from the 1880s) Arthur Riley.
4. Cannibalism There are allegations of cannibals in the Pacific and Canterbury’s Ruth McManus comments on our fascination with the topic.
5. Bishop in Trouble? Otago Uni’s Greg Dawes reckons that Dunedin’s Catholic bishop might be in trouble for criticising the Pope, but a priest thinks it’ll all be sweet.
6. Rena A volunteer’s experience of the Massey bird facility, while others have knitted penguin PJs (I kid you not – there’s a photo). Steve Maharey and John Key check out the penguins. Nice review of the constructive work by BOPP people.
7. Second Careers University features in the second careers of many of these people.
8. Baby Fish Jeffrey Shima, of Victoria, is checking out how baby fish breed in Wellington Harbour (it’s a good spot for them).
9. VSM Massey student newspaper may fold due to VSM, according to this stupid story. Since student media is in the list of approved uses of the student services levy and since Massey has collected enough money to cover all current students’ assn fees, I can’t see any scenario where Chaff will fold.
10. Top Website Victoria’s Deaf Studies Research Unit received an Australia-NZ Internet award (Idealog). The actual site is a bit dull, but I assume the award was for the online dictionary of NZ Sign Language.
11. Confucius Victoria’s Prof David Lamond presented research in Beijing on how Confucian thinking affects Chinese business ethics.
12. Science Comms Aimee over at SciBlogs has a nice review of a Victoria initiative for science communications – like speaking with your friends.
13. RWC The link between heart troubles and watching rugby is being explored by CPIT’s Peter Olsen.
14. Short Bits Waikato: Paraguayan grad gets right job; expats getting back into Kiwi life; Warren Deane farewelled. Otago Uni: measles has been contained for the moment; ride-share scheme dumped; more on freezing soft toys; Prof Tony Kettle on enzymes; postgrad’s pho bo recipe; Prof Barry Taylor on overweight people. Auckland: meningococcal vaccine research. TWOA: whakairo tutor has great experience in Peru. Massey: smart young scientist helped by Massey academics: Marsden funding for English project. Canterbury: homework programme going well. UCOL: Anne Tolley visiting. ATTTO: went pink for the Pink Ribbon Appeal day on Friday; developed an online tool for prospective pilots.

1. Export Ed to Double? Steven Joyce released an international education leadership statement yesterday, focusing on doubling income over 15 years (TV3, NewstalkZB, NBR). ENZ welcomed the statement. Inflation should help, because the $5b target doesn’t seem to be inflation adjusted – 2% inflation would get the government a third of the way.
2. Dodgy Surveillance Law Vic’s Dean Knight is cited here opposing the government’s proposed retrospective law, while this story cites him, Otago Uni’s Andrew Geddis and Canterbury’s Philip Joseph all opposing the law. Good on them.
3. Snapper Food Prof David Raubenheimer, who we have previously met in the Himalayas on a horse, is now checking out the diet of snapper and there’s even a video (but no horse this time).
4. Animal Health There’s a dog cancer treatment trial being run by Massey’s Jonathan Bray and Otago Poly is running a pet weight loss programme.
5. Fires Palmie authorities are said to “condemn fire-crazy mob” although few would welcome such a thing. Anyway, looks like students may have been involved, but an editorial says students shouldn’t just be blamed.
6. ITO Completions A very rare story on ITO completions covers the Agriculture ITO’s work and associated issues.
7. Skills Shortage? Competenz reckons that a skills shortage is looming and that firms need to train.
8. Quieter Classes Natasha Perkins of Victoria is researching how to make primary school classrooms quieter (Dom Post).
9. Iwi Creativity A Massey competition to encourage Maori students to explore their iwi connections has turned up some good art. I like Taupuru Brightwell’s take on Wellington Zoo.
10. WorldSkills Brad Wood, a Competenz apprentice, getting ready for WorldSKills.
11. Tech Start-up Massey’s Steve Corbett reckons it’s the right time for technology start-ups (NewstalkZB).
12. Wood Some visiting experts in building with wood like NMIT’s new building.
13. RWC Victoria’s Marc Wilson and AUT’s Nigel Hemmington on trans-Tasman rivalry.
14. Short Bits Waikato: Stuart Locke’s research on women and board performance (Waikato Times, 3 News); Alan Sampson on youth voters; Kay Weaver’s inaugural lecture. Massey: identifying fish species; an ex Massey lecturer has written a memoir about his time in the WWII German army on the Eastern Front; Rachael Rakena’s Dunedin artwork; . Victoria: Tony Schirato makes some odd claims about sport; Kate Stone on youth and MMP. EIT: rugby player putting study first; ta moko wananga. Waikato and Wintec students winning in a problem gambling reduction competition. Otago Uni: Jim Mann on fighting obesity; academics on surge in dementia. Canterbury: grad survey; award for Prof Tanja Mitrovic; award for alumna. FITEC training awards. AUT: public lecture series on health; Greg Treadwell cited on pilot prank. RNZ reports on tertiary fees. Auckland: Maori research forum.

In New Zealand, only Government Ministers and enthusiastic backbenchers ever really use the official title of the Budget which, for the record, was “Building Our Future” this year.  For opposition politicians and media commentators, there is a desperate annual race to come up with an alternative and usually negative label which really sticks.

In reality, this rarely happens, with the obvious exceptions of the Black Budget, the Mother of All Budgets and, to a lesser extent, the Chewing Gum Budget.  In 2011, words like responsible, careful, sensible and sustainable were used by supporters while terms like cuts, slash and visionless were trotted out by critics.

In terms of tertiary education, ITI believes the Budget was generally positive, particularly given the tight economic conditions which led many in the sector to reasonably expect a zero Budget this year.  Sensible and sustainable are fair descriptors in this context.

From ITI’s perspective, we particularly welcomed the following Budget announcements:

• 750 additional places in PTEs – this was a hugely positive announcement demonstrating the Government’s growing confidence in high-performing private providers.
• 2% increase in funding for degree and post-graduate qualifications – the decision to target the funding increase to degree courses and higher will not suit all providers but it does reflect the Government’s strategic commitment to higher level qualifications.
• Allowing up to 4% increases in fees – the Government continues to slowly loosen – but not release – the restraints on student fees.  Providers will have to think carefully about their fee levels but this decision gives them much-needed flexibility and breathing room.
• $10m extra for the new Education NZ – Although this Crown Entity has not yet been formally established, it already has sizable challenges ahead.  This funding boost will help it get off to a flying start.
• Youth Guarantee expanded to 7,500 – As widely predicted, Youth Training and Youth Guarantee are being merged and expanded.  ITI is supportive of the policy direction and believes PTEs have a strong role to play for young people who are not succeeding at school.  However, there are tensions in this area, particularly for small providers, and at least one very large provider is known to be unhappy with the proposed changes.

Our major concern was the decision to align the post-graduate funding rates for the entire sector excluding only PTEs.  As a result, there will be a 9.5% differential.  ITI asked the Minister for Tertiary Education, Hon Steven Joyce, about this at his candid post-Budget Briefing.

The Minister said there were still issues around the overall funding differential between public and private providers and his officials were working through those.  He wanted that bundle of issues resolved before considering aligning the post-graduate funding rates.  He felt the PTE sector would benefit more from additional places this year instead.  We look forward to working with the Minister and his officials on this issue.

For Budget 2010, we got a credible 6 out of ten predictions correct, 1 partially correct and 3 wrong (including one where we were actually delighted to be incorrect).  For Budget 2011, the final scorecard was four correct, two partially correct and one wrong (though we hope it will happen very shortly outside the Budget process).

Here is how our predictions fared this year:

• A modest but welcome increase in Government SAC funding for the PTE sector – Correct.  The announcement was even better than we expected and included an additional 750 PTE places.
• Expansion of the Youth Guarantee scheme – Correct.  The scheme is being expanded to cover 7,500 young people.
• Confirmation that PTEs will be able to offer level 1 and level 2 courses. – Partially correct.  This was not announced in the Budget but we expect it to be finalised shortly.
• Some level of restriction on the ability of older students to access allowances and/or loans. – Correct.  People over-55 years of age will have restricted access to loans.
• Additional support for providers affected by the Christchurch earthquake. – Partially correct.  There was a broader package of recovery measures in the Budget and a trades training boost for Canterbury.
• A small funding boost for the new Education NZ Crown Entity. – Correct.  This was also higher than we expected.
• A fix for the GST issue with travel payments for a number of trainees. – Incorrect.  This issue remains on-going even though the fiscal costs are small.

In the circumstances, we believe the PTE sector should be quietly pleased with the announcements in Budget 2011.

ITI is a recognised peak body representing a diverse range of high-quality private providers around New Zealand.

1. Intl Students Up Steven Joyce announced a 5% rise in international students yesterday (some comments from the public here) plus ten doctoral scholarships for international students.
2. Intl Students Downer While it’s nice to have most international students, the three that are alleged to have blackmailed brothel owners and/or demanded protection money aren’t so welcome.
3. VSM Bill Proceeds The VSM Bill passed its second reading last night, with a 64 to 54 vote. The committee stage and third reading won’t be until next year now, but it looks 99% likely to be passed now. I wouldn’t expect significant amendments to the Bill before it passes.
4. Ag Grads I don’t usually cover graduations, but this story about an Agriculture ITO graduation has some interesting comments on the value of, and trends in, industry training.
5. Thinking Sustainability A psychology academic from Auckland Uni argues that the way we think has a big impact on whether we become sustainable.
6. Bible Suit A CPIT student won third in the best dressed man competition at the Addington races with a holy suit – you have to read the story.
7. Maths/Science Medals A new medal for excellence in mathematics was last night awarded to Professor John Butcher from Auckland University. The 2010 Rutherford Medal has been awarded to internationally renowned University of Otago molecular biologist Prof Warren Tate – Wayne Mapp announced it, along with Rutherford Discovery Fellowships.
8. Dunedin Neurosurgery…will stay in place, according to the Ministry of Health, with a new focus on academic work with the University of Otago. The university will appoint and support a Professor of Neurosurgery and a Senior Lecturer in Neurosurgery to be based in Dunedin. The ODT and Southland Times both ran happy stories, given they put their full support behind the campaign to keep the surgeons. Also covered by TV3 and TV3 again.
9. Drilling The Extractives ITO is pushing the success of its drilling quals.
10. UK Protest There was a big protest in London this morning at potential high tuition fee rises.
11. Short Bits Canterbury Uni is implementing a self-service HR system. Birth defects not due to dioxin (Massey). The New Zealand Virtual School Trades Academy is getting going (Telford). An interesting theatre production on ecology by a Massey student. Jade exhibition at Tai Poutini Poly. A TWOA exhibition in Otago. Michael Parmenter, adjunct professor at Unitec, is an Arts Foundation laureate.