Tertiary Update Vol 16 No 21 - OECD shows NZ’s lagging investment in public education

Tertiary Update is our weekly bulletin about news in the tertiary education sector from the perspective of people working in the sector. Is this email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. OECD shows NZ’s lagging investment in public education The OECD released its annual Education at a Glance indicators this week with a warning that countries around the world, and New Zealand specifically, are investing less public money on tertiary education institutions. [Read more…] Pay equity case goes to court This week marks a historic legal case for thousands of low-paid women workers as the case for pay equity plays out in the Employment Court. Kristine Bartlett, a Lower Hutt caregiver is going to court this week with the support of her union SFWU, alleging her pay is in breach of the Equal Pay Act 1972 [Read more…] Global higher education test hits trouble An OECD project to create a global test to measure student achievement in tertiary education is meant to publish its final report on a feasibility study this month. However, it seems the project  has met troubles along the way and its future development is uncertain. [Read more…] Lost tea breaks a health and safety risk TEU national secretary Sharn Riggs says that a proposed new law that removes employees’ guaranteed right to tea breaks is not just pernicious, it is dangerous and will result in workplace injuries and illness. [Read more…] Industry bargaining the solution to long working hours Long and unsafe working hours are a sign that the New Zealanders need to support industry level bargaining, according to CTU president Helen Kelly. New Zealand has no regulation of working hours, she notes. There is no regulation for maximum hours, for overtime, for predictability or for security of hours. [Read more…] Friend on Facebook Follow on Twitter Forward to a Friend Other news Students from poor backgrounds could have places reserved for them at the University of Auckland in a shake-up of admissions currently targeted according to ethnicity - New Zealand Herald The tertiary education minister has appointed six people to tertiary education councils; a business investor, a managing director, a PR expert, a former chief executive, a farmer and a lawyer, but no one who works in tertiary education - Steven Joyce Striking Rockgas workers in Auckland protested outside the office of National MP Jami-Lee Ross against his bill allowing the use of strike-breakers on Tuesday. The bill repeals part of the Employment Relations Act 2000, which prevents an employer using volunteers, contractors or other casual employees during a strike or lockout - Radio NZ In Australia, Curtin University's bid to shift some staff into new teaching-only positions is shaping as a key battleground with the union over how universities will go about segmenting their academic work forces - The Australian “What is not frequently mentioned in the praise of online courses is the completion rate. CS50x Introduction to Computer Science I, Harvard’s largest online course, had an enrollment of 150,349 students. Of those 150,349 students, only 1388 of them completed the course. That is a completion rate of 0.9 percent. If my courses had a completion rate of 0.9 percent, I would have been fired long ago” - The Globe and Mail  follow on Twitter | friend on Facebook | forward to a friend  This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 New Zealand License.  2013 Tertiary Education Union  You are receiving this email either because you are a financial member of TEU and we have added you to our mailing list, or because we have a record of you previously opting to add yourself to our mailing list. Our mailing address is: Tertiary Education Union PO Box 11 767 Wellington, Wellington 6142 New Zealand Add us to your address book  unsubscribe from this list | update subscription preferences