Tertiary Update Vol 16 No 28 - UC’s Biological Science School gets critical

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. UC's Biological Sciences School gets critical The School of Biological Sciences at the University of Canterbury has adopted a policy that promotes and affirms its duty to be a critic and conscience for society. The policy, which also aims to preserve and enhance academic freedom, actively encourages staff to engage with the community, other scholars and government to present, where necessary, unpopular views. [Read more…] 1500 rally against employment changes Fifteen hundred Wellington workers rallied in Petone this week to oppose the government's proposed employment law changes, which threaten to cut the pay of New Zealand workers and remove basic rights at work. The Dominion Post called the workers 'blue collar' and many were, but nestled in among the cleaners, truckies and factory workers were 'ink-stained' TEU members like national president Lesley Francey and others from local branches. [Read more…] High jump and higher education - the fallacy of continuous improvement The government believes we will continue improving, higher and higher targets, more and more students completing and passing our courses. Eventually we will have even more students passing than we have enrolled! [Read more…] Bill to arrest student debtors at the border A government bill to catch student loan defaulters at the borders entered Parliament this week. The bill gives the Inland Revenue Department new powers to deal with a small number of ex-students who persistently refuse to repay their loans. Those powers will include the ability to issue an arrest warrant at the border, for the most serious cases. [Read more…] Why should academics care about living in a surveillance society? The new GCSB powers are a threat to academic freedom says TEU's industrial and professional vice-president Sandra Grey. Sandra Grey says the new law will have a "chilling effect" on academics wanting to speak out on controversial issues, and tells the story of a fellow PhD student who had all her research material from both her home and office by seized by Australian security forces. [Read Sandra Grey's full commentary here...] GCSB powers pose no threat to academic freedom Steven Joyce this week denied that the government's new spy powers would mean any threat to academic freedom. When TEU member Paki Taunuhia called, Steven Joyce responded, saying "Hi Paki, I'd been expecting you to call once you had finished your grocery shopping," before he noted that the new Government was unlikely to use the new GCSB powers to spy on academics. [Read more…]   Friend on Facebook Follow on Twitter Forward to a Friend Other news Purchase your Academic Freedom tee shirt for World Academic Freedom Day - TEU International scholarly groups are protesting the recent convictions of six Turkish scientists on terrorism-related charges after trials that were widely condemned as unjust. The convictions of the six academics, including Kemal Gürüz, a chemical engineer and the former president of the country's Council of Higher Education, come at a time of increasing concern regarding the state of academic freedom and independence in Turkey - Inside Higher Ed Australian NTEU members at 10 universities took industrial action over enterprise bargaining negotiations which have stalled since the latest $2.3 million cuts in April, with university managements using the cuts as justification for knocking back claims for improved wages and conditions - NTEU The business-networking behemoth LinkedIn said on Monday morning that it was making a play in global college admissions, unveiling LinkedIn University Pages and welcoming school students as young as 14 as members - The Chronicle of Higher Education Pasifika education leaders were united last weekend in condemning Government economic and educational policy when they spoke at a big Pasifika Education conference in Auckland. The three keynote speakers called for a more inclusive economic policy, more money and resources for Pasifika education and the promotion of Pasifika influence within the education sector - NZEI  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