Tertiary Update Vol 16 No 29 - PBRF review must start with open mind

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. PBRF review must start with open mind The government released a consultation document this week, reviewing the Performance-Based Research Fund (PBRF), complete with recommendations that it says will save time and reduce compliance costs for researchers and institutions. [Read more...] 30 Whitireia staff get permanent jobs Whitireia Polytechnic has resolved what could have been a casual staffing debacle by providing permanent jobs to thirty fixed-term staff. Local TEU member George Tongariro said confirming the thirty staff into permanent jobs gives people real confidence in their work and continued job security. [Read more...] Caregiver wins ground-breaking equal pay case Kristine Bartlett, who took on the rest home where she is employed, alleging she is underpaid because she is in a female-dominated industry, and won has struck blow against low pay for women. [Read more...] Govt plan to wrest control of university councils days away With the government likely to announce in the next few days that it will change the law to take control of local university councils, TEU is calling for vice-chancellors to intercede. [Read more...] Big increase to caretakers' pay scale Caretakers at Victoria University of Wellington are celebrating a new collective agreement that gives them an extra week of parental leave and a guarantee the university will not implement a 90 day 'fire at will' provision. [Read more...] Bitter-sweet change at UC College of Arts The council at the University of Canterbury endorsed a 'sustainable financial position' proposal for the university's College of Arts last night. The proposal aims to create an overall staff: student ratio of 1:24, but with different ratios within individual departments. [Read more...] 5000 workers protest the government's proposed employment laws in Manukau Friend on Facebook Follow on Twitter Forward to a Friend Other news The Council of Trade Unions Secretary, Peter Conway says that there are many issues to consider in the proposal for flexible superannuation. "While it offers more choice, the huge concern is that for low income workers the pressure to get some additional income will mean they opt for the lower rate even if it is not the best option for them in the long run"- CTU Tertiary Education Union vice-president Sandra Grey says becoming too reliant on overseas students as a source of income places our institutions in jeopardy. "It's great having international students here; it provides a great diversity on our campuses. But they should be seen as being really important for that factor, not to prop up the system economically." -Newstalk ZB The University of Liberia. Number of applicants this year: nearly 25,000. Number gaining admission: zero. The "epic fail" of every single candidate in the admission exam provoked bafflement, consternation and heated debate on Tuesday, with some convinced that flaws in Liberia's education system had been brutally exposed - The Guardian President Obama appears to be making good on his vow to propose a "shake-up" for higher education - Inside Higher Ed  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