Open Letter to the TEC

Students and Staff put the Spotlight on the Tertiary Education Commission

To Tim Fowler, Chief Executive Officer, Tertiary Education Commission, Jan Tinetti, Minister of Education and the future Minister of Education, 

The 1 July 2023 Cabinet paper on risks to higher education capability due to proposed university cuts entirely downplays the severity of the tertiary education crisis. The dissonance between the Tertiary Education Commission ​​(TEC) and the concerns of staff and students nationwide has never been so palpable.

It is crucial to question whether the Tertiary Education Commission has provided reliable advice to the Minister of Education. How can we have confidence in the TEC to provide independent, high-quality advice on a problem when it has played a direct role in creating that problem? While the TEC did not establish the funding model they have been responsible for its oversight. They have watched and even encouraged the tertiary sector towards staff cuts as the natural solution. Their analysis dismissing significant risks from staff cuts, and refusal to defer university funding clawbacks from financially struggling universities, affirms this stance. 

It is even more crucial to call into question the role and purpose of the TEC. A body that merely focuses on the financing of education divorced from the purpose and goals of education reduces it into a technical exercise of balancing the books. The TEC  appears to exist to manage a failing funding model, without advocating for improvements nor a genuine commitment to supporting education as a public good. If the latter were the case, the TEC would engage with us in its proposals to the Minister of Education, and it would actively participate in the broader mission of tertiary education rather than wield ‘punish and reward’ style incentives to providers in the name of ‘learner-centrism.’ 

Tim Fowler, CEO of TEC said “As to whose side am I on? I’m on the side of a vibrant and sustainable university sector that has the interests of learners at its centre,”  in an article in Student Magazine Critic. But we disagree. This funding model is one that has consumers and consumer choice at the centre rather than students’ rights. We want our rights as students back, which surely includes a right to quality education that is not being culled left and right by staff cuts. If the TEC were to genuinely support students, it would not underfund universities whilst asking them to do more, such as undertaking holistic pastoral care for students and generating higher student completion rates. 

The TEC are unelected, high-ranking officials with immense power to advance austerity, competition, and staff cuts. Sure, this is the status quo which they administer - but preservation of the state of affairs is still an agenda. Moreover, it is an agenda that has no democratic public mandate, in light of how the Ministers of Education and Finance acknowledged the current funding model is unsustainable and needs a Higher Education Funding Review. 

Why has the Minister of Education not given the TEC a clear directive to cease relentless clawbacks to tertiary funding, to treat a tertiary crisis as such, to no longer allow this broken funding system to cause harm to students, staff and institutions? The delay in defining the Review’s scope to December 2023 and allowing this funding system to eat away at our institutes of higher learning until the review is completed, does not safeguard the future of tertiary education. 

We call upon the Tertiary Education Commission, political parties, the current and future Minister of Education to:

1. Commit to comprehensively review the TEC’s purpose and functions in the Higher Education Funding Review.

2. Commit to ensure the Higher Education Funding Review is led by a mixed group of independent experts, university staff, and students, as we cannot trust government officials and the Tertiary Education Commission to investigate themselves.

3. Establish accountability mechanisms to university staff and students for future TEC proposals related to staff redundancies. 

4. In acknowledgment of a tertiary education crisis, return the $51.8 million clawback to financially struggling universities and halt clawbacks until the Review’s completion.

New Zealand Union of Students Associations (NZUSA), 

Victoria University of Wellington Students’ Association (VUWSA), 

Otago University Students’ Association (OUSA),

Te Tira Ahu Pae (Massey University Students’ Association)

Dougal McNeill Tertiary Education Union -  Victoria University of Wellington Branch President

Tertiary Education Union - Otago University Branch

*ENDS*

Media contacts:

• Jessica Ye, VUWSA President  0279267748 // president@vuwsa.org.nz

• Ellen Dixon, NZUSA President 0220784998 // president@students.org.nz

• Quintin Jane, OUSA President 0297793707 // president@ousa.org.nz

• Andrew Steele, Te Tira Ahu Pae President 0221960776 // president@tetiraahupae.ac.nz

• Dougal McNeill, TEU-VUW Branch President 0223128018 // dougal.mcneill@vuw.ac.nz

Debt-Free Futures Open Letter

DEBT FREE FUTURE OPEN LETTER TO MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT

To the Members of Parliament of Aotearoa New Zealand,
We, the elected representatives of students are asking you, the elected representatives of the people of Aotearoa New Zealand, to work together to create a Debt Free Future for all tertiary learners.

Our vision is for an Aotearoa New Zealand free of debt accrued by our tertiary students; where everyone has access to free tertiary education; where we resource all students to eliminate poverty within the community; and where we have eliminated the more than $16.3bn of debt accrued by students.

Our country has a rich history of free tertiary education, for 121 years until it was taken from us in 1990. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern stated that “education is the greatest enabler in society”, and after lobbying from students and supporters across the motu, in 2017 we secured a promise of 3 years Fees Free; but in 2020 the Government broke its promise to extend the policy and took this opportunity, this right, from learners.

OUR ASK.

We want a free and accessible education system from end to end.

We accept that sustainable change can be incremental, and therefore ask that the following steps towards a Debt Free Future are immediately taken:

Implementation of the rest of the 3 years Fees Free. We would like to see this as an efts-based system to account for part time learners and those on limited full time study pathways.

Implement free Taught Postgraduate Degrees. Lincoln University instigated this initiative in 2020 and saw a significant increase in enrolments. We need to enable our workforce to be lifelong learners and supported to take opportunities to upskill and be flexible in the labour market. This would be a first step towards an end-to-end fees free tertiary education system.

Increase to the income repayment threshold. We need to let our learners keep more of their incomes before having to pay back their loans. This repayment is an additional 12% tax on any income above $20,000 per anum or if you earn over $385 per week. This holds back students from saving for their next semester of study. This holds back students from saving from a home deposit. This is a handbrake on our economy.

Implement the recommendations of the People’s Inquiry into Student Wellbeing, particularly a Universal Education Income. Students’ access to financial support should not depend on their parental income level, or how well that is hidden, or an age that the state determines they are no longer supported by their parents. Allowances should be universal and apply regardless of age or level of study.

WHY A DEBT FREE FUTURE?

Our situation

We believe that equal access to education is a public right. Māori and Pasifika learners take longer than Pākehā learners to pay off their loans. We expect that every person who wants to access tertiary education must be afforded this opportunity free from financial limitations.

Aotearoa New Zealand is entrapped in a cost-of-living crisis. We know that these crises affect our lowest income earners the most, and students certainly fit into this group. Students are also almost entirely dependent on the state for their incomes. The state therefore has a responsibility to ensure our students are afforded the support to live and study rather than spend their time looking for work to afford their rent.

The $16.3 billion of debt accrued by learners is a handbrake on our country’s economic future and this has only existed since 1990. At 30,000 debt per learner, repayment is charged at an extra tax 12% rate that our learners are burdened with despite education being regarded as an important investment in society and a necessary tool for securing our future.

Being a world leader?

Internationally there has been a move to acknowledging the importance of free education. Germany, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and France have free, or nominal fees for students studying across the education levels. The USA debt forgiveness programme of $10,000 has been rolled out to debtors who earn less than $125,000 (ish) per year. This was to take off immediate financial burdens reflecting the cost-of living crisis in the USA.

Kind regards and ngā mihi nui,

Debt Free Future Aotearoa

Contact:

Sam Blackmore, vp@students.org.nz

Ralph Zambrano, president@vuwsa.org.nz

List of signatories (alphabetical):

• Albany Students’ Association

• Auckland University of Technology Students’ Association

• Auckland University Students’ Association

• Disabled Students’ Association, Victoria University of Wellington

• Lincoln University Students’ Association

• Ngā Rangahautira, Māori Law Students’ Association, Victoria University of Wellington

• Ngāi Tauira, Te Herenga Waka, Victoria University of Wellington, Maōri Students’

Association

• National Disabled Students’ Association

• Massey at Wellington Students’ Association

• Massey University Students’ Association

• Massey University Pasifika Students’ Association

• New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations

• Otago University Students’ Association

• Pasifika Students’ Council, Victoria University of Wellington

• Postgraduate Students’ Association of Victoria University of Wellington

• Student Association of Nelson-Marlborough Institute of Technology Incorporated

• Student Association of WINTEC

• STUDiO, Victoria University of Wellington

• University of Canterbury Students’ Association

• Tauira Pasifika

• Te Mana Ākonga

• Thursdays in Black Aotearoa

• UniQ Victoria

• Victoria University of Wellington Students’ Association

• Victoria University of Wellington Asian Law Students’ Association

• Victoria University of Wellington International Students’ Association

• Younited Students’ Association

Open Letter Regarding Universal Access to Lecture Recordings

To the Acting Vice-Chancellor Jennifer Windsor, Vice-Provost Academic Stuart Brock and the Provost Wendy Larner of Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington.

We are writing to call on you to guarantee universal access to lecture recordings for 2023 and beyond – all lectures should be recorded, available online for the entire course, to all its students. Our petition that has over 2000 signatories demonstrates a mandate for this.

VUWSA - Te Aka Tauira, the Students’ Assembly and Student Academic Committee advocate for and represent the 22,000 students studying at Te Herenga Waka - Victoria University of Wellington.

During the last two and half years, the University has emphasised universal access to lecture recordings as a part of the dual delivery mandate. However, some faculties, schools and courses have moved towards diminished lecture recording access. Hardship thresholds to access recordings are loaded with stigma, so students often choose not to disclose their struggles. Recordings being available for a limited time or with a delayed upload unfairly punish students who cannot attend live lectures, and are inconsistent with course structures that have week 12 assessments which require revision of all content.

Our asks

1. A policy commitment from Tri 1 2023 onwards: Universal access to lecture recordings - that all lectures are recorded and made available for the whole length of a course. The University must also make other necessary policy changes to accommodate this.

2. An initiative to seriously invest in resource and support for staff to develop high-quality online and blended learning to engage all students and ensure student success.

3. A requirement that courses build-in direct links to studyhub resources that support students’ online learning and study skills.

4. An urgent meeting with the Acting Vice-Chancellor, Provost and Vice Provost Academic to discuss all of the above.

READ THE FULL OPEN LETTER HERE.