Formation Continue du Supérieur

By Paul Kniest (NTEU National Office). The NTEU conducted its first State of the Uni survey in April and May of this year.  The survey  covered all staff working at Australian universities and was completed by almost 7,000 respondents from across the sector.  The composition of the respondents was: 56% academic; 50% female; 70% having ongoing or permanent employment, and importantly; 41% not being union members. More...

By Paul Clifton (NTEU National Office). This article has arisen out of a growing concern for staff in the modern university. Despite loads of papers criticising the change, universities are now in the control of a managerial class, as predicted by Lyotard (1979). In fact Ryan (2012, p.4) goes so far as to say we are experiencing (or suffering?) a ‘fifth wave’ of managerialism which is clearly here to stay. So, the war is over! Or is it. More...

By Paul Clifton (NTEU National Office). Against a backdrop of the Abbott Government planning widespread changes to the way Australian higher education is funded, the NTEU has been screening Ivory Tower around the country – a film exploring the changes in America’s university system that have led to a more marketised model of education. More...

By Paul Clifton (NTEU National Office). This diagram appears in the July 2015 edition of Advocate. More...

By Paul Clifton (NTEU National Office). An NTEU survey of staff working at Australian universities shows that while staff worked long hours and were worried about employment security, they were generally satisfied with their jobs even though they had little confidence in their senior management or in the government’s higher education policies. More...

By Paul Clifton (NTEU National Office). The NTEU's 2014-2015 financial year tax guide, specially prepared for our members by Teacher Tax, is now available.
NTEU Tax Guide 2015. More...

By Paul Kniest (NTEU National Office). An Issues Paper released by Bruce McKenzie and Neil Coulson last week, as part of the Victorian VET Funding Review, confirms that the introduction of a demand driven fully contestable market for the provision of vocational education and training (VET) in Victoria has failed students, industry, public TAFE institutes and the Victorian community. More...

By Paul Kniest (NTEU National Office). While donations by external benefactors to our universities receive much deserving positive publicity, the in-kind donations of uncompensated overtime provided by university staff goes virtually unreported. The results of an NTEU survey in relation to university workloads shows staff donate in order of $1.7billion to Australian higher education each year in the form of 27 million hours of uncompensated labour.
State of the Uni Survey 2015: Workloads. More...

By Paul Kniest (NTEU National Office). The centrepiece of this year’s Budget was a $5.5 billion jobs and small business package which included tax cuts, instant depreciation for assets worth less than $20,000 for small business, as well as making it easier for employers to take on job seekers by simplifying work experience arrangements and introducing greater flexibility into wage subsidy payment arrangements. More...

By Paul Kniest (NTEU National Office). In a fascinating article entitled “Wisconsin controversy: with fewer tenured positions, who benefits from academic freedom?“published inThe Conversation on Thursday June 26 2015, Cathy Sandeen, Chancellor at University of Wisconsin Colleges and the University of Wisconsin-Extension provides a succinct summary of the dangers we face by going down Christopher Pyne’s path of Americanising our universities. More...