Chancellor, Russ Ballard - very nearly the last word

The graduates turned up armed with amazing stories and lively groups of family and friends. The room was full of celebratory balloons and fancy table decorations so we took to the celebrations with gusto. The guest speaker, Dr Richard Shaw, described his Dirty Harry [...]]]>  

Chancellor, Russ Ballard - very nearly the last word

The graduates turned up armed with amazing stories and lively groups of family and friends. The room was full of celebratory balloons and fancy table decorations so we took to the celebrations with gusto. The guest speaker, Dr Richard Shaw, described his Dirty Harry student ranking system: the good, the bad, and the ugly. It was a memorable night filled with “after years of skype talk, this is first time we have met face to face” types of stories.

We heard about others’ journeys, from Southern Belles to Invercargillians, and how distance study had made such a difference in so many lives. It was in the graduates’ stories that we found the commonalities that ring true with us all: it is important to strive, it is meaningful to succeed, it is important to always be learning, whatever form that may take.

I would like to say a huge thank you to Therese who organised our event, and to the graduates who attended and charmed us with their tales of hardship and eventual success, and to Richard our guest speaker, and finally,to the Chancellor, Russ Ballard, who had, very nearly, the last word.

EXMSS will release an article about the EXMSS Graduation Dinner soon so keep a look out and look forward to when you can sit down among friends, family and peers and be recognised for all the hard work you have done.

The $15 subscription for full members and [...]]]> The members of EXMSS have agreed that the changes proposed in our SGM should go ahead. As well as being able to introduce a subscription fee of $15 for membership there will be a re-balancing of the executive roles so that the workload is spread and risks reduced.

The $15 subscription for full members and $10 sub for associate members will be introduced alongside an optional StudentCard. The StudentCard, normally $20 can be added to membership for $15, making the membership plus student card $30. We see this as excellent value with EXMSS providing advocacy, information, representation, scholarships, and discount travel and the StudentCard providing discounts all over NZ for anything from movies to pizza.

The problem is Massey University has not yet agreed to collect the subscriptions on our behalf. The Education Act requires them to do so if we request it, but also states that they may recover costs. With our subs being so low any fee may make the administration costs an unpleasant tax on students. EXMSS does not want students to waste their money paying for admin services.

We have been pushing to have this conversation with Massey since the beginning of the year but have struggled to reach a conclusion. I have been told by the Massey IT services that we have until the end of June to decide how subs will work. Until then EXMSS is not willing to start charging subs or release the StudentCard at a discount rate.

EXMSS will restructure its executive and make the StudentCard available at $20 for any student while it waits for Massey to make this key decision: a decision which the future shape of EXMSS depends on.

Following these changes some practical issues need to be resolved. We will arrange for membership subscriptions to be payable [...]]]> Through our SGM we have recieved support for several important changes: introducing a subscription for membership, opening associate membership to  the public, changing the structure of our executive to relflect the new and reduced size of EXMSS.

Following these changes some practical issues need to be resolved. We will arrange for membership subscriptions to be payable through our website, we will make the Student Card a benefit of membership, and we will organise for Massey to collect subs on our behalf through the enrolment process. Additionally EXMSS continues to work with other Massey student associations to develop a partnership in all-student service delivery.

EXMSS wishes to remain involved in delivering services to all students but would like to have that part of its business (which is funded through a service agreement with the University) to be financially separated from its society business. That way the mission of the Society, to advocate for distance, part time, and adult students, is not clouded by a service delivery operation aimed at all Massey students.

So discussions continue with Massey about subscription collection, and with Massey SA’s about shared delivery of services, and I continue to stress that these things must now progress quickly if we are to be ready for 2013. You can be assured that EXMSS continues on the path set out prior to the changes in membership rules but there are several parties involved and we must all reach agreement on subscription issues before we can move forward.

Too much study to cope with?

The Government is consulting with students and tertiary institutions about placing a limit on the amount students can borrow in any one year. The National Party has a manifesto commitment to consult on and institute a limit on funding EFTS units per year. Using Equivalent Full Time [...]]]>  

Too much study to cope with?

The Government is consulting with students and tertiary institutions about placing a limit on the amount students can borrow in any one year. The National Party has a manifesto commitment to consult on and institute a limit on funding EFTS units per year. Using Equivalent Full Time (EFTS) removes the problem of differing costs for differing courses.

What they are proposing is that a maximum of 2.0 EFTS worth of funding can be drawn from a student loan in any one year.

Their concern is students borrowing for a large amount of study and changing their minds multiple times about what they will study. It therefore also appears that they may seek to limit the number of times a student can change their mind about a course of study in a year.

The Ministry document does not mention a relationship with student failure but suggests that this limit would prevent taxpayer money being wasted on large student loans that provide no benefit to the borrower.

Feedback is through online survey and closes on the 3^rd of May. The key point to address is the proposal that a maximum of 2.0 EFTS worth of funding can be drawn from a student loan in any one year.

I encourage students to have their say.

It was fantastic to see distance students graduating in Auckland this week. Seeing their nervously ecstatic faces cross the stage encourages me to keep focused on my own study. Takapuna City is a great place to parade and celebrate. The shops and [...]]]>

Students parade down the main street of Takapuna ahead of their graduation ceremony

It was fantastic to see distance students graduating in Auckland this week. Seeing their nervously ecstatic faces cross the stage encourages me to keep focused on my own study. Takapuna City is a great place to parade and celebrate. The shops and restaurants filled with graduates and their families creates a real buzz on the main street which is lined with spectators as we parade past.

EXMSS will be supporting the Palmerston North graduations too. I will be one of the lucky ones on stage watching each student get capped but EXMSS also has an evening celebration that marks graduations for distance students in a very special way.

The EXMSS Graduation Dinner will be on the 17th of May, tickets cost $45  and that provides a complimentary glass of bubbles and a three course meal. But the highlights of the evening are often said to be the guest speaker (this year it is Richard Shaw) and the graduate’s stories.

The EXMSS Graduation Dinner at Wharerata

After dinner graduates are given the opportunity to say a few words about their journey and this gives people like the Massey support staff, VC and Chancellor a direct insight into what it is like to study by distance at Massey. Such a celebration is a meaningful finish to a student’s journey. Photos’ of the graduates, both individual and as a group with the Chancellor and VC are complimentary and round off the experience, described as the ‘best ever’ Massey event for distance students.

I have had the honour of attending both this and the previous DEANZ conference (2010) on behalf of distance students at Massey University. At both conferences I have made contacts and found information that has benefited EXMSS and have had the opportunity to present EXMSS, and [...]]]>

Dr Oblinger CEO EDUCAUSE offering a USA perspective

I have had the honour of attending both this and the previous DEANZ conference (2010) on behalf of distance students at Massey University. At both conferences I have made contacts and found information that has benefited EXMSS and have had the opportunity to present EXMSS, and students views, to the conference.

This year the Review It poster was included in the proceedings and it won the Best Poster competition. Credit need to go to EXMSS staff member Adam Dodd for the brilliant visual interpretation of my ‘crayon’ drawings.

The value of these conferences is two-fold:

• Through discussion and connections with other delegates, the President is more able to comment publically, plan for the future, and be seen as a credible player in the field of distance education;
• Typically EXMSS represents students at these conferences. No other student organisation exists to represent distance students. The people at DEANZ are aware of this and seek to include the student representative in plenary discussions. This is good for the conference and good for the reputation and reach of EXMSS.
  

  Review It poster wins Best Poster

Attendance at the DEANZ conference is therefore valuable for our Society: in order to inform our President and to build our reputation as the distance student voice in New Zealand.  I encourage EXMSS to support continued presence at this valuable bi-annual conference.

The Review It poster can be found here

Wake up! Arn't [...]]]> For a start, Absolutely Compulsory is silly; it’s either compulsory or its not. The terminology needs to change for clarity, and this is what Massey is doing. Their recommendation is two categories: Compulsory and Recommended. This proposal also offers an opportunity to consider the purpose of contact courses in distance education

Wake up! Arn't you meant to be at a contact course?

If a contact course is truly compulsory there are consequences: a reduced pool of students willing to take the paper, the need to make the contact course academically essential, and the impact on students’ lives.

Accessibility, the mantra of distance education, should be a key principle on which academic delivery and support are based. Modern distance students are busy people. They are often in a life-transition period where finances are difficult or they have family responsibilities. So accessibility for a distance student means low cost and low impact on routine.

Massey is known for its quality distance provision, so compulsory contact courses that deliver essential learning are important. Students also need to be confident that compulsory contact courses are essential for the learning required. So what are recommended contact courses for, enhancing learning for those who can make it? On the face of it this seems reasonable.

Getting students together to meet is not a reason to have a compulsory contact course. So it must be clear to lecturers that a compulsory contact course must satisfy certain criteria, for example:

• The contact course must be essential for the pedagogy – the process of learning – that the paper requires
• There should be no exemptions
• The contact course should not be able to be reproduced on Stream or the web
• The contact course must be fully integrated into the course delivery

The acid test is this – is this contact course environment essential for the process of learning, and can this learning not be reproduced in a web environment?”

I would like to think that there are relatively few contact courses that satisfy this mandate. Creative Processes is one, as may be a Drama paper. If hands-on experience is needed in a laboratory environment then that would qualify.

For students, fewer compulsory contact courses would be better, but will this mean recommended contact course become the norm? With recommended contact courses students will need to be told that attendance will provide advantages, but none that are essential to course completion. For lecturers it may seem inefficient to be delivering to only a portion of the students, and they would likely put the material on the web for all students. So how many students will turn up to a ‘recommended’ contact course?

It seems to me that you either have a contact course or you do not. And if a course controller wishes to run a compulsory contact course they would need to demonstrate its essential nature to someone other than their own department – as well as the students who attend.

So that’s sorted then.

My concern is growing, and is shared among many distance, part time and adult students, that the priorities of the government’s Tertiary Education Strategy do not address the societal need, particularly for women, for accessible second chance education opportunities. Neither does the TES recognise the benefits of study while working. Equally alarming [...]]]> Dear Minister Joyce,

My concern is growing, and is shared among many distance, part time and adult students, that the priorities of the government’s Tertiary Education Strategy do not address the societal need, particularly for women, for accessible second chance education opportunities. Neither does the TES recognise the benefits of study while working. Equally alarming is the impact on our young students who are expected to commit to a specific area of study and a student loan at age seventeen.

Your recent commitment to publish earning data to assist students in decision making alarms me. At age seventeen young people need a holistic understanding of the outcome of the education they are pursuing. Using financial return as a key factor for career choices will not support good decision making from this group.

The current emphasis on young students is reducing access for many looking for a second chance at education; these people, many of whom are women, deserve equitable access. Students who study part time and as adults have a lower loan uptake and do not leave the country following graduation at the same rate as youth students. They also make educational choices borne of experience.

I feel Government has failed in its responsibility to evaluate the options in tertiary provision and outline a tertiary education policy that takes New Zealand to a better place. There is no efficiency in the strategic priorities of the Tertiary Education Commission and it appears socially unjust.

Stephen Joyce, I am asking for you as the Tertiary Education Minister to look closely at the Commission’s priority settings for tertiary education and support a review so a more balanced approach to tertiary education priorities can be developed.

Part-time study in the UK is significant: nearly 40 per cent of higher education students study part-time. A review that sought to understand the economic and social benefits of part-time study in the UK concludes that there are substantial and wide-ranging benefits from studying part-time.

The review also aims to place the discussion in the current [...]]]>

Part-time study in the UK is significant: nearly 40 per cent of higher education students study part-time. A review that sought to understand the economic and social benefits of part-time study in the UK concludes that there are substantial and wide-ranging benefits from studying part-time.

The review also aims to place the discussion in the current policy context by drawing attention to the fact that while part-time study is seen as important for increasing the global competitiveness of the UK economy, expansion of higher education in the UK has tended to focus on the young, full-time student; furthermore, part-time study is less generously resourced compared to full-time study.

Recent policy pronouncements in the UK appear to recognise these policy contradictions, which state that most future growth will be in provision other than the full-time, 3-year undergraduate degree. Indeed, the UK Government’s independent review of fees has recognized that parity of funding is an issue and its recommendations on increasing support for part-time study have been endorsed by the government.

The Committee is a friendly group and the atmosphere relaxed, however [...]]]> EXMSS is looking for a committee scretary with professional skills and the ability to attend six or seven meetings a year. The role revolves around these Committee and General meetings where the secretary takes minutes and sends them on, once formatted, to the Committee.

The Committee is a friendly group and the atmosphere relaxed, however the prsentation of the minutes must be to a professional standard.

If you have an interest in supporting distance, part time and adult students and have the skills to be a committee secretary please contact Ralph Springett on 027 245 8223 or Ralph@exmss.org.nz for more information.