Swinburne NTEU APHEDA Fundraiser for victims of the Haiti earthquake

The NTEU and APHEDA are holding a free morning tea to raise funds to help aid the recovery of the Haiti people. Free morning tea provided.

Please join us for morning tea and help raise money for this important cause.

Where: Staff Room, Level 11, BA Building

Time: 10 – 11 am

Date: Wednesday 10 February

Cost: Donations welcome

Enquiries: Ann Healey, NTEU Swinburne, Branch Organiser 9214 8162 or swinburne@nteu.org.au

ALL STAFF WELCOME

Note: Union Aid Abroad – APHEDA – was established in 1984 to the ACTU as a means for Australian workers, through their unions, to directly assist international development by supporting projects for workers in developing countries. APHEDA website: www.apheda.org.au.

Two universities in Victoria will be taking industrial action on September 16, along side a nationally coordinated day of action.

The University of Melbourne Details

NTEU members will be on picket lines from 7am to 12pm, to hand out information to students and the general public about the campaign and the strike.

The NTEU will provide breakfast for members and supporters at University Square from 7am-9am.

Coffee, tea and refreshments will be available until 3pm. Lunch will be available from 12pm-2pm.

There will be a rally of members and supporters from 12pm at University Square, meeting up with members from RMIT at 12:45pm.

RMIT University Details

RMIT NTEU members will be on pickets lines from 6am-12pm at the City Campus, Tivoli Campus and Bundoora campuses (main entrances).

There will be a rally at the City Campus from 12:30pm on corner of Franklin and Swanson Sts, then march up to University Square at 12:45pm.

The Victoria University NTEU branch, and Friends of VU, are hosting a forum: Keeping Languages in the West.

Tuesday 25 August, 4.00 pm, Footscray Park Campus, G470

Speakers include:

• Jamie Doughney, President Victorian NTEU Branch and Victoria University lecturer.
• Ms Voula Messimeri-Kianidis, Chair, Federation of Ethnic Communities’ Councils of Australia (FECCA)
• Mr Sam Afra, Chairperson of the Ethnic Communities’ Council of Victoria (ECCV)
• Richard Lee, Victoria University student

Facts on Languages Other Than English at Victoria University

Background

Victoria University currently offers four LOTE at its Footscray Park campus: Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese and Spanish. From 2010, all languages will be phased out with the exception of Vietnamese.

Financial Viability

Despite the decision to close the majority of the LOTE at Victoria University, LOTE is financially viable.

There are currently 573 students enrolled in the three languages targeted for closure (enrolment numbers all affected LOTE 2009, MYV 27/6/09 )

LOTE is delivered cheaply at Victoria University by a small labour efficient team in Chinese, Japanese and Spanish of only three part-time casual staff and 1.75 permanent staff.

The Commonwealth provides much higher cluster funding for LOTE than other humanities areas in recognition of smaller student numbers and equipment needs. Funding is provided at a current rate  of $15,518 cluster funding per equivalent full time student[1].

This amount of total funding provided by the Commonwealth to deliver the affected LOTE programs  in 2009 is   $1,111,476 (573 x  $15,518 x  0.125 EFTSL weighting per unit)   and staff costs  contribute to  a small fraction of expenditure of the total amount received in revenue or less than a quarter of the $1,111,476.

Student numbers and enrolment

Victoria University management have wildly under exaggerated student enrolment numbers in LOTE to justify their closure. According to the Vice Chancellor: ‘Chinese had been axed, she said, substantially because of the dwindling numbers. While 36 were enrolled for the first year, just five were studying the subject in the third year.’  ( Liz Harman quoted  in ‘ Victoria University axes foreign languages for English’, The Australian, May 05, 2009).

In fact the official VU enrolment data base (MyVU MYV 27/6/09) shows there were 96 students in third year designated Chinese units in 2009.

Language staff have long acknowledged the need to rationalize units with small enrolment numbers and the process to rationalize offerings was underway before  the announced closure of the three languages. However, this proposed rationalization is in the context of programs that currently attract 573 students and provide

High rates of participation for western region students in the study of languages that might not otherwise occur unless located close to the major place of study of students. It should not justify the closure of an entire program.

LOTE is also funded at a higher rate than other humanities areas because it is a low enrolment area but of strategic importance to Australia in terms of internationalisation.

Small class sizes across Australia are the norm for language teaching. According to the Council of The Australian Academy of Humanities the average class size for teaching LOTE is 15.5 students. VU is insisting, however, that all class sizes should average at 25.

This point is also made in the Review of the Commonwealth LOTE Program, commissioned by DEST in 2002: Effective languages teaching requires small class sizes compared with other Arts units, as languages teaching cannot use a lecture and tutorial model. Languages classes must be based on small group teaching models. In addition, language learning requires more contact hours than other Arts subjects as level of achievement in languages is directly related to amount of exposure to comprehensible input in the language. As such, staff-student ratios at an Arts faculty average represent gross understaffing in languages programs. (p.104)

VU staff opposes closure of LOTE

At a Full Faculty Meeting of the Faculty of Arts, Education and Human Development of 5 May 2009 a motion was moved by a majority of staff which supported the retention of LOTE at Victoria University and expressed strong concern about the decision of the Vice Chancellor to close the affected programs.