ASA is the official representative body for students studying at Massey University Albany.
This site is your one-stop shop for information about Clubs, Events, Representation and Services provided by the Association for its members.
We are students helping students since 1998.
News
5 – 10% of Performance-based Funding for Tertiary Institutions in 2 years
In his first address to the nation as Minister for Tertiary Education, Steven Joyce has laid out the strategic goals for his department and sounded a warning for tertiary education providers – get the rates of completion of courses up, ensure the qualifications are meaningful and meaningful, and ensure that students receive value for money from student support.
"The performance-linked funding model will provide financial incentives for institutions to continually work to improve the educational performance of their students," said the Minister, adding, "Educational performance will be measured using indicators like successful course completion, qualification completion and student progression."
The details of how each measure is applied for each institution and each type of institution will be worked through by the TEC, the Ministry and the Minister with the proportions of funding linked to performance low to start with so everyone has time to adjust.
“I'm confident that this approach will encourage institutions to provide more support for their students and achieve better results for individual students and for the country. Most institutions are doing that now but there is nothing wrong with stretching it a bit further.”
Government Looks to Cut Loans to Those Who Fail
New Tertiary Education Minister Stephen Joyce is considering chopping student loans to those persons who fail courses...
With surging roles of recession-struck students either staying on or returning to tertiary education to retrain, tertiary providers are under significant strain. Many students are not fully-funded leaving the institution to pick up the tab and move to cap courses. Now the Minister is considering other ways to reallocate tertiary funding - by stripping loans from students who fail courses. This is not to say that institutions are not complicit in ensuring failure rates in over-subscribed courses as they are well-aware of the effects on their limited resources so comments from Auckland Vice-Chancellor Stuart McCutcheon that money saved should be ploughed back into tuition subsidies is somewhat disengenuous and, as NZUSA Co-President David Do desribes: "Like shifting money around inside the same pot." So while the Minister isn't promising any more funding for the sector, he said "I'd like to see more money going into actually training EFTSs (equivalent fulltime students) and I'm looking around for opportunities to deliver that in 2011." Unfortunately it appears that this will mean another case of rearranging deck chairs rather than buying any more.
International Students' Welcome Party
More info: www.massey.ac.nz/international
International Women's Day
Satellite Issue 3 - Out Now
Class Rep Training Day
12 noon
AT2
More Info: advocacy@asa.ac.nz
Round 2 Club Affiliations & Grants
All ASA-affiliated clubs and societies may apply for funding.
Contact cdo@asa.ac.nz for more information.
ASA Special General Meeting
12 noon
Atrium Round Room
Budget, Constitutional Motions, VSM
Be There, Have Your Say (while you still have a functioning Students' Association)
Easter Cultural Workshop
Chaplaincy Services
More info: albchaplains@massey.ac.nz
Satellite Issue 4 - Out Now
Inter-tertiary League Round 2
More info: cdo@asa.ac.nz
Watch the satirical take on the ever growing monster of student debt and remember, without national awareness campaigns such as this one run and organised by your students' association, none of the 40+ year old politicians in government would even care.
Join the campaign against VSM
With the ACT Party’s Sir Roger Douglas Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill before the Education and Science Select Committee, your students’ association is suddenly on the endangered species list and there isn’t much time for you to have your say and help save your association from being asset-stripped in favour of a user-pays structure that will disadvantage students for decades to come.
