Unitec film students feeling shortchanged

By SIMON COLLINS

Unitec film and television students are appealing to the Ministry of Education about a restructuring which may deliver a "cheeseburger" instead of a "Big Mac".

The jobs of Unitec's entire film and television staff, apart from the head's position, were advertised in Wednesday's Herald.

Applications for the head's job were called for earlier and closed on Tuesday.

Eighty of the 85 film and television students have signed a petition asking for five of the six staff members to be reappointed.

But the restructuring seems certain to see at least one of the five out of a job, because two positions are being merged.

The students, who pay fees of $7564 a year, have told the ministry that communication between management and students about the restructuring was "virtually non-existent".

A second-year student, Gwill Hewetson, said that, with the present tutors, the course was "the best film and television course in New Zealand".

But it could collapse because of administration changes. "We don't want anything like that to happen," he said.

"We are paying customers. When you ask for a Big Mac at McDonald's they don't give you a cheeseburger.

"That's what we feel we are getting right now."

Wednesday's advertisement sought "fulltime or proportional appointments" for the four specialties of camera, sound, editing and production management.

Three of the four existing specialist tutors work at Unitec for only 0.6 of a week and, Mr Hewetson said, fulltimers would contradict the school's charter that tutors should be involved in the industry.

"None of them [the present tutors] want to be fulltime," he said.

However, Bridget Marsh, the head of the School of Performing and Screen Arts, which includes the film and television course, said students were different from McDonald's customers because they did not know what they needed to learn until they learned it.

"If a student thinks they know exactly what it is that we have to tell them, then we have nothing to tell them.

"It is only if they are open to learning, and being opened up to an environment of greater knowledge than they have, that there is any reason for them to come to an educational institution.

"The student does have to have a lot of trust that the education they will get is what they need."

Although her preference would be fulltime specialist tutors, she would be open to appointing part-timers if they were the best applicants.


She said students had the right to representatives to the school's programme committee, but this year's students had not appointed anyone.


Meanwhile, the Minister of Tertiary Education, Steve Maharey, has asked ministry officials for advice about complaints from Unitec staff over conditions at a joint-venture language school in China.

The chairwoman of the staff's union branch, Jan Patterson, said the union and management discussed the Chinese school on Monday and she was "now confident that the issues are going to be sorted out".