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NTEU balks at education specialists
Union says University of Adelaide plan would deny career progression paths to teaching academics.
The National Tertiary Education Union has accused the University of Adelaide of attempting to create an unfair, two-tiered system for academics through its plan to transition about 100 staff into“ education specialist roles”.
Vice-chancellor professor Warren Bebbington announced the move recently as part of a suite of measures he said were designed to boost both teaching and research capacity in line with the university’ s“ focus on student learning quality”.
In addition to creating the teachingfocused roles, the university plans to increase funding to research support by at least $ 14 million by 2019, with staff set to work under newly devised Adelaide Academic statements defining the expectations of staff working in research and teaching.
Bebbington said teaching specialist roles presented a“ great opportunity for staff who excel in teaching”, whilst positioning the workforce to reach the university’ s strategic goals.
“ It’ s clear there have been too few opportunities for staff to dedicate themselves to teaching, rather than balance teaching with research,” Bebbington said.
He said the university’ s students would benefit from the plan through increased“ investment in our unique small-group learning. And for the organisation as a whole, we can now reallocate scarce resources towards priority areas, such as research support.”
The NTEU has pledged to fight the move, saying the new roles would provide little if any benefit, and that positions weighted toward teaching over research already existed within the university.
“[ This proposal would create ] a two-tier system, whereby one group of colleagues are engaged in day-to-day coalface teaching, which is not supplemented by the sort of research fundamental to teaching at the university level,” NTEU South Australia branch president associate professor Felix Patrikeeff said in a radio interview.“ The people in these teaching-only positions [ will end up ] there … permanently.” n
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University is a government-funded tertiary institution in Hong Kong. It offers programmes at various levels including Doctorate, Master’ s and Bachelor’ s degrees. It has a full-time academic staff strength of around 1,200. The total consolidated expenditure budget of the University is close to HK $ 5.5 billion( US $ 705 million) per year.
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING
The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering is seeking a highly motivated individual with a PhD related to Transportation Engineering, Traffic Management, or Pavement Engineering. The Department enjoys high reputation in conducting application oriented research and has well established connections with industry partners and government agencies in Hong Kong. The new appointee will further add to existing research strengths in transportation engineering and traffic management, such as land use and transportation planning, intelligent transportation systems, traffic engineering and management, pavement engineering and management.
The Department offers academic programmes at various levels, including MPhil degree and PhD degree, in the disciplines of Construction and Transportation Engineering, Environmental Engineering Science, Geotechnical Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering, and Structural Engineering. The Department currently has about 40 faculty members and 37 technical and administrative personnel, and is committed to the international standards of excellence in teaching and research. Please visit the website at http:// www. cee. polyu. edu. hk for more information about the Department.
Assistant Professor in Transportation Engineering
The appointee will be required to( a) teach relevant subjects at various levels;( b) supervise student projects and theses;( c) initiate, lead and participate in research activities; and( d) undertake relevant administrative duties, including programme leadership of undergraduate and / or postgraduate programmes, curriculum development, programme validation and accreditation, etc.
Applicants should( a) have a PhD degree in Transportation Engineering, Traffic Management, Pavement Engineering or a related discipline;( b) have strong commitment to excellence in teaching and research;( c) have a good record of research and scholarship; and( d) be able to demonstrate effective classroom teaching skills and have good interpersonal skills.
Remuneration and Conditions of Service A highly competitive remuneration package will be offered. Initial appointment will be on a fixed-term gratuity-bearing contract. Re-engagement thereafter is subject to mutual agreement. Applicants should state their current and expected salary in the application.
Application Please submit application form via email to hrstaff @ polyu. edu. hk; by fax at( 852) 2764 3374; or by mail to Human Resources Office, 13 / F, Li Ka Shing Tower, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong. If you would like to provide a separate curriculum vitae, please still complete the application form which will help speed up the recruitment process. Application forms can be obtained via the above channels or downloaded from http:// www. polyu. edu. hk / hro / job / en / guide _ forms / forms. php. Recruitment will continue until the position is filled. Details of the University’ s Personal Information Collection Statement for recruitment can be found at http:// www. polyu. edu. hk / hro / job / en / guide _ forms / pics. php.
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