Minister invited to see academics work

Press, 12 July 1988, Page 7

Minister invited to see academics work

The Associate Minister of Education, Mr Goff, should visit Lincoln College to see how hard the lecturers work, says Dr Neil Cherry, a senior lecturer in agricultural meteorology at the college. Mr Goff, a former university teacher, told a Hamilton Polytechnic seminar last week that it was a “myth in many cases” that staff used the summer break to work on research projects.

Mr Goff said that while some staff worked, others took on second jobs, or treated the break like a holiday.

Dr Cherry said that he found getting even three weeks holiday a year difficult. As well as planning for coming lectures, a lot of time was spent consulting with outside bodies, because Lincoln’s expertise was in demand both nationally and internationally, Dr Cherry said.

The Government’s user-pays policy had increased the work load for university staff. Dr Cherry said he now often had high school pupils ringing him to ask for weather information because for equivalent information

from the Meteorological Office they would be charged between $4O and $4OO.

“We do it for the cost of photocopying.” Mr Goff’s statements about lecturers’ workloads should be carefully checked, Dr Cherry said. Dr Cherry, who was Labour candidate for Fendalton at the last election, said he now appreciated how hard politicians worked. “As a former lecturer, Phil Goff should know about lecturing.

“I would invite him to come to Lincoln to see what we do.”