26 August 2022
Torven Schalk
By email: [FYI request #20106 email]
Tēnā koe Torven
Official information request regarding tutor and teaching assistant pay rates
I refer to your request for information under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act)
dated 2 August 2022:
“What are the hourly pay rates for post grad students employed as
a) tutors, and
b) teaching assistants,
at each of the schools of the university.”
Remuneration rates for tutors and teaching assistants at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria
University of Wellington (the University) are determined on an individual basis.
Minimum rates for tutors and teaching assistants (and other teaching and research
support staff) are set out in the Tutors (and other Teaching and Research Support Staff)
Collective Agreement (CA) and the General Terms And Conditions For Tutors (GTC).
These rates, along with relevant qualifications, experience, and additional duties, are
considered when determining an individual’s hourly rate. Rates may also differ
depending on expertise or other requirements necessary to tutor a particular course. For
these reasons, there is no defined rate for graduate tutors or teaching assistants in a
particular school.
Whilst the University holds records of undergraduates and graduates, and records of
people employed as tutors or teaching assistants, these records are not able to be cross-
referenced. The University would need to manually assess the records of each tutor or
teaching assistant in each school in order to determine those who are or were employed
as a graduate, and to identify the specific rate they were employed on. This work would
need to be repeated for each trimester of each year of the ten year period your request
covers.
The work to collate and analyse this information would require a substantial amount of
collation or research that would have a significant and unreasonable impact on the
University’s ability to carry out its other operations. Therefore your request is refused in
accordance with s18(f) of the Act.
We are able to provide the following documents that may assist you in your
understanding of the remuneration of tutors and teaching assistants:
•
Tutors (and other Teaching and Research Support Staff) Collective Agreement*
•
General Terms And Conditions For Tutors
•
Appointment of Tutors and other Teaching and Research Support Staff –
Procedures
* Please note the term for the attached Collective Agreement ended in January 2022. An
updated Collective Agreement is currently being negotiated.
You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman of the
decisions made regarding this request. Information about how to make a complaint is
available
at www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or freephone 0800 802 602.
If you wish to discuss this decision with us, including ways the request may be refined to a
form that would remove the reason for the refusal, please feel free to contact me at
[VUW request email].
Ngā mihi nui
Blair Doherty
Senior Advisor, Official Information and Privacy
Legal Services
Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington