New Zealand Vice-Chancellors' Committee - Universities New ...

In effect they are offering New Zealand
universities the same licence terms they have
entered into with the Australian universities,
including a demand for past copying of music
(despite staff and students being advised they
cannot copy music). The proposed licence is
neither affordable nor workable in the New
Zealand context. The negotiating team is
attempting to negotiate a licence to meet the
requirements of universities which is simple,
workable and affordable and does not have
unreasonable compliance costs embedded
within it.
To date APRA/AMCOS have not responded to the
negotiating team’s letter.
Copyright Act
Amendments to the Copyright Act 1994
were introduced to Parliament shortly before
universities closed in late 2006.
The stated intention of the Bill is to create a
more flexible framework for technology to
operate within the Copyright Act and to ensure
the effective operation of the Act in the face of
emerging technologies. While the time frame
for preparing submissions was short and
included the Christmas - New Year period, the
standing committee prepared a submission
and appeared before the Select Committee
in Auckland in March 2007. The submission
appeared to be favourably received and the
concerns expressed understood. However, when
the Select Committee reported back to Parliament
in July, a number of the submission points were
accepted but a proposal to allow format shifting
for the educational purposes of institutions was
rejected. This was disappointing as many current
resources are no longer available commercially
and an inability to copy them into a new format
will have an adverse impact on universities and
their ability to make use of teaching resources
not compatible with new digital technology. There
is no indication when the Bill will be back before
Parliament for its final reading.
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Screenrights licence
The legislation to amend the Copyright Act
currently before Parliament will create a new
communication right. The introduction of the
new right was anticipated by the negotiating
team which was able to incorporate the right
to communicate works into the current licence.
The negotiating team will have to await the
final wording of the Bill before it can determine
whether this is likely to impact on future
renewals of the Screenrights licence.
Other copyright matters
The standing committee continues to monitor
developments in Australia with regard to
amendments to their Copyright Act and the
implementation of their music licence.
7.2 Graduate Employment
(Chair: Associate Professor Richard Coll, Centre
for Science and Technology Education Research,
University of Waikato)
Other members of the committee were:
Ms Pamela Moss
Auckland
Mr Rob Daldy
AUT
Mr Greg Middleton
Waikato
Mr Malcolm Rees
Massey
Ms Liz Medford, secretary Victoria
Mr Chris Bridgman
Canterbury
Ms Michelle Ash
Lincoln
Mr Mark Cumisky
Otago
The committee continues to conduct the
annual NZVCC survey of university graduate
destinations. The qualifying population for
the 2007 survey of those who became eligible
to graduate from the New Zealand university
system in 2006 totalled 34,988, compared to a
qualifying population of 33,665 for the previous
survey. The initial response rate was 26.8%
(2006 survey, 28.1%).