Times have changed

Staff have endorsed Victoria U’s proposed enterprise agreement, with 90 per cent voting yes, on a 60 per cent turnout. The deal was backed by both management and the campus branch of the National Tertiary Education Union and the vote ends a long and bitter negotiation. The university tried twice to win staff backing for a deal which the union opposed, failing by thumping majorities both times (CMM February 20). Since then the mood at VU has changed, perhaps due in part to the success of the block-teaching model, now to be rolled out across all undergraduate years. In September, the university won a higher education industry IR award, “for substantive positive change,” (CMM September 5).