UPDATED: Up to 260 VUW staff facing job losses due to $33M financial hole

Words by Ethan Manera (he/him) 

Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington is now in “survival mode”, according to Vice Chancellor Nic Smith, after a forecast $33 million deficit in the university’s finances for 2023 means 10% of the current 2468 staff at the university could lose their jobs.

On current modeling, the university is predicted to completely run out of money by the end of next year. Assessments have been done on how to cut down operational costs such as halting spending on office supplies, staff development, and work on Weir House, but this only amounts to $10m in savings. 

Smith told a forum of over 300 staff last Wednesday that the university will now begin consultation on how to plug the other $22m deficit. This includes cutting academic programmes, and both voluntary and compulsory redundancies of an estimated 130-150 full time equivalent professional staff, and 100-110 full time equivalent academic staff. 

Sixty academic programs have been deemed “in scope” for review including Public Policy, Accounting, and History.

The financial situation comes after falling enrollment numbers at VUW, with the university only holding 13.9% market share of domestic students. It also follows chronic government underfunding that has not met inflation “for the better part of 15 years”, Smith told staff. 

Smith said that due to their high debt levels, the university must aim for an annual surplus of 3% to ensure financial sustainability. The university has only made the required annual surplus once in the past 7 years.

VUW’s Tertiary Education Union Branch Chair, Dougal McNeill, is urging the government to bail out the university’s financial woes.

“I think Labour need to take responsibility for these planned cuts. It could be stopped and [Education Minister Jan Tinetti] should be required to take some responsibility”, he said.

“These events didn't happen in a vacuum. They were caused by individuals with a pattern of toxic and dysfunctional [university] mismanagement that is connected very clearly to the situation we're in now.”

Education Minister Jan Tinetti declined an interview with Salient, but pointed to the government’s recent five percent increase in tertiary funding as “the biggest increase in at least two decades”. This increase does not match current inflation of 6.7%, which Smith labeled as a “tragedy”. 

Tinetti added, “Universities have the autonomy to determine how they manage their financial performance. [...] As Minister, I do not get involved in any such decisions.”

Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau said that her thoughts are with the university community and that “times like this are unsettling for staff and students, but also for Wellington which prides itself of being an educational city of excellence.”