Staffing Issues Plague Geography School

Words by Zoe Mills (she/they) 

Staff at the School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences are feeling “burnt out” and “undervalued” after VUW denied staffing requests, following the retirement and resignation of key lecturers and administrative staff late last year.

In late 2022, requests were put to the university by the faculty to hire staff to replace two lecturing roles and two administrative staff. These staffing requests were reportedly denied by the university.

Anna*, a staff member in the faculty, explained that requests for four vacancies of high-priority roles were put on hold by the university until the new Vice Chancellor arrived. However, staff haven't heard anything from the university since Vice Chancellor Nic Smith started early this year.

“It’s putting a lot of pressure on us,” Anna explained. “It’s really affecting the quality of our work […] We’re really tired. We’re having issues with burnout.”

According to Anna, staff within the faculty are feeling disrespected by the university’s lack of communication. The staffing issues have resulted in cancellations and delays in courses previously offered by the university.

Anna, whose workload is already high, says that staff are now having to take on administrative work to keep up with the backlog. “When it’s technicians that are not being replaced […] it’s just hours and hours of labor that we don't need to be doing,” Anna said. 

The major understaffing issue is also pushing away current staff at the university, said Anna. “There are a number of people who are planning ways to get out of the university: some [moving to] other universities, others who are applying to other universities, others who are actively creating opportunities for work to move elsewhere.” 

The university denies there is a major understaffing issue in the faculty. In a statement to Salient, the University said: “Certain roles requested by the School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences in December 2022 were put on hold until the faculty could gain a clearer understanding of student numbers and the university’s financial position in 2023. This is a normal process. The roles requested will be reconsidered for approval in a timely fashion.”

Master’s student Lucy* explained how the understaffing issue has impacted her study. “Getting enrolled, I was massively delayed,” she said.

Due to the lack of administrative staff, Lucy has been “bounced around” the department while she was trying to apply for her research proposal. Because she started late, she doesn't have a desk at the university. Lucy says that she is “miles behind” on her thesis because of the time she has spent chasing up the faculty.

“I sent an email off to what was supposed to be the replacement email, and I got an email back saying that this email was no longer monitored,” said Lucy.

VUW has confirmed that there was a hiring freeze in 2020, and has since moved into a more “robust recruitment process”. As of 21 January 2023, VUW has 29 advertised vacancies on the official university website, including senior lecturer roles for Software Engineering and multiple administrative roles.  

*Names have been changed.