VUW Not Ruling Out Staff Cuts Following Otago Debacle

Words by Niamh Vaughan (she/her)

The University of Otago has announced it will be considering a large number of job cuts in the near future, and it appears Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington may not be far behind in its wake. VUW has been unable to guarantee there will be no staff cuts, stating that, “The university is looking at a range of cost-saving options but has not yet made any decisions with regards to redundancies.” 

Alongside Otago, Massey University is also planning for a restructure, hoping to cut 178 jobs and replacing them with only 144 new ones. Stuff reported last week that Massey’s academic board was “unequivocally against” the change, believing that if the proposal were to go through it would have a negative effect on staff.

Earlier this year, Salient reported that at the time, enrolment rates at VUW had dropped 11% from last year. The total has moved up to 12.1%, giving the university the biggest decrease in numbers out of all the North Island universities, with each one seeing a lower turnout in students this year.

VUW remains determined that this low position has nothing to do with the issues students were having with the new enrolment system, Tītoko. They stated the low enrollments are owed to “changes in student demand, demographic changes, low unemployment, and the growing cost of living.”

The university currently employs nearly 2500 staff. Salient spoke to Alex*, a member of a university faculty that has had an ongoing battle with staffing issues. “We have had three years of uncertainty about our employment. People are worn down and burning out. It’s increasingly obvious that this is a sector wide problem of how universities are funded and managed,” they said. 

One university department at VUW is already at risk. VUW is currently “working through a consultation process related to the work of the institute for Governance and Policy Studies,” said the spokesperson. “No decisions about the future of the institute have yet been made.”

If VUW is to follow in the footsteps of fellow universities, the effect could be detrimental. “Massey’s proposed restructuring would... place a massive extra burden on already overworked staff and come at a cost of enormous institutional knowledge in the process. This leads to big inefficiencies: it slows everything and exhausts more junior staff,” Alex said. 

VUW is already making moves to fill the $15 million hole left in revenue, placing an operational spending hold across the entire Faculty of Science. 

Last Wednesday, an email was sent out to all Science departments, providing an extensive list of what the faculty will no longer be able to spend school money on, ranging from office supplies such as coffee and printing, to equipment maintenance and staff development and training. Research grants are exempt from the hold. The purchasing ban has no specified end date, which is subject to an operational spending review by senior leadership staff.  

*names have been changed