Massey University Calls for Mass Job Cuts (Join the Club, We’ve got T-Shirts)

Massey University has joined the slew of tertiary institutions facing major redundancies after further cuts were announced across the university’s three campuses. 

The initial number of 125 job cuts jumped to 245 on 18 July, when the Vice Chancellor Jan Thomas issued a statement calling for “voluntary enhanced cessation”, or voluntary redundancy, from members of staff. 

These redundancies are an attempt to mitigate debt and financial strain (a story we know far too well here at VUW), with Stuff reporting that the university is currently facing a year-to-date operating deficit of $14.2 million. 

Alongside job cuts, Massey is considering axing its Speech Language Therapy degree, one of just two offered in Aotearoa. Speech Language Therapists are already in high demand, as there’s a 20-month waiting list for those in need of treatment.

Massey’s Tertiary Education Union (TEU) organiser Ben Schmidt said in a statement that the cuts were targeting the schools of Humanities, Creative Communication, and Speech Language Therapy in particular. 

“It’s outrageous that cuts of this scale are taking place, but what makes matters even worse is the way they are being pushed through via policy changes and voluntary redundancy with no real engagement with the staff who will be expected to pick up the pieces after the dust settles,” Schmidt says. “We call on the Vice Chancellor to stop the cuts and start talking with union members about better ways forward.” 

The staff cuts are going forward despite Massey’s academic board being “unequivocally against” the proposal when it was first announced in April of this year. 

A number of TEU members and students protested in Palmerston North, outside a Massey campus meeting, in an attempt to uphold the integrity of the school. “A lot of people feel like we're not being listened to,” Georgia Davey, a Massey union rep for the School of Natural Sciences, told RNZ. “We're being ignored because they've already made their decisions.”

The redundancies are still going full steam ahead despite the government announcing emergency funding for tertiary education, with Massey receiving another $12.8 million over the next two years.