A traumatic time for tertiary education
The severity of the job cuts at universities and polytechs has stunned staff and students alike.
Mōrena and welcome to The Bulletin for Friday, June 23, by Catherine McGregor. Presented in partnership with Z Energy.
In today’s edition: Worst of the rain still on its way for Tairāwhiti; extra month of half price fares for Wellingtonians; and Bernard Hickey looks at how infrastructure costs can be shared more fairly. But first, Victoria University confronts the prospect of an unprecedented series of layoffs.
An abundance of redundancies
It’s been a horrible month to be employed in tertiary education, where jobs are under threat almost everywhere you look. Around 400 of them, mostly in middle management, are being culled at Te Pūkenga, the national polytechnic. Otago University is mooting significant cuts to its languages and cultures departments, and a plan for voluntary redundancies across all faculties is expected to be announced next week; sources have told Stuff there are “over a dozen separate reviews looking at cost-savings across the university”. Meanwhile Victoria University of Wellington (VUW) is proposing cutting 229 full-time equivalent roles across a wide swath of courses, including the disestablishment of entire programmes such as secondary teaching and geophysics. The Spinoff has a full rundown of all the courses under threat here.
Claims of a looming disaster for New Zealand academia
Teaching staff, management and students have all reacted with shock and fury. Victoria geophysicist Dr Finn Illsley-Kemp tells the Herald that “cutting [New Zealand’s] capability in such an obviously crucial area of future resilience in this country, and in this city” is hard to fathom. VUW lecturer James Wenley says the deep cuts to the theatre programme will “undo over 20 years of growth overnight” while Wellington theatre maker and former VUW student Emma Maguire asks: “To those who wrote decades’ worth of think pieces crying that Shakespeare was being cancelled last year due to one role being lost by a reallocation of funds – where is your rage now?” At Te Pūkenga, chronic tutor shortages are already creating “a combative and toxic environment”, student Elizabeth Engledow tells The Spinoff. Down south, Otago University Students Association president Quintin Jane says the government needs to “remember how central the university is to Dunedin; to fail the university is to fail the city”.
Where have all the students gone?
The cuts are the result of dramatic drops in enrolments, “likely related to sub-optimal student experiences during the pandemic, and perhaps the relatively strong job market,” writes Auckland University’s Nicola Gaston in a Conversation piece about the cuts’ impact on academic research. Victoria University’s total enrolments at the start of this academic year were down 12.1% compared to last year, leaving a $15 million hole in its revenue. Otago’s enrolments dropped only 0.9% – but the university had been forecasting growth of 4.9%, creating a whopping $60 million budget deficit. As of April, there was an “overall drop in enrolments at the country’s eight universities of around 3%”, reports Stuff’s Hamish McNeilly. “Enrolments were up at just three – Waikato, Canterbury and Lincoln.” Education minister Jan Tinetti says universities “have to adjust” (paywalled), adding that “changing what they teach and how they are organised is not unprecedented.”
UK universities suffering too
Budget cuts and redundancies aren’t just bedevilling the NZ tertiary sector. In the UK, the University of East Anglia is cutting 113 jobs after reporting a 16% drop in enrolments and a £30m (NZ$62m) budget deficit. The University of Brighton is cutting 110 jobs; Birkbeck, University of London is culling 140; and one third of England’s universities are operating at a deficit.
Meet the academic helping to decolonise urban planning
University of Otago professor Michelle Thompson-Fawcett has focused her career on extending the decolonisation conversation into urban planning. From creating built environments that honour the natural environment, to spaces that allow for the expression of Māori culture, Thompson-Fawcett has had a hand in indigenising developments across Aotearoa.
Read more about her mahi on The Spinoff now (sponsored)
Worst of the rain still on its way for Tairāwhiti
Rain is continuing in Tairāwhiti, with Civil Defence warning the worst of the weather is still to come. The area – still in recovery mode from Cyclone Gabrielle – is under a state of emergency declared by Gisborne mayor Rehette Stoltz yesterday afternoon. The heavy rain eased off last night, RNZ reports, although rivers remained high. “State Highway 2 is closed from Gisborne to Matawai and SH35, from Gisborne to Ruatoria. Further south, flooding at Eskdale closed SH5 between Napier and Taupō, and SH2 from Napier to Wairoa.” Around 130 residents of Te Karaka were asked to self-evacuate yesterday, before rising floodwaters cut off the isolated township northwest of Gisborne city. Metservice has also issued a number of orange rain warnings for areas including Coromandel, western Bay of Plenty, southern Hawke’s Bay and eastern Marlborough.
Extra month of half price fares for Wellingtonians
Half price public transport fares for all expire at the end of this month – except in Wellington, where Metlink is extending the universal discount until August. The new national rules announced in this year’s budget include free transport for children under 13 but Metlink doesn’t have a registration system in place and won’t be able to meet the planned July 1 launch date. Offering extended half price fares for all is the “fairest, simplest and smoothest way” to tide Wellington public transport users over in the meantime, says Transport Committee chair Thomas Nash. Extending half-price fares will cost the regional council around $2 million per month and Nash says the government has been asked to contribute to the cost.
Become a Spinoff member and support our Election 2023 coverage
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How to ensure fairer infrastructure costs for all
For decades, the wealthiest New Zealanders have been reaping enormous private gains from public infrastructure investments. While those who benefit consider the game fair, the less fortunate bear the overwhelming burden of infrastructure costs. In this week’s episode of When the Facts Change, host Bernard Hickey and head of strategy at the Infrastructure Commission, Geoff Cooper, delve into groundbreaking policy ideas aimed at transforming the existing landscape. Together, they explore strategies to achieve better distribution of infrastructure costs and envision a society where all individuals contribute their fair share towards a brighter future.
Click and Collect
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Got some feedback about The Bulletin, or anything in the news? Get in touch with me at thebulletin@thespinoff.co.nz.
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Claire Mabey ranks all - ALL! - of the Kiri and Lou songs. Shanti Mathias has a list of all the university courses that may be on the chopping block; there's a lot. Alice Soper celebrates the pub owner whose untiring support helped Auckland women's rugby thrive. Naomii Seah watches a great new local romcom about finding love while living with your parents. Hera Lindsay Bird advises an expat Kiwi who wants to make friends in Australia.
Sporting Snippets
Inside Western Springs Football Club’s equality battle: The Herald’s Bonnie Jansen on how the Auckland women’s team fought back, and won (paywalled).
The Chiefs have made just one change to their lineup for the Super Rugby final on Saturday.
The International Olympic Committee has stripped the International Boxing Association of its status as the sport's world governing body.
It’s Friday, so…
Take a moment to appreciate that you don’t live in Nevada, currently cowering from a swarm of Mormon crickets – that’s their name, not their religion (as far as we’re aware) – that has taken on truly biblical proportions. Awful to look at, horrendous to smell: “Killing the crickets can lead to a smell described as ‘burning flesh’”. Shudder.
