The University of Victoria / Te Herenga Waka is considering cutting up to 260 staff because of a $33 million budget hole.
photo: RNZ / Samuel Rilstone
Victoria University’s vice-chancellor says the proposed job cuts are due to a lack of government funding.
There is a university is considering layoffs of up to 260 employees through a $33 million budget hole.
That number included up to 110 academic posts – or about 13 percent of the university’s total academic workforce, its vice-chancellor Nick Smith said. Morning report.
He said the potential cuts were “extraordinary” and reflected the size of the deficit the organization was facing.
“There is no doubt that this is a really significant and controversial number.”
Smith said it will be very difficult to achieve the necessary deficit reduction without job cuts.
“Unfortunately, at the university, a huge part of our revenue and a huge part of our expenses are our people.”
Enrollment is down 12 percent, Smith said, but universities across the country have also been funded at roughly half the rate of inflation over the past decade.
“So in real terms there has been a 20 per cent drop in funding for institutions like Te Herenga Waka.”
At the same time, according to him, universities are being asked to do “much more than we did 10 years ago.”
“At some point it becomes relevant and we start to see it in other institutions.”
He said the university may be considering dropping some subject areas entirely from its offerings as it struggles with its financial situation.
“At the moment we’re going through a review process, we’re looking at the financial basis of some of our different academic programs, and we’re also balancing that with a really important function in the university, which is the scientific contribution that the different areas are making.”
According to him, the formal consultation process will last from the end of June to the end of July, and decisions should be made by mid-August.