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David Unwin / Things
Massey University’s faculty of science will be affected by the cuts proposed in a new discussion paper released by the university.
A union fears that up to 100 people on Massey University’s science faculty could lose their jobs in a planned radical restructuring at the college.
Massey published discussion papers earlier this year on the possible restructuring of some of its faculties, with the science faculty being the hardest hit. University courses are held in Auckland and Palmerston North.
This week, the university published a new discussion paper, which proposed course changes and a reduction in staff.
The Pro Vice Chancellor for Science Ray Geor’s document said the university needed to consolidate low enrollment areas of its curriculum and discontinue others to improve financial sustainability.
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* Massey University cuts occasional scientific staff
* The Union of Tertiary Education asks Massey to withdraw the documents of the restructuring proposal
Tertiary Education Union organizer Heather Warren said the university had moved away from its “digital plus strategy,” which eliminated duplication of courses across its three campuses, and now focused on a consolidated curriculum.
“As part of the budget and cost savings, they need to limit the number of offerings to make the science college more sustainable.
“Essentially, it is indicative that the school is over-staffed and in a period of about two years, potentially about 100 people will lose their jobs.
“It’s pretty terrible, but at this stage it’s a discussion paper.”
Warren said the job cuts could affect 30 to 40 percent of science school, but there was no indication of who would be affected.
In the document, Geor said that the financial situation of the university had worsened since February and that the situation “would continue to deteriorate unless we take action.”
He said he had to reduce the number of professional, technical and academic staff. This would mean that the university would not be able to increase the workload of other staff members, so the curriculum would have to be reduced.
“It is clear that whatever we do with our curriculum, we are going to face the reduction of the number of staff positions over a period of 1 to 2 years, starting next year.
“While we wish this was not the case, we simply cannot avoid this reality.”
There are two proposed options for changes to the curriculum, which retain all Massey grades except for the Bachelor of Science with Honors, which would be discontinued.
Changes at the level of specialization are proposed for some courses.
Warren believed that the larger fields would survive, but the smaller, more nuanced fields would not.
“The [union] he thinks job cuts are not good and we don’t support job cuts. “
Warren wanted people who worked in the coal area to participate in the discussions
A Massey spokesperson said the university would not comment until after the discussion phase was completed and comments were received.
The union would reject the number of courses offered if there were fewer staff.
Union members will meet to discuss the document and meet with Geor.
A member of the Palmerston North science faculty, who Stuff agreed not to name, surprised by the new document.
He said that if staff couldn’t convince students to come to Massey to study science because potential students didn’t think science existed in college, things would only get worse.
