A media briefing held by Otago University on Wednesday 3 August, provided few assurances to the future of staff members in the Division of Humanities.
Otago University’s Pro-Vice Chancellor, Tony Ballantyne, addressed the media, stating that five departments within the division will face a ‘management of change’ process that will likely be completed by November of this year.
Ballantyne stated that as a result of a substantial decline in student numbers over the past six years, “a number of our academic units are generating much less income than their operational costs and this and this means that the Division has been facing increasingly large annual deficits and it has been dependant on cross-subsidies to fund its operations.”
“The sustained drop in EFTs that have been experienced in some Departments means that they are overstaffed in relation to current student numbers.”
The process will focus specifically on reviews of the music (but not drama), history, english and linguistics, anthropology and archaeology, and the languages and culture departments. It will involve huge consultation, including meetings with all staff members, who have been told their input will help to “shape the process” through this engagement with the division.
Ballantyne did not specify a particular number of staff who are likely to lose their jobs at the end of the process, but did acknowledge that 15-20 redundancies was not an “unrealistic ballpark figure.” The department “hopes to be able to work through the process in the five impacted units quite quickly.”
Briefing meetings were also held on Tuesday 2 August to help the staff understand what the ongoing procedure will consist of and let them know where they stand before the media were informed.
A forum initiated the process in June, allowing discussions on the division’s plans for the future, with voluntary redundancies and phased retirements being offered as options to staff. Although not much interest was shown in the voluntary redundancy option, there was a sizeable amount of interest shown in the early retirement option.
The reason for such change is the continued decline in student enrollments in the division, with equivalent full-time student (EFTs) numbers falling each year since 2010. Ballantyne noted that the decline in interest shown by students toward humanities subjects was not an issue isolated to Otago University, but rather a situation that is also being seen nationally as well as in Australian, U.S., and European institutions.
As a result of this EFTs decline, the overall focus of the process will be specifically on cost reduction, although the division will not stop attempting to grow student numbers throughout this period.
Despite only five of the division’s departments being reviewed this year, some the remaining departments are certainly not off the hook. The briefing also revealed that “it is probable that changes will be required in the College of Education next year.” Additionally, the philosophy, social work, and classics departments will be reassessed by the division at the end of 2017 to determine whether change is required.
The remaining departments, including the geography, law, media, film and communications, peace and conflict studies, politics, sociology and gender studies, school of Maori, Pacific, and Indigenous studies, theatre, and also theology, will have no formal change process implemented within them. In effect, these have been declared ‘safe’ from redundancies for at least the near future, according to Ballantyne.
In a press release published on their website, the Tertiary Education Union outlined that staff working in these identified departments are “extremely worried about their jobs, and also about their future students.”
OUSA administrative vice president, Jarred Griffiths, explained this eventuality by stating that, “It is of course a result of ongoing underfunding of tertiary education by the current Government. But decisions like this are about making priorities. Some may question why the university is undertaking a multi-million dollar landscaping upgrade at the same time as laying off a high number of staff in an academic department. Those are legitimate questions to ask.”
He goes on to assure students that “this will no doubt have an impact on… students who may be worried about the future of their course. OUSA is available to support any students via our Student Support Centre who are stressed about these impending changes."