1,000 university sector jobs at risk due to pandemic

Three universities are signalling that there could be voluntary redundancies next year if New Zealand’s border remains closed to international students, writes Simon Collins for the NZ Herald.

None have put any numbers on required staff losses yet, but two are looking to save tens of millions of dollars a year. Based on typical academic salaries of about NZ$100,000 (US$66,400) a year, that means several hundred jobs may go.

Overseas students paid the country’s eight universities NZ$503 million in fees in 2018, making up 13% of the universities’ total revenue. However, the cuts proposed at Auckland and Victoria universities amount to only 4% to 5% of their 2018 revenue, suggesting that up to 1,000 of the university sector’s 22,000 jobs could be at risk.
Full report on the NZ Herald site