Several hundred jobs to go as university’s enrolment drops

Stuff 20 April 2023

Several hundred staff will lose their jobs at New Zealand’s University of Otago after falling student numbers means it needs to slash around NZ$60 million (US$37 million) from its budget, write Lee Kenny and Hamish McNeilly for Stuff.

Applications for voluntary redundancies open on Monday 24 April and close on 2 June, staff were told after 2pm on Thursday 20 April. Both academic and backroom roles are on the chopping block, though what subjects and areas will be affected is yet to be determined. A further round of redundancies is expected to follow, with “several hundred” roles expected to be affected, the university said.

While international students are up by about 495, domestic students are down by about 670, compared to 2022. The university had 19,174 equivalent full-time students in 2022, and a spokesperson said it expects to end 2023 with 18,993. This year has seen an overall drop in enrolments of around 3% at all eight of the country’s universities, said Universities New Zealand.
Full report on the Stuff site

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