Earlier this month, Massey science staff received a discussion document that says the college’s expenses urgently need to be cut, with most of its curriculum affected by unsustainably low enrolments as a result of New Zealand’s border closure to overseas students.
The document set out two options to address the situation, with both requiring changes to the curriculum, along with a reduction in staff numbers of around a third – which equates to about 100 jobs.
It says decisions need to be made quickly and that although the process will not be easy for anyone “we need to work together to secure the future of sciences at Massey University.”
“It is clear that whatever we do to our curriculum we are going to face reducing the number of staff positions over a 1-2 year period, beginning next year,” the document says.
In a statement to Farmers Weekly, a Massey spokesperson says the university is committed to working with staff, students and stakeholders to hear their feedback and to collectively work towards creating a sustainable financial future for the college.
“While this process is under way, and no decisions have yet been made, we cannot make any comment about potential outcomes,” they said.
It’s a similar situation further south.
A Lincoln spokesperson says as a result of an expected drop in international student numbers, the university has forecasted a significant fall in revenue for 2021.
To compensate, targets have been set to reduce staffing levels next year by 5%, about 30 full-time equivalent positions, to keep the loss to a maximum of $3.5 million.
The spokesperson says learning, teaching and research will be the least affected areas and that initially Lincoln will offer voluntary redundancy options.
“Depending on the uptake of the options, further decisions will be considered.
“While this process is under way, and no decisions have been made, we are unable to comment about potential outcomes,” they said.
The spokesperson says the demand for NZ’s premium food and fibre is increasing, and Lincoln is well-positioned to deliver a highly-skilled workforce to meet that demand.
“Lincoln is the only university to provide training under the Government’s Targeted Training and Apprenticeship Fund, with six qualifications on offer, all of which are classified as food and fibre qualifications,” they said.
“These practical-based courses will produce graduates with the knowledge and skills to hit the ground running and help drive the New Zealand economy, and potentially a wider global influence.”
NZ Institute of Agricultural and Horticultural Science president and Lincoln University professor in animal breeding and genetics Jon Hickford says the universities have placed too much emphasis on overseas students and the extra money they pay for course fees.
“It’s been a dangerous gamble and one that is proving to be costly,” he said.
He says while it’s not new, the over-reliance on international students has been exposed this year.
“When so much of your income is tied up in a single, at-risk income stream, covid has illustrated what a big problem that is when those students are no longer there,” he said.
Universities like Lincoln and Massey need to be more cautious about relying on overseas students and more effort needs to be made to increase the number of domestic students.
“We’re not producing enough of our own agriculture students. We need to back more locals to do agriculture and support the industry we’re all proud to be a part of. We’re just not producing the young people that we need,” he said.
“But it’s hard to get (NZ) kids into agriculture in substantial numbers, although we might get a lift (post-covid) now that they’ve seen it’s a good sector to be in.”
Hickford says Lincoln has sailed close to the wind before and paid the price, with redundancies in 2013, 2014 and 2017 leading to the loss of academic staff.
He says without that staff to teach and research universities cannot function properly.
“When you make academics redundant you’re cutting off the core of your business,” he said.
He says because of the earlier job losses Lincoln cannot afford to cut its academic staff any further.
It is down to about 150-160 academic teaching staff for about 3000 students, with those academics supporting another 500 full-time equivalent staff, roughly three people for every academic.
“That represents a huge number of bureaucratic and administrative staff. If you run your business like that, you’re not running a very good business,” he said.
The job losses are compounded by what Hickford says is a continual attrition on staff budgets that can leave jobs unfilled or filled by people with less experience or expertise.
“When you see job cuts, you can feel like you’re on a bit of a downhill slide, which can be a bit worrying,” he said.
“We need to stand up and be counted and show that we can do better by agriculture in NZ and acknowledge how important it is to the country as a whole.”
