The University of Waikato has proposed cutting 12 mostly senior roles from its management school because of looming financial losses.
University of Waikato says a fall in foreign student enrolments due to the pandemic has created financial difficulties. Photo: CC 2.0 BY-SA New Zealand Tertiary Education Union from New Zealand
A document outlining the proposal said the school would make $3m less than last year and the job cuts would save about $1.1m.
The university said the problem was caused by a fall in foreign student enrolments due to the pandemic.
Though the managment school had 80 more full-time equivalent domestic students this year, it had 290 fewer full-time international students.
The change proposal suggested disestablishing 12 mostly senior full and part-time roles and establishing six new ones for a net loss of 8.8 full-time equivalent positions.
The Tertiary Education Union said the proposal was devastating for the affected staff, who had worked for years for the university and would struggle to find other academic jobs in the current environment.
It said the proposed cuts were in addition to about eight voluntary redundancies made in the management school last year.
Last month the university confirmed the net loss of 6.4 full-time equivalent jobs from its School of Science.