There will be meetings across the campuses of Massey University this week with staff angry at plans to make major changes in the College of Science and other changes in other Colleges without any real opportunity for staff input.

The meetings of affected members are only the first steps in the push back against proposed changes which could result in hundreds of job losses. On 12 March there will be a paid stopwork meeting of all Massey staff.

TEU organiser Heather Warren says there is real anger at the proposed cuts because there is a feeling that much has been predetermined by a “small group of senior leaders. The proposal will cut courses and change the style of delivery in other cases. We won’t stand by and watch the Massey senior leadership team cut back opportunities for students.”

TEU members have looked carefully at the discussion documents and found that most proposals reflect a kind of technological and financial determinism are present. Warren says “we are questioning the facts and figures used to justify the deep and drastic changes being proposed. We know that the overall funding model means our tertiary education institutions are struggling, but we need our senior leaders to work with us on getting a better funding model rather than taking these kinds of drastic cost-cutting measures”, says Warren.

“We know that the best educational quality comes from making sure that decisions are made on sound teaching and learning outcomes, and on values which support the public good.”

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