The Manawatu Standard has reported that more than $5.5 million is set to be cut from the budget for Massey University’s College of Sciences.

Staff redundancies and course cuts are both looming. In a financial management plan sent to College of Sciences staff last week, pro-vice chancellor Robert Anderson outlined a proposal for reducing costs. The university says that changes are being made in response to government cuts to the tertiary sector, and that overallit now faces a $10m shortfall, along with a cap on funding for more students.

Prof Anderson also drew attention to an allegdly “high rate of salary inflation” since 2003.

Staff are being offered voluntary retirement or redundancy, and long-serving staff are being offered up to 16 weeks’ extra pay. But if enough staff do not take up the offer, a series of “staffing reviews” would take place next year, Prof Anderson said.

Staff in the College of Business and College of Humanities and Social Sciences also are being invited to retire or quit.

Submissions from staff on proposed course changes are open until November 27, while the university is calling for decisions on redundancy packages by January 22. In the proposal, engineering course offerings will be reduced by 25 percent.

Bachelor and Master of Applied Sciences programmes also will be cut, along with the majority of certificate level courses – including diplomas in agriculture, horticulture and exercise science. Sciences pro-vice chancellor Robert Anderson said the current academic portfolio is “confusing, unnecessarily complex, unfocused, duplicative, and … unaffordable”.

TEU national secretary Sharn Riggs said she was concerned that while the voluntary retirement scheme was being offered all across Massey University, only the College of Science seems to be required to achieve a certain level of redundancies or retirements. “The TEU is trying to ascertain whether that is a number or a percentage.”

“We now are seeing the real effects of the 2009 budget. If student numbers were not being capped, and basic funding was being maintained, our institutions would be better provided to deal with the recession and current levels of unemployment,” said Ms Riggs.