The minister for tertiary education, Steven Joyce, last week advised that Cabinet has accepted the Lincoln University-Telford Rural Polytechnic merger proposal.

The merger, which will now take place on 1 January 2011, will see Lincoln’s roll swell to about 3,600 equivalent full-time students, up from 2,700 this year. Lincoln vice-chancellor Professor Roger Field said that he expected that there would be no job losses or immediate course changes.

Professor Field and the chief executive of Telford, Jonathan Walmsley, told staff at their two institutions last week that the fundamental reason for the merger is to protect and improve land-based education delivery and increase student opportunities for access to quality land-based education.  Their memo to staff notes:

“For both institutions, 2011 will largely be business as usual in terms of day-to-day activities and student experience. However, we will be working to achieve full integration of both institutions as Lincoln University, with Telford retained as a Division of the University as?? a sub-brand.”

The memo states that the merged entity will be making offers of employment to Telford staff within the next 2 weeks.  Lincoln has told the Press it is committed to retaining Telford’s sub-degree courses, but also wanted its students to study at a higher level, especially in agriculture and agricultural science.