KEY POINTS:
Unitec has told staff it may axe more than 60 jobs in a restructuring to cut costs.
Chief executive Dr Rick Ede said the tertiary institution needed to improve its financial position by between $11 million and $18 million over the next three years.
Among proposals in a consultation document issued last week was stopping all courses in six areas - including interior decor, horticulture and travel and tourism - and dropping three postgraduate programmes.
The document highlighted an "overly complex and top-heavy" management structure and behind-average student to staff ratios.
"As the largest [institute of technology and polytechnic] in New Zealand, we should be able to realise economies of scale not available to the smaller institutions," it said.
Feedback, due by mid-August, will go to the Unitec council meeting in September.
Dr Ede said the plans were only a proposal and likely to be changed.
"I fully expect that the proposal will be modified as a consequence of the feedback received from staff and other stakeholders," he said.
Unitec had more than 850 full-time staff last year and more than 9000 full-time equivalent students at campuses in Mt Albert, Henderson and Takapuna.
Last year was the first time in four years it recorded a profit, buoyed by a multimillion-dollar boost from Government to set up on the North Shore.
Dr Ede, who started at the institution in April, said Unitec could slide into a vulnerable financial position if it did not take action.
"If we act now we can take control of our own destiny and create our own future."
Tertiary education institutions are coming to grips with a new Government funding method that shifts the emphasis from increasing student numbers to meeting pre-set goals.
Association of Staff in Tertiary Education field officer Chan Dixon said the union believed Government underfunding was one reason for Unitec's financial woes.
"What you're getting in many institutions is deficit being loaded on deficit," she said. "Many of the institutions we cover are, in our view, lean to the bone in terms of academic staff."
Ms Dixon said Unitec's move into Waitakere campus had been controversial, with some regarding it as "expansionist".
Unitec's six-year battle to become the country's ninth university ended in 2006 with an announcement by then-Education Minister Trevor Mallard that it should remain an institute of technology. Dr Ede said that was no longer a focus.
INTRODUCING A DEGREE OF CHANGE
Proposed Unitec changes include:
* Axing all courses in interior decor, horticulture, language teacher education, travel and tourism, floristry and degree-level Japanese and English.
* Withdrawing Master of Architecture, Master of Education and Post Graduate Diploma in Education courses.
* Abolishing about 112 positions and creating about 45 new positions, with a net loss of about 67 jobs - of which about half would be academic positions and the rest in management, administration and support roles.
