30 Nov 2017

Loss of top scientists 'will damage uni research'

From Nine To Noon, 9:09 am on 30 November 2017

One of Massey University's top scientists says a radical job cutting programme means New Zealand risks losing some of its top minds to overseas centres.

The university has sent an enhanced voluntary retirement and resignation offer to all 1000 staff in its Colleges of Sciences and Health, as it aims to cut almost $30 million in costs over the next two years.

Albany-based Distinguished Professor Peter Schwerdtfeger told Nine to Noon this morning that the move will put New Zealand-based research on the back foot, and overseas centres will be more than willing to pick up their expertise.

He said many top researchers are looking elsewhere because of what is happening.

"At the moment I'm a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Oslo and many other universities would offer me a job. I'm not talking about only myself - I know other distinguished professors who think about leaving and this would be a terrible loss for New Zealand," Professor Schwerdtfeger said.

He said the decision to push through the round of redundancies has also been damaging and demoralising. It could mean the loss of between 50 and 70 staff, and those remaining are likely to be burdened by huge workloads. He said the few left to teach years one to four will not be able to achieve that on their 37.5 hours a week.

"So we cannot understand why the university would then offer enhanced voluntary retirement and resignation...it makes it so much harder for all the other academics."

Professor Schwerdtfeger said New Zealand universities are "notoriously underfunded". He said the government would need to inject between $250 million and $500m to the sector to bring it up to OECD comparative levels.

He believed savings could have been made in other areas, such as administration where he did not feel money had been wisely spent. Professor Schwerdtfeger said software purchases could have been better thought through, and the competitive nature of the country's universities meant a lot of money was spent on advertising he did not believe was necessary.

Professor Schwerdtfeger said it was also puzzling when the previous chancellor said he had left Massey on secure financial accounts

"All I see is business talk but I can't see the details."

Massey University Vice-Chancellor Jan Thomas acknowledged the uncertainty and stress created by what is happening, but said the move is a planned and rational approach to how the university structures its internal resourcing.

"I see it in a choice of two ways: We can change recognising there's some discomfort for a short period so we can then shift our internal resource allocation to reward excellence and invest in our strategy. Or we can stay as we've been, where at Massey we've had an insignificant surplus with no opportunity to invest further in our research and learning and teaching."

Ms Thomas denied that a decision around which research centres remained would depend on who retired.

"We have no plans for the Institute of Advanced Studies other than to say wherever research excellence occurs we will be able to reward it and that means looking at how it's funded."

She said the institute headed by Professor Schwerdtfeger, which has been a teaching and research area, but the teaching side of it had not been strong enough to support if long term. 

"This is an outstanding research area for the university and needs to be considered through a different lens of funding."

Ms Thomas said all that meant was a look at internal funding streams but there was no intention to close it.

She said it was clear from data that Massey needed to lift its game in some areas when it compared itself with other universities.

"Any university that doesn't look at these things and adapt to the changing environment actually goes behind and we don't want to do that."