AUT Under Review

However, there is another underlying cause for the recent reviews. The Government changed the way universities are funded at the end of 2007.
    “Ninety percent of our income would have been paid by students. The new funding regime means only 70 percent of the funding now comes from students,” says Prince.
    The rest of the funding will be “a complicated combination of things like the PBRF ratings and research done”, says Prince.
    AUT says the new funding regime isn’t the only reason cutbacks needed to be made.
    Nigel Murphy, spokesperson for the Vice-Chancellor Derek McCormack, said the entire university sector was “under-funded and has been for many years”.
    “AUT is certainly not alone in being fiscally challenged.”
    The NZ Vice Chancellors Committee released a statement that pointed out “international student enrolments have been falling for several years, which has a direct impact on all universities’ bottom lines”.
    One trend from the reviews so far is the loss of mainly certificates and diplomas, rather than degrees.
    AUT confirmed it was “reviewing certain programmes – especially pre-degree – as well as admin and support structures, to look for ways to become more effective and efficient. Other universities are doing the same”.
    This has come from pressure by the Government to increase the ratio of degrees to non-degrees at AUT which is currently around 66 per cent degrees and 34 per cent non-degrees.
    The Government has recently been pushing trades and apprenticeships, which according to Prince is a good thing but when it comes to universities its view is clear.
    “They want us to do less certificates and diplomas,” he says.
    One person concerned about this is Jan Herman, president of AuSM.
    Herman says: “We were quite concerned that the Government wanted to make universities in particular not able to just teach anything they wanted. They were being dictated to and this could affect students.”
    Student debt is another reason Herman believes the Government is wrong. “If a course isn’t offered in Auckland because it is not considered necessary by the Government, the student has to move outside Auckland. This will cost so much more in living and they will come out with major debt.”
    Some of the courses cut are the Certificate of Pharmacy Technology, Certificate of Cultural Tourism and Travel, five smaller art and design certificates, two engineering certificates and the New Zealand Diploma of Business.
    “We were quite concerned when we heard the New Zealand diploma of business had been cut. I have met a few students who were coming to AUT just to do it,” says Herman.
    There may be more reviews to come and apart from the obvious losses like jobs and courses AUT’s teaching style of more lecturer interaction and support, and smaller classes may suffer. The model other universities like Otago and Auckland use involves a smaller amount of lecture time and tutors in the form of other students.
    Prince says: “The University of Auckland has undergraduate classes with up to 700 people in them. Only two lecturers and many student tutors make costs low. But AUT doesn’t do that.”
    The teaching style at AUT would be its biggest loss, according to Herman.
    “I just graduated in my double degree a few weeks ago and I think I’m better for it through the amount of interaction I’ve had with lecturers outside the classroom. It’s one of the main reasons I came to AUT, because of the teaching style.”
    Though it may eventually have to happen, Prince believes students are safe for the time being. “AUT will have a long way to go before we change from what we are now to a university like Auckland or Otago.”