Tertiary Update on UC Arts morale survey

From last week's Tertiary Update (9 March 2006), on the recent survey of staff morale in the College of Arts:

Morale sinks as jobs go at Canterbury

Morale among academic staff in the College of Arts at the University of Canterbury is low and getting worse, according to research conducted by the Canterbury Branch of the Association of University Staff. The survey-based research also shows that staff are not happy with the amount of time available for research, stress levels are unacceptably high and they believe their opinions are not valued by University management. Staff members see no evidence of any long-term vision from the University’s senior management team, and almost half have been seriously thinking of leaving the University.

The release of the survey coincides with protests by staff and students at job cuts proposed for the College of Arts where it is expected that around twenty-three academic and general-staff jobs will be lost as the College moves to cut $1.6 million from its operational expenditure.

AUS Branch President, Dr David Small, said the survey of one hundred academic staff in the College revealed an alarmingly high sense of disaffection among the people who are employed to perform the core teaching and research functions of the University. “The survey shows, for example, that 82 percent of respondents think that the Vice-Chancellor is “uncaring” or “uncaring about the terms and conditions of employment of academic staff”, while 85 percent do not believe that the priorities of the senior management team are appropriate for the University,” he said. “Most respondents, 70 percent, believe that morale is worse than a year ago, and 73 percent reported that they are dissatisfied with the amount of time available for research.”

Meanwhile, at a meeting of more than 200 staff on Friday, the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Roy Sharp, said he will not be backing down on plans to cut the budget with consequential job losses in the College of Arts. He told The Press that he had not changed his mind about the direction he was moving in. “I expected [staff] to put their views forcefully and they did. That was no surprise,” he said.

Yesterday the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences passed a series of four resolutions expressing opposition to the proposed cuts and dismay at the failure of the Vice-Chancellor to provide adequate financial or academic reasons for them.

It has also been revealed that up to thirty jobs will be lost at the Christchurch College of Education as it moves to cut $1.5 million from its budget prior to its proposed merger with the University of Canterbury next year.

The staff-morale survey report can be found at this link.