Two courses dropped at Ara’s Timaru campus

A lack of demand and uncertainty around employment opportunities may be behind a decision to cut a tourism course from South Canterbury’s tertiary institution.

Two courses have been cut from Ara Institute of Canterbury’s Timaru campus due to low enrolment numbers.

How the cuts will affect staffing is still unclear.

Confirming the news this week, an Ara spokeswoman said a tour- ism course and a photography programme had been cut.

‘‘We cancelled a six month NZ Tourism L3 programme due to only one application.

‘‘We have counselled the student to apply for the Tourism L3 in Oamaru’s July intake which already has more interest.’’

Ara’s Level Five Certificate in Photography was also cancelled. That received three enrolments. ‘‘One withdrew, and the remaining two have been offered places in the L5 Diploma in Arts and Media (Digital Design and Photography).

‘‘One has enrolled and we understand the other was interested in applying, but no enrolment has come through yet.’’

Ara director of education and applied research Judith Brown said while there was a national tourism boom, sometimes that took time to flow through into demand for training opportunities.

Ara had planned to run the tourism course in Oamaru later in the year anyway, Brown said.

‘‘Oamaru does have quite a strong tourism industry.

‘‘Timaru’s is still being built. A strategy is being looked at, what opportunities there are for employment.’’

As for the photography course, while it had been run in the past, it had not had strong enrolments, she said.

It was unclear how the changes would affect staffing.

‘‘We will be looking right across portfolios to see where the demand is,’’ Brown said. ‘‘We need to do quite a broad assessment.’’

Tertiary Education Union (TEU) national president Sandra Grey said it was important to have clarity around potential changes to jobs.

‘‘The uncertainty around the future of courses and jobs over the last few years has been very hard for staff to deal with,’’ she said. ‘‘It’s distracting.’’ There was ‘‘no clear indication’’ of what changes there would be as a result of the courses being dropped, she said.

Ara did usually inform the union when there would be changes made, and Grey said she expected that would continue.