University crisis: don’t be so hard on yourself

LOOKING from afar, one has to be impressed with the fervour shown by both the ODT and its correspondents in discussing the current woes of the University of Otago. My advice is, “Don’t be so hard on yourselves.”

Yes, the budget has turned red, the staff are overworked and student enrolments have dropped. Welcome to what all New Zealand universities are grappling with.

In my 45plus years around university traps, the biggest changes, principally from the 1990s onwards, has been the gross expansion of expensive management structures, overt competition between universities for students, recruitment of large numbers of overseas students and proliferation of specialised courses. All this was well and good when the economy and student numbers were booming, but it quickly turned to custard in recent years.

The University of Otago was unique in that, as Ms van Turnhout pointed out, it was always able to finance its expansion using its own resources without incurring external debt. This was an amazing achievement but with it came a downside, namely lack of financial discipline — something every homeowner with a big mortgage has to exercise.

The other thing unique about Otago, is the intense local pride in “their” university. This makes it tricky to “cut the cloth to fit” in an institution that is as hallowed as Robbie Burns himself.

Perhaps there is a unique “Otago solution” to all of this as over the years the university has accumulated a reservoir of fat that can be cut without sacrificing jobs?

Dick Wilkins Lyttelton