Staff give fail grade to university management

A leaked Victoria University staff survey paints a picture of an institution where staff love their jobs, rate their immediate managers, but have little faith in senior leaders.

The survey from October, of about 1850 staff members, showed just 29 per cent had confidence in the university’s senior leaders, and it was a figure that had plummeted by 30 per cent since the last survey was done, in 2018.

Just 18 per cent believed change was handled well at the university.

The Tertiary Education Union (TEU) says ‘‘short-term and careless’’ actions by senior leadership during 2020 had caused a lasting rift with staff, but vicechancellor Grant Guilford says the tough decisions were made to avoid a ‘‘financial crisis’’ during the pandemic.

The university has been through significant change – or attempts at it – in the three years to 2021.

There was a failed and controversial attempt to change its name to University of Wellington. Even after having the idea shot down by Education Minister Chris Hipkins, it pushed on with emphasising the word ‘‘Wellington’’ over ‘‘Victoria’’.

More recently, the university had a gruelling 2020. Facing a $19 million deficit brought on by the global pandemic, 200 people lost their jobs through redundancies and early retirement.

The Whiria Project, a controversial proposal to centralise decision-making and bump financial decisions from schools to management teams, faced backlash from staff and students.

TEU branch organiser Dougal McNeill said the results were ‘‘terrible’’.

‘‘I’ve been saying for a long time that the approach to Covid-19 and its fallout has been at the expense of staff,’’ he said. ‘‘Short-term’’ and ‘‘careless’’

‘‘The approach to Covid-19 and its fallout has been at the expense of staff.’’ Dougal McNeill Tertiary Education Union branch organiser

decisions from the senior leadership team had caused ‘‘lasting damage’’ to relationships with staff.

McNeill said it wasn’t just the ‘‘threats of cuts and real cuts’’ that occurred last year, but the spectre of restructure raised by the Whiria Project, which brought ‘‘unnecessary’’ stress to staff.

‘‘There was understandable concern about the short-term and careless way these decisions seemed to be made in the midst of a global pandemic.’’

Though the survey results showed most staff members were positive about their profession, the senior leadership still needed to rebuild relationships.

‘‘We don’t see any sign that there’s been recognition of the full extent of damage that’s been done last year.’’

Guilford admitted that staff had faced a year of difficult decisions – including redundancies, pay freezes, campus closures and high workloads – but he maintained they were necessary.

‘‘I completely understand the way staff are feeling, but I do stand by those actions. We had to make ends meet, otherwise the university would have been insolvent, and we would not have been able to meet the students’, staff and community’s needs in the future,’’ Guilford told Stuff.

Concerns about the Whiria Project were ‘‘a red herring’’ and they did not come up a lot in survey responses.

He said a breakdown in the results showed 33 per cent of people responded favourably to the senior leadership and 28 per cent were neutral towards them.

He also said senior staff at the university were largely positive about their managers, including 80 per cent of heads of schools, 86 per cent of directors, 78 per cent of deans and 92 per cent of the senior leadership team.

Guilford will retire as vicechancellor in March, after eight years.

He rejected the idea that the next vice-chancellor would have to significantly repair relationships with the university’s staff.

‘‘I think I’ve done a good job for the incoming vice-chancellor,’’ he said.

‘‘It would have been very easy for me to kick the can down the road [and] not make these hard decisions.’’

That would have left the university in a ‘‘financial crisis’’ and facing largerscale redundancies, he said.