University staff call for urgent action

The Annual Conference of the Association of University Staff, which met in Wellington on 4/5 December unanimously passed a resolution calling on the Government to accelerate its review of the tertiary sector so as to reverse the loss of skilled staff and academic programmes.

AUS National President, Neville Blampied, said in Wellington today that another year of declining real funding for universities would be a catastrophe for higher education in New Zealand.

“Whole research teams are being lured overseas for better salaries and, more importantly, better research support,” he said, “and universities are surviving only by savage cuts to library funding, departmental operating funds and teaching programmes.”

“The Government must also put its words into action and move the universities into a co-operative rather than competitive mode in order to avoid further loss of intellectual opportunity for young New Zealanders.”

Neville M. Blampied
National President

Contact: 021 680 475

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