95 academics lose their jobs

Nearly 100 university staff have been made redundant this year as funding per student drops for the first time in six years.

Union leaders and vice-chancellors say universities have reached a tipping point where further restructuring and cost-cutting will significantly impact on the quality of education.

An Official Information Act request sent to New Zealand's eight universities reveals there have been 30 forced redundancies, 46 voluntary redundancies and 19 non-defined redundancies this year.

The highest number of forced redundancies was at Auckland University, which had 12, while Massey had 19 redundancies in total, but it did not define whether they were forced or voluntary.

In the South Island, Otago University had seven redundancies while Canterbury and Lincoln universities had three and four, respectively.

Treasury figures show tertiary spending on a per-student basis has dropped below $10,000 this year the first decrease since 2003 and is expected to drop again next year.

Tertiary Education Union president Tom Ryan said the job losses were significant and the situation was "very worrying".

"The way things are heading, it will get significantly worse over the coming months and beyond."

In the May Budget, funding for the university tripartite agreement which guaranteed salary increases for academics was cut, with expected savings of more than $55 million by 2013.

Ryan said this would push academic salaries further behind Australia, making it difficult to recruit top people in a tough international environment.

A recent Government report revealed almost 40 per cent of tertiary teachers were aged over 50 a 15 per cent increase over the past 15 years.

Ryan described this as a "demographic time-bomb" which, combined with higher salaries overseas, was exacerbating a dangerous situation.

"This is the only Government that we are aware of anywhere that's actively disinvesting in education.

"Potentially, the university system will lose its credibility and that would be tragic."

New Zealand Vice-Chancellors' Committee chairman Professor Roger Field said universities were at a "critical stage" facing rising enrolments and falling revenue.

"There's genuine concern about the impact on the quality of what universities can provide with the current level of funding."