Concerned University of Auckland students hold an open forum on the proposed review and potential cuts of courses across the university. Video / Sylvie Whinray
But there’s no sign the course review – which has drawn widespread worry among academics, students and union members – is going to be shelved entirely.
It drew alarm that a raft of smaller courses was on the chopping block – and anger that it hadn’t been discussed at the previous meeting of the university’s council.
At a recent meeting of the university’s senate – a body of senior faculty members that advises the council – professors considered the review an expedited process and “not business as usual”.
Vice-chancellor Dawn Freshwater told staff this week that faculty deans had met to decide that any further work on reviewing courses would now be done per the “usual faculty academic procedures”.
“These procedures enable local consideration of the coherence of programmes and offerings as well as academic workloads,” she said in an emailed update.
The Herald has approached university management with questions about what that change will mean for the scope and timeframe of the course review.
Flyers about the course proposals have been put up around the university.
Multiple academics have meanwhile told the Herald they still have concerns.
“The vice-chancellor does not seem to realise just how concerned the academic staff are about large parts of the curriculum change, beyond the relatively narrow question of course optimisation,” one said.
“So far, nothing has been done to recognise or address those issues.”
The changes were coming ahead of a planned shift for 2026, when new transdisciplinary courses would start being rolled out.
It had been suggested the review was being partly driven by a need to slash specialist teaching at undergraduate and postgraduate levels – which often came with small course sizes – to make space for generalist teaching at levels of more than 100 students.
Management has maintained the review is part of normal university practice and has rejected the suggestion it’s looking to slash all courses of certain sizes.
In a statement earlier provided to the Herald, Freshwater said the review was about looking for opportunities to “remove unnecessary duplication”, while ensuring the course portfolio was balanced and relevant.
“As new courses are added over time, we rebalance the curriculum by removing other courses that may be duplicative, or are no longer relevant or supported by student enrolments.
“This helps to maintain manageable staff workloads and reduces pressure on timetabling and teaching spaces.”
Jamie Morton is a specialist in science and environmental reporting. He joined the Herald in 2011 and writes about everything from conservation and climate change to natural hazards and new technology.
