MAINZ Auckland music school closure confirmed, says Te Pūkenga

MAINZ has produced award-winning musicians, artists, and producers through its programmes. Photo / File

Te Pūkenga has confirmed it is permanently closing an Auckland music school that has produced award-winning musicians, artists, and producers.

The decision to close the Music and Audio Insitute of New Zealand’s Auckland campus was made yesterday.

MAINZ is part of the Southern Insitute of Technology, which is now part of mega-polytech Te Pūkenga.

A staff member confirmed to Newstalk ZB they were told of the closure in a meeting with SIT leaders yesterday morning, and the 18 staff members’ jobs will be made redundant.

Students did not receive official confirmation from SIT Te Pūkenga until later yesterday afternoon.

The campus was unable to open for semester one due to damage in the Auckland flooding and Te Pūkenga provided students with alternative study options.

Te Pūkenga deputy chief Executive academic centre and learning systems Dr Megan Gibbons said it was not a decision taken lightly and they appreciate the impact on staff and students.

Ongoing significant losses, due to low enrolments, compounded by flood damage, are unsustainable, she said.

Staff will be given support through the employee assistance programme and they will work with students to help them complete or redirect their studies.

Gibbons said there will be dedicated support to help students part-way through qualifications to complete courses.

Te Pūkenga is working with staff on options including attrition, voluntary severance, redeployment, and retraining options ahead of any redundancies.

MAINZ Auckland co-programme leader of goundation music Chris Orange said staff are “shattered”.

Staff and the Tertiary Education Union had made submissions detailing a plan for how the campus could remain open.

Tertiary Education Union organiser Jane Kostanich said a second submission from staff provided a comprehensive proposal that would ensure MAINZ would be financially viable in the future.

“[Te Pūkenga] couldn’t really say why, they just continued to say it was a difficult situation, but they didn’t respond to the specific submission,” she said.

Orange said they spent the last month working hard on the proposal, and staff were prepared to take a cut in their contracts to get them through the next year.

Other options in Auckland differ from what MAINZ offers.

“Our delivery is successful, we know what we’re doing, we’re in the biggest city of New Zealand that has all the gigs, it’s where the music industry is, why can’t you study to do any of those things in the place where the music is?

“Basically [Te Pukenga is] abdicating responsibility for any kind of leadership in polytech arts programmes or job training,” Orange said.

A student-started petition against the closure gathered more than 2000 signatures.

Current student Olivia Whitehead said SIT sent an email about the decision late yesterday afternoon.

“The way it was handled has been pretty awful, communication to students has been pretty awful [and it’s] taken a huge mental toll, financial as well.”

She said students had held hope that Te Pūkenga would see what MAINZ has to offer and change their minds, but they haven’t.

“It’s like breaking apart a family,” she said.

The MAINZ Christchurch campus is not impacted.

Te Pūkenga said the decision has reinforced the importance of its work with Workforce Development Councils to design programmes that meet industry needs and are financially stable and it will be working with Toi Mai to advance this.