The New Zealand School of Music Te Kōkī will lose around a third of its staff if cuts, proposed to help Victoria University keep its deficit under control, go ahead.
Sally-Jane Norman Photo: Supplied
Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
With a deficit currently running at over 30 million dollars, the University needs to reduce spending in order to keep under its maximum permitted debt ceiling.
It’s proposed removing the equivalent of 229 full time staff, including 9 full-time equivalents from the School of Music’s workforce of 26.
The School’s director, Professor Sally Jane Norman, told RNZ Concert’s Three to Seven programme it will need to lose staff in three areas: Classical Performance, Composition, and Music Studies, which includes Ethnomusicology.
Consultation on the plans closes next month, with staff cuts – if approved – likely to follow from mid-August.
Sally Jane Norman, who is herself one of those who will lose their job, told Three to Seven’s Bryan Crump the University wants a moratorium on its debt restrictions, along with additional funding.
