Universities must tackle bloat, not cry for more handouts

Responding to calls from universities for the Government to renew a ‘one-off’ funding increase, the Taxpayers’ Union is telling the universities to tackle the bloat in non-academic staff in order address their financial challenges.

Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, Connor Molloy, said:

“Research from The New Zealand Initiative has shown that New Zealand universities have around 40% more non-academic than academic staff. Tackling this bloat should be top priority.

“We know that the large number of non-academic staff isn’t necessary because in the US, Canada, UK and Australia the ratio of non-academic to academic staff is significantly lower.

“Spending on non-academic staff is almost half of NZ universities’ salary expenditure. Cutting this back would go a long way to fixing their funding woes.

“The Government must not give in to calls for further funding from universities who have not made a real effort to sort themselves out first. Any government involvement should be targeted at cutting red tape and changing the pricing model to bring more market discipline into our universities.”