Unitec betrays its trust

Unitec betrays its trust

Unitec's management is betraying the trust of its students, staff and the public, says the Quality Public Education Coalition (QPEC).

"Unitec is conducting a spate of restructuring that seriously threatens the viability of its programmes," says Dr David Cooke, spokesperson for QPEC. A clear example is the Department of Design and Visual Arts, which sacked over 50 of its long-time academic staff last year, replacing them with casual appointees.

Now Unitec is planning more restructuring.

"By doing this," says Dr Cooke, "Unitec is dumping decades of expertise in teaching, scholarship, publishing, connections with business and industry, and academic upgrading."

Every time it does this, Unitec weakens and undermines its programmes and the people involved. "The outcome is an anti-educational atmosphere that turns education into an assembly-line," says Dr Cooke.

"Staff don't know whether they'll be there by mid-year. Students don't know whether their courses are worth taking. Employers can't trust that graduates will have met the high standards of learning that used to characterise Unitec."

"The public is being short-changed because of Unitec management's ideology of slash and burn, with disastrous results."

ends

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