An anonymous email sent to the Otago Daily Times last week alleged programmes supporting refugees, such as English language and foundation studies, along with other certificate programmes which give second-chance learners an opportunity, were at "the coal face" of the proposed cuts.
TEU Otago Polytechnic organiser Gail Arthur confirmed the polytechnic had started a consultation process on the proposed cuts of about 30 programmes, including the English and foundation studies programmes.
Dunedin Syrian Society president Wasim Askar said he was deeply concerned about the proposed cuts.
"It is really sad news to hear that they may cut these courses, because they are the first things refugees go to, to learn about the new environment and to learn the language and to be able to fit in.
"I, myself, learned the language there and I can’t imagine what the journey of learning the language for the newcomers would be like without those courses.
"I’m really, really concerned about how the newcomers are going to learn the language.
"It will be very challenging to get a job without language."
He said there were still a lot of refugees coming to Dunedin — particularly people from Jordan who were escaping the conflict around Israel.
However, Ms Arthur said the situation was not "a fait accompli".
There were 31 programmes that were considered to be financially unviable to continue after this year, but the polytechnic was consulting with staff on the proposed cuts.
They were being given a month to submit their views on the proposal for each programme.
She said staff were still being notified at regular meetings about each course that was being included in the proposed cuts, so she declined to release the entire list of 31 courses until all staff had been notified.
"But the cuts are not guaranteed.
"At the moment, they are proposing that these programmes will not be offered in 2025 unless they get feedback from the staff to convince them otherwise.
"There is some good news. It has already been decided that some of the courses will be running again next year — it’s not a given that they will all be cut."
She said the polytech had looked at enrolment numbers from 2021-24 and projected enrolments for next year and found there were "a whole lot of courses that were a little bit under the mark, or quite a bit under the mark".
"It’s a very blunt tool that the polytech are using — they’re just number crunching.
"There’s either not enough students for the courses, or not enough funding to make the course financially viable."
She said the polytechnic’s criteria for making decisions about each of the programmes included considerations about whether they served community need; served industry needs; whether they served as a pathway into a higher-level programme; international growth potential; whether served under-represented priority learners; the uniqueness of the programme; local and regional competition; capital aspects; additional external income; enrolment trends; financial contributions; and student-staff ratios.
The consultation process was expected to be completed by the end of this year, she said.
"The union is absolutely gutted on behalf of our members.
"They’ve been so much change over the last few years."
The anonymous email also took a shot at Otago Polytechnic’s executive for not reducing the number of staff in management or middle management.
However, Ms Arthur said it was still too early to comment on that.
"At the moment, they’re just looking at crunching the numbers on the programmes, and it’s on the programmes that seem to be most financially unviable.
"We’re still at the early stages of cost cutting and management staff cuts may still be to come.
"This has come on the back of the [Tertiary Education] minister’s work to disestablish Te Pūkenga and maybe people are thinking about what we need to do to become a stand-alone, financially viable organisation."
Otago Polytechnic Te Pūkenga executive director Dr Megan Pōtiki said the work was looking at how the institution was resourcing demand for learning in the community and managing staff workload while remaining a financially sustainable organisation.
"As this is an active period of consultation, the privacy of our staff is essential as we work through the appropriate processes.
"Programme staff, academic leaders, people and culture, and the unions are all being involved in discussions.
"Our key focus during this time is the wellbeing of our staff and we have a range of support options in place."
