Otago's ratio of general to academic staff members dropped last year - but it was still the highest of the country's seven largest universities, a comparison report has found.
A report comparing seven universities - Otago, Auckland, Auckland University of Technology, Canterbury, Massey, Victoria and Waikato - was presented to councillors at the University of Otago last week.
The information comes as the university continues with its review into support services roles, which began in 2015 and has led 149 general staff at the university opting to take voluntary redundancy so far.
The ratio of general to academic staff at Otago was 1.9:1 in 2017, the highest of any university. However, it was down from 2016, when Otago had 2.1:1 general staff members to one academic staff member.
The average across the country last year was 1.4:1 general to one academic, and the year before it was 1.3:1.
Tertiary Education Union national president Sandra Grey said there was no magic number when it came to the ratio of general to academic staff.
However, two reports over the last few years showed academic staff at New Zealand universities felt increasing pressure to take on administrative roles.
``Staff themselves are saying it's not sustainable,'' she said.
With a recent report from the New Zealand Students' Association into student mental health finding nearly 56% of students had considered dropping out, it was more important than ever that staff had face-to-face contact and direct interaction with students.
In terms of enrolment numbers, the comparison report showed the University of Auckland had the largest roll last year, with 33,366 equivalent full-time students (EFTS), while the second-highest roll was at the Auckland University of Technology, which had 19,716 EFTS.
Otago was in fourth place with 18,457 EFTS, after Massey, which had 18,688. With 1196 academic staff employed by the university, there was one academic staff member to every 15.4 students this year, a ratio that was slightly above average for the universities surveyed.
The report leaves out Lincoln University, which had a roll of 2695 EFTS last year.
The University of Otago was unable to provide a comment before the deadline yesterday.
Comments
The reason "academic staff at New Zealand universities felt increasing pressure to take on administrative roles" is because of the ever-increasing number of university administrators, who all feel the need to introduce new and intrusive rules and procedures in order to justify their positions. There is a very simple rule of university administration: ever new administrator adds to, rather than reduces, the administrative burden imposed on academic staff.
Universities would be far better off sacking all admin staff (other than librarians and lab technicians), using the funds thus released to double the number of academics, who could then divvy the necessary admin work up amongst themselves.