Three University of Otago staff have opted for voluntary severance but forced redundancies have not been needed in the restructuring of the university's former social work and community development department.
About six staff have left, or will be leaving the former department, including Dr Patrick Vakaoti, who left late last year to work in Australia, and a half-time staff member who is retiring.
A new Otago department, titled sociology, gender and social work, has been formed, including sociology and gender elements from the former anthropology, gender studies and sociology department.
The restructuring follows concerns by the university central administration that, given traditionally modest government funding for social work education, the former social work department needed a $300,000 annual cross-subsidy.
Anxieties have also been voiced by some commentators that New Zealand already has a shortage of many hundreds of social workers, and also faces big social problems, including poor child health statistics.
"We're in a position to budget with confidence," Prof Hugh Campbell, the new head of the combined department, said this week.
"The most challenging aspect of this restructuring is that we will be farewelling very experienced staff with huge reputations in the field." These people would be "very hard to replace," Prof Campbell said.
Among those taking mid-year severance is Associate Prof Pat Shannon, founder of the Otago social work department, "and the grandfather of the discipline in New Zealand".
It is proposed to replace Dr Vakaoti with another lecturer specialising in the Pacific, and also to make another associate professor-level appointment.
An office support worker and a "placement" staffer would also be appointed.
Although distance-taught access to the four-year social work degree would not now be available until the third year of studies, Otago University would be seeking to build on its strong relationship with other tertiary providers, such as Aoraki Polytechnic and Southern Institute of Technology.
This would enable distance-taught students to enter the Otago programme after three years of polytechnic study.
Prof Shannon said he was "very, very pleased" that "some very good staff" had been retained.
It was "unfortunate" distance-taught entry to the Otago undergraduate programme would now not be until the third year level, which could reduce access to the degree for mature people living in other centres such as Invercargill. Social work was one of the "most demanding" of professions, and was dealing with "a huge area of need", including many "wicked" social problems such as crime, mental health issues, and drug and alcohol abuse, he said.
