It is the latest announcement in a long-running programme of cuts as the polytechnic seeks financial stability, but it is understood to be the last of the course cuts for the coming year.
Tertiary Education Union organiser Gail Arthur said the moves to cut occupational therapy postgraduate programmes were "incredibly short-sighted".
"The staff were gutted.
"They're worried about their accreditation in the long run because most of the staff have to be either doctorate level or they're postgraduates themselves to be able to run the course."
Ms Arthur said many staff felt like they were being "punished" for being a polytech that had a "high profile and contributes to academia".
"And the courses are all taught online. So it wasn't like they were a cost in a physical sense."
Cutting these programmes could have a knock-on effect for future employment for undergraduates, she said.
"It will limit opportunities for work in this field in Dunedin.
"People could be forced to go up north to learn this practice, which is a terrible shame."
The morale at the polytechnic had been "through the floor", and these cuts sent a clear message that staff were not valued.
"Even those who remain are looking over their shoulders," she said.
Ms Arthur accepted the occupational therapy courses were not meeting the enrolment targets at the moment, but she said management could have done more to promote the courses.
Management also needed to acknowledge that postgraduate students enrolled closer to the time of the course, rather than six months out, she said.
"Staff were disappointed to only be given six weeks to provide their feedback, and hoped that if it had been a two-year process, or even given a year, to work on a plan that they would have been able to get things back up and running again."
There had been "no real attempt to listen to staff", Ms Arthur said.
The restructuring comes during a period of upheaval in the tertiary and vocational education sector.
The ODT discovered last week that nine other courses would also be cut, including the New Zealand certificate in English language (level 2), as well as the New Zealand certificates in brewing and stonemasonry which had been based at the Central Otago campus in Cromwell.
Meanwhile, Tertiary Education Minister Penny Simmonds is leading the break-up of mega-polytechnic Te Pūkenga and moving towards a model where the financially strongest polytechnics can eventually stand on their own and the rest become part of a federation model overseen by the Open Polytechnic.
A decision on which polytechnics will be stand-alone is due shortly.
Otago Polytechnic executive director Megan Potiki said the cuts were needed because the postgraduate occupational therapy programmes did not have the enrolments to support their sustainability.
"While this has been a very difficult choice, we are committed to trying to find a path that will best serve the Dunedin community, and wider Otago region, and to play our part in achieving a sustainable model for New Zealand’s tertiary education sector.
"We can confirm that this concludes our programme sustainability evaluations for 2024, and all programmes that will be disestablished for 2025 have been communicated.
"We will continue to offer the undergraduate Bachelor of Occupational Therapy and the postgraduate Bachelor of Occupational Therapy (Honours). These programmes are not being disestablished."
The courses cut from occupational therapy were:
— Postgraduate Certificate in Applied Practice in Health and Wellbeing (specialty).
— Postgraduate Certificate in Occupational Therapy Practice.
— Postgraduate Diploma in Occupational Therapy Practice.
— Master of Occupational Therapy.
Dr Potiki said the polytechnic would "teach out" all of the above programmes so that presently-enrolled postgraduate students could complete their qualifications.
