Fifteen jobs go at College of Education

The loss of 15 positions at the University of Otago's College of Education by the end of next year has been confirmed, with more job losses signalled for 2012.

An internal restructuring process begun in May had been completed and staff informed of the results, human resources director Kevin Seales said this week.

Overall, 12 full-time-equivalent teacher education fellow positions and three administration positions would go at the end of this year or during next year, he said in a statement.

During 2012, there would need to be further reductions, as specific teaching commitments end, but it was hoped those would occur through attrition, he said.

Mr Seales did not say how many positions might go in 2012.

Although he did not say what the reduction in specific teaching commitments referred to, it is likely to be the university's contract to train Malaysian school teachers which finishes at the end of 2012.

Staff were told last week how their employment was affected under the new structure, Mr Seales said.

The restructuring was proposed to eliminate an overrun of $1.3 million annually in the college budget, and to increase the number of research-active teaching staff.

Staff and the Tertiary Education Union said the initial restructuring proposal, and a revised proposal released last month after submissions were considered, unfairly targeted teacher educators.

Educators are the staff responsible for teaching classroom practice to teacher trainees and for monitoring their progress during work experience placements.

In his statement, Mr Seales said there would be no change to the range of academic programmes offered by the college at either the Dunedin or Southland campuses, and no reduction in teaching practice opportunities for students.

allison.rudd@odt.co.nz