An excellent, dedicated staff has been built up over many years at the School of Design. They should be nurtured and commended for their achievements with student successes, collegiality and research funding, not treated like this. The model of managers who solicit funding from industry as part of their KPI is ludicrous and unsustainable. Teaching is what matters, and the School of Design staff have been outperforming every other department at Unitec for years in this regard.
D
Dinnie Denny
12 years ago
Quality teaching does not happen by accident or by any "industry expert" - it happens because of professionally qualified teachers who have the best interests of their students and the future of the profession at heart.
M
Maddy Osborne
12 years ago
This has not been thought through clearly. What you are doing is wrong on so many levels. I hope you can sleep at night knowing you are ruining so many peoples hopes and dreams and possible livlihoods too.
E
Emma Goodfellow
12 years ago
I can not believe unitec would even think about this idea, let alone apply it. You have just ruined students future careers! Those current teachers are the best; they are knowledgeable & experienced (in life and in the INDUSTRY) and you just shat on everything they have done to bring Unitec's Art and Designs department to one of the best in the country. Those lecturers are the ones who made unitec what it is today. This can not happen.
A
Alexandra Telluk
12 years ago
Being a DVA student myself I'm absolutely lost, shoked and don't know whether to continue stuying there or not. When I was applying to do my BDVA progaramme it was considered as one of the best Art institutions in New Zealand. and what now? they're going to destroy everything that had been built throught years and for the sake of what? If Unitec wants to save money by replacing 50 teachers with 17 staff, I'm definitely not going to be a part of this school anymore. The quality of the education won't be the same and this is really dissapointing, this is not what I expected the programme to be. Shame on you Unitec!!!
O
Oliver Church
12 years ago
Unitec miserably failing their creative students, and robbing them (especially current students) of the opportunites that would have been possible at the start of their degrees.
M
Marija Urlich
12 years ago
I support the call to Unitec to rescind its decision. Congratulations to the effected staff and students of the Design and Visual Arts Department who are standing up for quality education!
L
Lin Goncalves
12 years ago
I am trying in my own little way from Africa to help to stop this total absolute utter ABSURDITY.....our daughter Dawn, in her FINAL YEAR of her Design and Visual Arts degree course stands to lose everything she has been working so hard to achieve, having done EXCEPTIONALLY well each year up to now, with some truly fantastic work and projects under her belt - all at risk of being swept away by this crazy idea of laying off the 50 teaching/lecture staff and inviting individuals from related industry to take over......???????????? WHERE, OH WHERE is the logic????
C
Chris Mayer
12 years ago
There is nothing more to be added to what has probably already been said by many others before. This cannot happen.
K
Kim Mackay
12 years ago
If you are unable to honour your proposed level of education, then I suggest you ought to get your house in order prior to sacking the majority of a department. Your current students are paying for a level of education that they are not receiving - how is this fair?
C
céline Sayé
12 years ago
This is unacceptable! how can students receive a better education with less qualified and experienced teacher.
R
Ruth Ames
12 years ago
I have just graduated with strong skills to take me into the workforce.Why on earth are the so called administrators killing off the best arts courses in NZ where practical skills and academic interpretation are taught. By such knowledgable and experienced teachers? It is plain stupidity and lack of thought. Why not turn back now before it is too late?You would avoid a heap of problems that will come yr way next year if you don't.
C
Corinne Tan
12 years ago
Without the mentoring and support from the photography department, I would not be where I was today. The way they nurtured and encouraged me has been life changing and I think Unitec has lost its top department by doing this.
G
Glen Brownlee
12 years ago
Would be end of a good thing.
W
Wendy Metcalfe
12 years ago
Shortsighted politics for which the outcome will be at the expense of consumers. Failures in the training and certification of those in the building industry have had a huge impact on the public in the past. Why would we support a reduction in formal training and expect a different outcome?
R
Rebecca Grbin
12 years ago
The proposed redundancies are an outrage.
J
Julie Baga
12 years ago
A decision to create a more technologically oriented department neglects the reality that even focusing solely on technology and not history or methodology still requires a certain number of bodies. Has Unitec done any sort of study to justify making so many teacher/technicians redundant? A 'high quality' degree will not be supported by so few.
E
Eugene Lok
12 years ago
B Des (Vis Com) - Class of 1998
C
Cybele Wiren
12 years ago
I graduated from Unitec with a Bachelor of Visual Communications, major Painting in 2000. It was a fantastic degree that has set me up for the career path I've enjoyed since. I can't imagine the same degree with less than half the staff to support student learning - what is going on here!?
S
Stephanie Maxwell
12 years ago
I am extremely saddened to learn about the staff reductions/firings in Unitec's DVA. I have been four times as a resident artist from the US, sponsored with DVA, and one of those times included 8 students from the Rochester Institute of Technology (Rochester NY USA) for a 5-week course at Unitec in cosponsorship withDVA and PASA. It is incredible and wrong that the disruption of a very successful and venerable department at Unitec through staff firings take place. How horrible to dismantle DVA, which has uniquely innovative, effective and internationally renown academic programs and staff. The proposed action to fire staff is destructive to Unitec, and to those who have given so much to build Unitec reputation and world stature. Do not let these firings happen.
An excellent, dedicated staff has been built up over many years at the School of Design. They should be nurtured and commended for their achievements with student successes, collegiality and research funding, not treated like this. The model of managers who solicit funding from industry as part of their KPI is ludicrous and unsustainable. Teaching is what matters, and the School of Design staff have been outperforming every other department at Unitec for years in this regard.
Quality teaching does not happen by accident or by any "industry expert" - it happens because of professionally qualified teachers who have the best interests of their students and the future of the profession at heart.
This has not been thought through clearly. What you are doing is wrong on so many levels. I hope you can sleep at night knowing you are ruining so many peoples hopes and dreams and possible livlihoods too.
I can not believe unitec would even think about this idea, let alone apply it. You have just ruined students future careers! Those current teachers are the best; they are knowledgeable & experienced (in life and in the INDUSTRY) and you just shat on everything they have done to bring Unitec's Art and Designs department to one of the best in the country. Those lecturers are the ones who made unitec what it is today. This can not happen.
Being a DVA student myself I'm absolutely lost, shoked and don't know whether to continue stuying there or not. When I was applying to do my BDVA progaramme it was considered as one of the best Art institutions in New Zealand. and what now? they're going to destroy everything that had been built throught years and for the sake of what? If Unitec wants to save money by replacing 50 teachers with 17 staff, I'm definitely not going to be a part of this school anymore. The quality of the education won't be the same and this is really dissapointing, this is not what I expected the programme to be. Shame on you Unitec!!!
Unitec miserably failing their creative students, and robbing them (especially current students) of the opportunites that would have been possible at the start of their degrees.
I support the call to Unitec to rescind its decision. Congratulations to the effected staff and students of the Design and Visual Arts Department who are standing up for quality education!
I am trying in my own little way from Africa to help to stop this total absolute utter ABSURDITY.....our daughter Dawn, in her FINAL YEAR of her Design and Visual Arts degree course stands to lose everything she has been working so hard to achieve, having done EXCEPTIONALLY well each year up to now, with some truly fantastic work and projects under her belt - all at risk of being swept away by this crazy idea of laying off the 50 teaching/lecture staff and inviting individuals from related industry to take over......???????????? WHERE, OH WHERE is the logic????
There is nothing more to be added to what has probably already been said by many others before. This cannot happen.
If you are unable to honour your proposed level of education, then I suggest you ought to get your house in order prior to sacking the majority of a department. Your current students are paying for a level of education that they are not receiving - how is this fair?
This is unacceptable! how can students receive a better education with less qualified and experienced teacher.
I have just graduated with strong skills to take me into the workforce.Why on earth are the so called administrators killing off the best arts courses in NZ where practical skills and academic interpretation are taught. By such knowledgable and experienced teachers? It is plain stupidity and lack of thought. Why not turn back now before it is too late?You would avoid a heap of problems that will come yr way next year if you don't.
Without the mentoring and support from the photography department, I would not be where I was today. The way they nurtured and encouraged me has been life changing and I think Unitec has lost its top department by doing this.
Would be end of a good thing.
Shortsighted politics for which the outcome will be at the expense of consumers. Failures in the training and certification of those in the building industry have had a huge impact on the public in the past. Why would we support a reduction in formal training and expect a different outcome?
The proposed redundancies are an outrage.
A decision to create a more technologically oriented department neglects the reality that even focusing solely on technology and not history or methodology still requires a certain number of bodies. Has Unitec done any sort of study to justify making so many teacher/technicians redundant? A 'high quality' degree will not be supported by so few.
B Des (Vis Com) - Class of 1998
I graduated from Unitec with a Bachelor of Visual Communications, major Painting in 2000. It was a fantastic degree that has set me up for the career path I've enjoyed since. I can't imagine the same degree with less than half the staff to support student learning - what is going on here!?
I am extremely saddened to learn about the staff reductions/firings in Unitec's DVA. I have been four times as a resident artist from the US, sponsored with DVA, and one of those times included 8 students from the Rochester Institute of Technology (Rochester NY USA) for a 5-week course at Unitec in cosponsorship withDVA and PASA. It is incredible and wrong that the disruption of a very successful and venerable department at Unitec through staff firings take place. How horrible to dismantle DVA, which has uniquely innovative, effective and internationally renown academic programs and staff. The proposed action to fire staff is destructive to Unitec, and to those who have given so much to build Unitec reputation and world stature. Do not let these firings happen.