NEW ZEALAND: Canterbury University staff asked to quit

Canterbury University is calling on staff to consider taking voluntary redundancy as it struggles to balance the books after losing students because of the earthquake that struck the city earlier this year, reports TVNZ.

In a letter emailed to the university's 3,000 staff last week, Vice-chancellor Rod Carr said the university was facing significant financial challenges after a 13% drop in student numbers compared with last year. The university has lost 25% of its first-year students, 30% of its international students and 8% of continuing students. About 15,500 students are enrolled at the university.

Carr told the press last week that no figure had been put on expected redundancies at this stage. He told staff that he was calling for voluntary redundancies to try to minimise the number of possible compulsory redundancies.
Full report on the TVNZ site