Dozens of university students, teachers and union members gathered outside the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) office in Wellington on Friday to protest its funding cut of $52m as a result of the fall in student numbers.

The Tertiary Education Union said it was outraged by the cuts for institutions that were already shutting down courses and making staff redundant because of a shortfall of funding.

Dougal McNeill, the union branch president at Victoria University of Wellington, said he was shocked by the signalled funding cut which had come just months after the Government announced $128m in additional funding for the struggling sector.

Universities are funded through the TEC, partly based on the number of students they have. However, a recent drop in student enrolments has exacerbated the financial challenges many have been facing.

In a briefing to Education Minister Jan Tinetti about the state of the tertiary sector, TEC signalled its intention to reclaim $52m in funding.

It noted a number of providers were forecast to “under deliver” with enrolments forecast to be “significantly lower”.

Lower student enrolments at Te Pūkenga, Otago University, Massey University, Auckland University of Technology (AUT), and Te Herenga Waka ‒ Victoria University, meant they were expected to deliver $107.7m less than previously forecast.

Protesters outside the TEC building on Friday morning described the cuts as “ripping the future away from learners” and a decision that would put them on “the wrong side of history”.

Stephen Epstein, Victoria University associate professor in Asian Studies, said the cuts were “short-sighted” and would “come back to bite the butt of New Zealand”.

“It’s a post-Covid crisis and we won’t be equipped to deal with it,” Epstein said.

Jessica Ye, president of the Victoria University Student Association also pointed to the lack of a long-term plan. Being able to attend university was a human right and further cuts took away students’ rights to an education.

Hiromi Yagishita, who worked in student operations at Victoria University, said the department had already lost a lot of staff and feared they would lose more. ”They’re not providing incentives for people to stay.”

Third year linguistics and German student Jonathan Westlake said his future studies were uncertain given languages were one of the departments on the line with hundreds of jobs expected to be lost.

Victoria University of Wellington outlined proposals to cut jobs and seriously change the courses on offer across departments as a result of budget deficits which so far total $143.1m.

Westlake was “devastated” by TEC’s funding cut.

“I know a lot of students in the years below and I don’t know that they will get the same opportunity … It makes me really sad.”

Media and communications lecturer Valerie Cooper said staffing cuts had been ongoing since she started teaching at Victoria University three years ago.

“I do not understand the logic and it’s extremely frustrating when we’ve been working so hard for a different outcome. I hope New Zealand doesn’t go down the neoliberal approach to higher education.”

Students Against Cuts organiser Pat Biss said the decisions that would affect many people’s lives were being made behind closed doors.

“Every time we try and make our voices heard, the people making decisions effectively refuse to get out of their office and meet us.”

The TEC also questioned whether Te Pūkenga’s cost-cutting measures ‒ including cuts to 400 staff ‒ went far enough to address its own financial challenges and falling student numbers.

Victoria University of Wellington and Otago University asked the TEC to delay reducing their funding this year and instead recover it in 2024. This was seen to be especially important for the capital’s university which was reportedly “forecasting access to cash to be tight at the end of the year”.

Victoria University is grappling with a forecast deficit of $34m this year, and has seen enrolments decline 12.1%​ compared with last year.