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From reporter Hamish McNeilly:
It was meant to be part of a world-leading health and education precinct, but now it has been parked due to escalating costs.
The Interprofessional Learning Centre was pitched as an educational facility for University of Otago and Otago Polytechnic students at … View moreFrom reporter Hamish McNeilly:
It was meant to be part of a world-leading health and education precinct, but now it has been parked due to escalating costs.
The Interprofessional Learning Centre was pitched as an educational facility for University of Otago and Otago Polytechnic students at the new Dunedin Hospital.
But those behind the project - Te Whatu Ora, the University of Otago and Te Pūkenga – released a statement on Friday afternoon confirming: "that the Interprofessional Learning Centre will not go ahead at this time".
Instead, the focus has moved from a specific building for interprofessional learning, to moving to growing interdisciplinary training for future healthcare professionals.
Part of that decision involved the escalating costs of the project, increasing from an estimate of $50 million in 2020 to more than $130m based on current projections.
“Due to the escalating costs, our organisations have had to consider the feasibility of a new, separate building to house training,” Te Whatu Ora chief executive Fepulea'i Margie Apa said.
"I want to reassure the community that this decision will not impact or compromise the training for students and our staff.
"Our trainee doctors, nurses and other health practitioners will still continue to have the advantage of clinical placements on-site at the New Dunedin Hospital."
Te Whatu Ora would continue to explore how to further teaching and learning opportunities in Dunedin.
Meanwhile, the University of Otago’s acting vice-chancellor, Professor Helen Nicholson, said the university was a leader in interprofessional health education and was disappointed the project would not go ahead at this time.
Long-term, the university supported an interprofessional learning facility.
Work would continue between the three parties to develop interprofessional education as part of the workforce strategy, including the potential to ‘’reactivate’’ the proposal in the future.
The $17m earmarked for the project remains in the budget of the $1.4 billion hospital, the largest infrastructure build of it type in New Zealand.
The project had faced ballooning costs, which led to $100m in cuts while preserving as much design and clinical capacity as possible within a "reduced footprint".
However, a report from Te Whatu Ora Southern warned those cuts posed "reputational, operational and clinical risk".
Dear neighbours, every month, NZ Gardener runs a series of reader recipes using a seasonal crop. This month, we're on the hunt for cauliflower recipes! Send your best ones to mailbox@nzgardener.co.nz by June 25, 2023. Every published recipe wins a copy of the August issue of NZ Gardener.
Reinvent an old picnic basket into a snazzy new sewing case with fresh Resene colours.
Find out how to revamp your own with our handy advice.
June is upon us, so it's well and truly time to hunker down for the colder temperatures. For some across Aotearoa, this just means a second duvet on the bed. And for others, it's defrosting your car windscreen daily and bringing out the heaters.
What do you do to prepare for winter? … View moreJune is upon us, so it's well and truly time to hunker down for the colder temperatures. For some across Aotearoa, this just means a second duvet on the bed. And for others, it's defrosting your car windscreen daily and bringing out the heaters.
What do you do to prepare for winter? Share your tips for staying warm and dry, and for making the most of the chillier season.
Type 'Not For Print' if you wish your comments to be excluded from the We Say You Say column of your local paper.
The University of Otago vice-chancellor is stepping down
Professor David Murdoch, who has battled ill-health, will take a position as a distinguished professor at the university’s Christchurch campus.
“I am deeply thankful for all the support I received while I was ill recently.”
He … View moreThe University of Otago vice-chancellor is stepping down
Professor David Murdoch, who has battled ill-health, will take a position as a distinguished professor at the university’s Christchurch campus.
“I am deeply thankful for all the support I received while I was ill recently.”
He had made a full recovery, but that had led to he and his wife “to reflect on our future direction”.
“This led to the difficult decision to take up new opportunities and to undertake a different pathway at this time.”
Murdoch would also take up opportunities with the University of Oxford.
Chancellor Stephen Higgs thanked him for his contributions to Otago University during his time as cice-chancellor.
“David is one of New Zealand’s foremost experts in infectious diseases and we are delighted that he will be able to continue to contribute to this important field and others in his capacity as Distinguished Professor.”
Murdoch was appointed to the position of vice-chancellor at the start of February 2022.
Deputy vice-chancellor Professor Helen Nicholson would continue in the role of acting vice-chancellor until a permanent replacement was found.
Nicholson had fronted media after it was revealed the tertiary institution was facing a $60 million deficit, with the potential loss of hundreds of jobs.
Meanwhile, a global search process would be undertaken to find a permanent replacement.
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Have a bit of fun playing around with verdigris paint effects with Resene paints and add classical highlights to your summer garden.
Follow our easy advice to get started getting creative at your place.
When you move to a Ryman village, the last thing you need to think about are unexpected costs. We offer financial security with rates, home insurance, exterior maintenance and gardening all covered under one fixed base weekly fee*, meaning once you’ve moved in you can focus on the things you … View moreWhen you move to a Ryman village, the last thing you need to think about are unexpected costs. We offer financial security with rates, home insurance, exterior maintenance and gardening all covered under one fixed base weekly fee*, meaning once you’ve moved in you can focus on the things you enjoy.
Find out more about our living options today and get ready for a new lifestyle.
*some conditions apply
From reporter Hamish McNeilly:
The ‘’poor retention’’ of students was a key reason for a decline in domestic enrolments at the University of Otago.
“Student enrolment numbers for 2023 are now clear, and they are down on what we had budgeted for,’’ acting vice-chancellor Helen … View moreFrom reporter Hamish McNeilly:
The ‘’poor retention’’ of students was a key reason for a decline in domestic enrolments at the University of Otago.
“Student enrolment numbers for 2023 are now clear, and they are down on what we had budgeted for,’’ acting vice-chancellor Helen Nicholson told staff after announcing the tertiary institution faced a $60million deficit, and the possible loss of hundreds of jobs.
“Overall, our enrolments are down by 0.9% on last year, but we were forecasting growth of 4.9%.”
Emails released to Stuff under the Official Information Act about that shortfall, highlights one of the major reasons behind that drop: retention.
‘’Poor retention - which seems to have tripped-up pretty much the whole university sector in its forecasting is the crucial factor in the shortfall,’’ David Thomson, director – strategy, analytics and reporting office, wrote.
At the time of the announcement, Universities New Zealand noted there had been an overall drop in enrolments at the country’s eight universities of around 3%. Enrolments were up at just three – Waikato, Canterbury and Lincoln.
Thomson noted that Otago's poor retention of domestic enrolments accounted for 70% of ‘‘our domestic shortfall’’.
‘‘It appears to be driven in part by the cumulative impact of Covid-19 disruption and fatigue (manifested in various ways, including poorer pass rates). Retention is generally very stable year-to-year, and even in 2021 and 2022 retention held firmly at pre-Covid levels.’’
In the released emails, which were sent to senior university management, Thomson wrote: ‘’it’s worth noting that the Covid-19 pandemic has caused the biggest disruption to tertiary education (globally as well as nationally) since the Second World War’’.
‘‘This, along with a growing tendency over the time of the pandemic towards later/last-minute enrolment decision-making by students, and associated wider instabilities beyond tertiary education, means we are forecasting in a context of unprecedented uncertainty.’’
He stressed that the university’s methodologies, which had previous proved reliable, were being scrutinised.
Thomson also penned another email with the subject line: ‘Backgrounder for Local MPs’ eight days after the proposed cuts were announced to staff.
In that report Thomson noted the large intakes of 2021/2022, and had Otago had more accommodation, domestic enrolments would have been higher, and that Otago had increased its market share amongst other universities.
But the 2023 decline in enrolments was down to a ‘perfect storm’, with about a dozen factors involved, including poor retention, a drop in University Entrance achievement rates, strong job market, and the rising cost of living.
Thomson, in that report to MPs, noted that funding from the Government was not ‘’keeping pace with inflation’’.
‘’What was a relative narrow gap up to 2020 has opened into a chasm, as funding rate increases failed to adjust as the inflation rate rocketed.’’
The released emails come after Prime Minister Chris Hipkins visited the Dunedin campus on Friday, and where he told hundreds of concerned students that any decision about cuts was up to those institutions which had autonomy from the Government.
Sometimes educational institutions had to make difficult decisions, and they were best placed to make those calls, he said.
The Government had given the sector the biggest funding increase in two decades, but ‘’there will never be enough funding’’, he added.
Applications for voluntary redundancy at the university closed on Friday, and the tertiary institution was not in a position to make those numbers available, a spokeswoman said.
Even well-insulated homes can lose up to 45% of the room's heat without having adequate curtains. This is why Curtain Banks are in high demand at this time of year.
A petition is circulating to get curtains added as part of the Healthy Homes Standards in the hopes of helping renters avoid… View moreEven well-insulated homes can lose up to 45% of the room's heat without having adequate curtains. This is why Curtain Banks are in high demand at this time of year.
A petition is circulating to get curtains added as part of the Healthy Homes Standards in the hopes of helping renters avoid living in cold, damp conditions. Do you think curtains should be mandatory for New Zealand homes?
Type 'Not For Print' if you wish your comments to be excluded from the We Say You Say column of your local paper.
From reporter Olivia Caldwell:
The irony is, Mike Casey owes his world first fossil free and all electric farming title to a tiny worn old diesel engine Iseki tractor.
The Wellingtonian entrepreneur isn’t a farmer by trade, he is a software engineer who got sick of the city life in Sydney, … View moreFrom reporter Olivia Caldwell:
The irony is, Mike Casey owes his world first fossil free and all electric farming title to a tiny worn old diesel engine Iseki tractor.
The Wellingtonian entrepreneur isn’t a farmer by trade, he is a software engineer who got sick of the city life in Sydney, moved to Central Otago and bought 9300 cherry trees.
“This was definitely an over compensation from living in the concrete jungle of Sydney for a long time, to moving to rural New Zealand. I think I can almost hold a conversation with a farmer now,” he says.
His final step to becoming all electric was introducing New Zealand’s only electric tractor to the orchard, but he couldn't wait for the flash, shiny $165,000 import from California due to arrive.
A combination of Casey’s entrepreneurial climate driven brain, and some plain old “Kiwi ingenuity under an engine hood” had this 39-year-old become a world leader.
As far as he knows, this convert is New Zealand’s first electric tractor, and he’s been using the Iseki 318 for a year on his orchard while he sought out a more modern flavour. It did the job, he says.
Arriving this month is a Monarch commercial electric tractor, which is 30 horsepower equivalent and is fully automated, and cost around $165,000.
He received a grant from the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority, which also helped with electric frost fighting fans from South Africa.
The Monarch is only the 66th off the shelves in the US and the first ever exported, so Casey is hoping to start a trend in New Zealand.
“My goal is when farmers come to see this electric tractor they are blown away by its capabilities.
“Power in New Zealand can be really cheap and much cheaper than diesel.
“On orchard we would use our tractor for probably 300 hours a year depending on the season. But if it is free or autonomous, what’s stopping us using these tractors for more things. Maybe we could use it for 1000 hours and become better farmers and have more yield.”
Casey will use the new tractor for just about everything on his small orchard. Spraying, mowing, weeding and even gathering data on his trees into an app call Fruit Minder, so he can constantly use power wisely and better his emissions.
When he and wife Rebecca arrived, the orchard ticked up an annual energy bill of $60,000. By ditching the fossil fuelled engines and going electric they brought the bill down to $21,000. Then after adding solar power and battery energy their total now sits around $3000.
“We were never intending to go fossil fuel free, but low and behold, every purchasing decision we went down we found we could find an electric option around the world, or we could build some of that technology ourselves.”
“So now here are standing here on I think the first zero fossil fuel farm in the world.”
They didn’t really plan on the farm thing either, but Casey takes life in its stride, and he was too ignorant to cave to Wānaka’s climbing and often out of reach land value.
“We were looking for places in the region, and we found this farm that was 9 hectares of land and had the ideal house for the same price as a four-bedroom house in Wānaka.”
“All of a sudden I had all this land. Then I thought what better way to address the climate than to plant 9300 trees, so I planted 9300 cherry trees.”
The switch from fuels to electric has saved the farm about 60 tonnes of emissions per year. They now do 2.5 tonnes using fertiliser and nitrates. His trees sequester about 3.8 tonnes a year.
Casey has also written software that, by calculating the price of power on the wholesale spot price market, would decide if the fans would be run from the grid or from batteries.
The orchard is close to having a net-zero energy bill, including line charges.
He aims to fully remove herbicides and eventually move towards organic, which is hard to do with cherries, he says.
“We are going to start making steps in that direction.”
Casey doesn't believe in a system which rewards farmers for “good behaviour” such as the government’s “carbon credits”.
“With carbon-neutral certification there the ability to pay to sweep your bad behaviour under a rug, so I don’t promote that.
“I more talk about how we have eliminated the fossil fuels entirely because the only way we are going to solve the climate crisis is getting off fossil fuels.”
The skies might be grey but there's colour in our communities - and we want to see it!
Resene and Neighbourly have teamed up this winter to bring you Bright Spots - a celebration of the brightest and most colourful spaces in our neighbourhoods. We want you to snap and share all those spots… View moreThe skies might be grey but there's colour in our communities - and we want to see it!
Resene and Neighbourly have teamed up this winter to bring you Bright Spots - a celebration of the brightest and most colourful spaces in our neighbourhoods. We want you to snap and share all those spots in your neighbourhood that bring a smile to your face and add a little colour to your day.
There are 10 prizes of $250 Resene ColorShop vouchers and $250 Prezzy® cards up for grabs so you can create your own Bright Spot!
Enter your local bright spots pics today and be in to *WIN*.
When you move to a Ryman village, the last thing you need to think about are unexpected costs. We offer financial security with rates, home insurance, exterior maintenance and gardening all covered under one fixed base weekly fee*, meaning once you’ve moved in you can focus on the things you … View moreWhen you move to a Ryman village, the last thing you need to think about are unexpected costs. We offer financial security with rates, home insurance, exterior maintenance and gardening all covered under one fixed base weekly fee*, meaning once you’ve moved in you can focus on the things you enjoy.
Find out more about our living options today and get ready for a new lifestyle.
*some conditions apply
The team are taking a well-earned day off to celebrate the Kings Birthday. See you Tuesday.
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