The University

Project STAR - Supporting Teaching and Research

Latest Announcements

AVC Māori Portfolio

The University has informed staff involved in the AVC Māori proposal of final decisions relating to that portfolio.

Consultation on the proposed AVC Māori portfolio ran from 1 June until 30 July 2010.  During the consultation period, a number of meetings were held with specific groups about the proposed structural diagram. 
This was not a change proposal as no substantial change was proposed to current roles. 

The documents below outline the decisions (released 03 September 2010) relating to this portfolio:

Learning Resources Portfolio

The University has informed affected staff of final decisions relating to the Learning Resources change proposal.

The proposal was released to staff in Facilities Management, the Library and ICTS; and some ICTS and systems staff in Student Administration and HR in April. Based on a review of 369 roles in the areas being brought together to create the new Learning Resources Group, 59 roles were proposed to be disestablished and 59 new roles established as part of the wider STAR (Supporting Teaching and Research) project.

Since April the change proposal has been subject to an extensive consultation process. This has included a review by two independent external experts in the learning resources field.

After considering formal submissions, feedback from staff forums and the advice of the external independent experts the University has decided to disestablish 37 roles and establish 51 new roles. Details of the final Learning Resources structure are available here.

The University acknowledges the impact of this announcement on affected staff and their colleagues. It also wishes to thank staff and students, and other stakeholders, for their engagement with the consultation process.

Got a question about the Library? Email us at myquestion@canterbury.ac.nz and we’ll answer as best we can. We’ll also post the questions and answers on this site.  

What’s happening with the Library?

The library is going to be managed within a single portfolio known as Learning Resources – bringing all of our library, ICT and facilities management (buildings and maintenance etc) operations together. The new portfolio is led by Professor Sue McKnight, who has come from Nottingham Trent University in the UK – where she was Director, Libraries and Knowledge Resources. "A Futuristic View of Knowledge and Information Management", a paper written by Professor McKnight, and the introductory chapter for a book entitled “University Libraries and Digital Learning Environments”, written by Professor McKnight are available on this site. So too is another paper by Professor McKnight, titled “Bridging the Gap between Service Provision and Customer Expectations”, which earned her an Outstanding Paper Award at the 2010 Literati Network Awards for Excellence.

Why combine them?

Libraries aren’t just about books and shelves anymore, as you can see from the UC Library. It’s important that Libraries  still have books. But increasingly in the future they will also have easy access to online materials in spaces that aren’t limited to a single building.

What does that mean?

The University wants a world-class learning environment – that means an environment where learning can take place anywhere and with plenty of good advice about how to do that learning. To achieve this, we believe we need Library, ICTS and FM working really closely together. The best way to organise this is to have them all under one senior manager.

But what if I just like going to the library?

That’s not going to change. The library will still be the hub. It will still be a safe and inspiring place - as one student has referred to it on Facebook.

What cuts are being made?

First of all, these are proposals. What we’re doing now is asking staff and students what they think. That’s why we’re having a series of forums. Then we’ll make final decisions, informed by the discussions we’re having now. 

The independent report by external independent advisors Helen Hayes and Karen Stanton regarding theLearning Resources Change Proposal is now available.

Helen Hayes, who is an internationally recognised leader in knowledge and information management, spent a week at UC and during that time met with 22 groups which included staff from the Library, Facilities Management and ICTS; various academic committees, senior management, student groups and representatives of the Tertiary Education Union. She also visited several of our libraries.

Karen Stanton is Chief Information Officer and College Librarian at King’s College London. She undertook her review from the UK, having telephone discussions with various groups associated with the Learning Resources Change Proposal.


Library Facts:

Going up: In the last three years there has been a 68 percent increase in the number of on line searches.
Going down: In the last three years there has been a 17 percent decline in help desk enquiries in the University library system and a 26 percent drop in the number of inter loan items received into the University.
While student numbers grew six percent for undergraduates and 11 percent for postgraduates last year compared to 2008, the foot count over the door into the libraries went up only one percent.
Behaviours are changing and it is only sensible to respond.


What is Project STAR?

STAR stands for supporting teaching and research and refers to all of the services provided by the University that support our role of teaching students and conducting research.
It is not change for change’s sake – we are looking at these services, thinking about how we could improve them, in a way which would allow us to spend more of our limited funding on teaching and research.


General Q&A about: