University of Canterbury Employee Reviews about "academics"

Pros

Good Sabbatical system, many motivated students, decent infrastructure, many great colleagues and a lovely campus.

Cons

Management and administration is based on revenge, petty politics to soothe fragile egos, and little to do with reality. The culture is extremely xenophobic and day-to-day management is mostly by bullies who abuse their power with full support from upper management. Christchurch is a great city for work-life balance but if your boss is a bully (highly likely at UC) then life can be living hell at this University! Cannot expect the ambitious academics in power to keep up with their own field of self-proclaimed expertise.

Pros

New Zealand has eliminated COVID-19

Cons

This university is not for international academics. Maybe if you already live in Christchurch or somewhere else in New Zealand and would like to give teaching a try, it might be worth looking here. Otherwise, it's a complete dead-end. The New Zealand government abolished academic tenure in this country several decades ago, and the universities here freely lay-off even well known professors whenever they decide they want to cut their budgets. I don't have any idea why anybody from another country would even consider working here. Most people who work here are utterly mediocre and more concerned with climbing mountains or fishing or walking in the woods than their careers.

Pros

The city this university is in has a good public arts initiative called 'Gap Filler'.

Cons

This is a small and insignificant university that has worked very hard for nearly a decade now to make itself even smaller and more insignificant. And it has achieved this outcome. The place suffered a bunch of earthquakes in 2010 and 2011 that drove away some students. So UC responded by publicly attacking a bunch of their own departments, which drove away many of their best academics and a lot more students a few years after the earthquakes. Don’t waste any time on this place.

Pros

Most of the good things there once were to say about this place no longer apply. Most high-quality academics that once worked here have left for greener pastures.

Cons

This university has been vandalised by a senior "manager" who refers to members of the faculty as “passengers” on his bus. The arrogance and idiocy in this pretty much speak for themselves and say it all.