OIA Reveals $411,000 Cost of Te Hiwa Office Upgrade

An office move for the Vice-Chancellor and the rest of Te Hiwa cost the university $411,000—despite an initial budget of just $267,000. 

The Vice-Chancellor and the rest of The Hiwa (Victoria University’s senior leadership team) have relocated to a refurbished space in the Robert Stout building, documents released under the Official Information Act (OIA) reveal. 

Why? To give each Te Hiwa member their own office. The move, the university says, would improve productivity, privacy, and—somewhat more abstactly—uphold manaakitanga. 

“This project will enhance the working environment for Te Hiwa members, by providing individual offices for all members,” reads a university memorandum released under the OIA. “One advantage of this relocation is that it will significantly increase the privacy for each member, enhancing confidentiality.”

The budget did not hold. While initially set at just under $270,000, the final cost reached $411,000 after a series of unbudgeted additions. 

Furniture alone cost $49,000. A further $95,000 went to IT infrastructure and security. 

In a statement, a university spokesperson rejected the idea that the project had gone over budget—framing the additional spending as separate.

“There was no overspend in the refurbishment and relocation of Te Hiwa offices. The costs referred to were additional costs including consents, security, loose fittings and furnishing, carpets, painting IT and infrastructure, which were funded through other maintenance budgets and excluded from the business case estimates.”  

The spokesperson added that meeting the same requirements in the Hunter Building would have been “considerably more” expensive, citing the need for further construction work.

Internally, the university assessed the project as carrying a “medium” reputational risk, with a communications plan prepared in the event of media scrutiny.

The move was also framed as contributing to Māori students' wellbeing.

“Allowing Te Hiwa to work efficiently and collaboratively together, allows under the Mai I te iho ki te pae framework the top tier of the institution, to deliver, not only better outcomes for Māori at the University, but for the wider university as well,” the memorandum states. 

“‘Relevance to Māori’ is standard in business cases, to ensure we continually consider the impacts and outcomes of our actions on our Māori students and staff,” the spokesperson said.

Please feel free to write Salient letters (or opinion pieces) if you have other ideas on how to spend $411,000 to enhance Māori wellbeing at Vic.

A 2025 briefing by the Tertiary Education Commission described Victoria University as a “high-risk institution” financially, noting that many of the factors influencing their assessment sit outside the university’s control.