Ms Ann Campbell:

It is very difficult to cut staff costs in an institute of technology because the majority of staff have permanent contracts or contracts of indefinite duration. One of the reasons it takes time to address a deficit is that we can only save on staff costs through retirements. In the current three-year plan, we identified certain posts - not all posts - that we would not replace. These were primarily within areas where there had been a decline in student demand, for example, the number of our students studying engineering has dropped considerably because of the recession. The majority of staff who have not been replaced were in those areas. We have very careful planning in respect of where we can and cannot replace a staff member.