BREAKING NEWS: VC Dawn Freshwater Resigns
Vice-Chancellor Dawn Freshwater has handed in her resignation.
At 12:38pm on 11th of June, The University of Auckland's official website announced that Vice-Chancellor Dawn Freshwater has handed in her resignation and will be stepping down early in 2026.
This news comes after Freshwater was reappointed to stay in her role for another five years. Now, the University expects that the farewell will be in the first half of 2026.
Freshwater took on the role of Vice-Chancellor (VC) in March of 2020—being the first woman to do so—and almost immediately was thrown into the task of guiding the university through the COVID-19 pandemic. Through her term as VC, the University has maintained it's spot on the list of top 100 universities in the world.
Her term as VC hasn't been without it's controversies. In the first year, it was discovered that the University had spent $5 million to purchase a mansion in Parnell for Freshwater to live. While the University originally justified their purchase, the mansion was sold a year later.
Freshwater was also one of the main people behind unpopular changes to faculties and courses at the university. In 2024 it was revealed that the University was planning to cut small courses in what it had labelled 'course optimisation' to which there was strong backlash both from students and teaching staff. More recently there was the proposed merger between the Law and Business faculties, another move that was opposed, and put on hold, which you can read more about in the linked article.
Additionally, during semester one there were negotiations between the TEU and the University, and strikes held by TEU members on campus demanding for a living wage, with many staff detailing their unfair work and pay conditions. Meanwhile according to the NZ Herald, Freshwater was the third highest paid public service and Crown Entity CEO in 2023/2024 with a salary of $766k.
In an email to University staff, Chancellor Cecilia Tarrant stated that they will be using the time until 2026 to conduct a "full international search" for a new Vice Chancellor.
