This research note reveals the year in which non-academic employees started to outnumber academics at New Zealand's universities.

Building on the findings of an earlier research report, Blessing or bloat? Non-academic staffing at New Zealand universities, which found that non-academics have long made up the majority of employees at New Zealand universities, this research delves into the origins of this situation.

Key findings:

• According to the data in Statistics NZ’s official yearbooks, non-academics first overtook academics in 1991.
• This occurred not because more non-academics were hired but because of a dramatic fall in the number of academics, and part-time academics in particular.
• Why NZ universities cut so many part-time academics so quickly isn’t clear. The research seems to rule out, though, the idea that New Zealand universities bulked up their bureaucracies in response to the market-oriented reforms of the late 80s.
• What types of non-academic (librarians, managers, and so on) universities employed remained very stable well into the 90s, but it has changed quite substantially since the turn of the millennium. That difference may well turn out to be a result of the earlier reforms.