This post on damage in the tertiary education sector from the Christchurch earthquake will be updated as info becomes available. The timing of the quake and a lot of luck means that there are no deaths and few serious injuries so far, but the cleanup bill looks enormous. For general info, go to Stuff or the NZ Herald. An updated post on the quake’s impact is available here.

The University of Canterbury is closed until Monday 13 September, when they open for Term 4. All students are requested not to come to campus, except for Muslim students needing to use the prayer room. All staff are requested to stay off campus, unless authorised to come in by their relevant senior management team member. All campus events are cancelled in the upcoming week and off-campus events are postponed pending confirmation.

Examples of damage include:

• A small number of visible cracks in some buildings including toppled chimney at the staff club
• Limited structural damage to walkways, stairwells and liftwells
• Substantial dislocation of shelving and books in the libraries
• Ceiling tile dislodgement
• Chemical spills requiring technical clean up
• Some limited areas of water damage
• Damage to some special collections and specimens

VC Rod Carr says that “The extent of damage is certainly in the millions of dollars and will cause distress to staff and students.  We now need to get on with our assessment and clean-up.” Update 7.30pm 5/9 UC put up a new update today that provides more detail on the issues and says there will be an assessment of the situation on Wednesday. Libraries and laboratories seem to be worse affected.

CPIT’s campus is closed until further notice. Update 4pm 5/9 CPIT will be closed to students and staff on Monday 6th September. (If you’re reading this CPIT, I had a student call me to ask whether she should be studying for her exam on Friday, and I imagine there are many similar queries from students.)

Lincoln’s site is not loading, so I can’t tell their situation.

• Update 6.30pm RNZ reports that Lincoln will also be closed until Monday 13 September. According to RNZ, VC Roger Field said that “some buildings, including the administration block, are completely off-limits because of the danger of falling masonry and broken glass”. He said students and staff will be updated within a couple of days when the extent of the damage is known.
• Update 8pm Lincoln’s homepage is up and running with a simple text-based message announcing closure until Mon 13 Sep and asking staff, students and halls of residence student to stay away until further notice. I guess the website was running off their servers on campus and they’ve only managed to get a text file up at this stage. (Update By late evening they had some graphics up as well, but it’s still just a placeholder page.)
• Update 7.30pm 5/9 Lincoln advises via Facebook that they’re close don Monday for a campus health and safety check and that more info will be provided on Monday afternoon, including on whether assessment deadlines must be met.

Update 6.30pm The University of Otago’s Chch campus is closed, according to Peter Dearden at Sci-Blogs (he works at the Uni’s Dunedin campus). Update 4pm 5/9 Otago Uni has put out a media release stating that they are closed Mon-Tues, with staff not expected to come in on Monday. Initial inspections of the University of Otago Christchurch buildings show no major structural damage. However further inspections are being done to ensure that these facilities are entirely safe, that fire protection measures remain intact, and that services such as water and sewerage are functioning.  The Dean and Head of the Christchurch Campus, Professor Peter Joyce, and the University wish to inform students and staff that all teaching and other academic functions at the University of Otago Christchurch will be suspended for Monday 6 September and Tuesday 7 September as a minimum. 
 
Update 9.30am 5/9

• Tai Poutini Polytechnic’s two MAINZ facilities have apparently not suffered significant damage while their site at CPIT’s Sullivan Ave is still being assessed. Tai Poutini will move forward a term break by two weeks, starting Monday 6/9, to give things a chance to settle down. Update 1.25pm 5/9 Tai Poutini now has an update on their site. CE Paul Wilson said RE MAINZ students: ”Due to the uncertainty that has arisen from the earthquake, including question marks over public transport and basic utilities such as power and water, it has been decided that the best course of action is to bring the holidays forward for students and for students to regroup in two weeks time”. Digger and Scaffolding School students were to contact their programme coordinators about their classes.
• Laidlaw College’s buildings are apparently fine, but they pointed me to this story about the house of a lecturer, Dr Richard Neville, that is likely to be demolished. While the cost in life was zero, so many homes have been destroyed.
• Natcoll’s Christchurch campus is in the CBD and they were waiting until this morning to be able to get in to have a look. While they’re in a newer building, I suspect we’ll have quite a few closures from PTEs in older CBD buildings. Update 7.30pm 5/9 Amazingly, only 1 computer monitor was broken (they must have 100) and everything else was sitting on the desks, while the national network was still going. They’ll be closed Monday, waiting for the building owner to confirm that the engineers have cleared the building. And thanks to National Principal Sue Allard for providing the updates from India!
• A couple of friends of mine, also in tertiary, lost both of their chimneys. (Same with another couple too – must be a very common story.)

Update 4pm 5/9

• Sir George Seymour College has no major damage. Ceiling panels have fallen from the roof (along with the batts) in the main wing rooms, common room and offices, filing cabinets & shelves  tipped over etc.  The campus will stay closed on Monday to students.
• Going Places “doesn’t look too bad inside but the building hasn’t been checked by the safety team”.

Update 7.30pm 5/9

• Avonmore Tertiary Institute is closed on Monday.

Update 7am 6/9

• SIT’s Christchurch campus will be closed Mon 6-Tues 7 Sep. The Southland Times reports that CE Penny Simmonds believed the campus was fine structurally, but inspectors would need to confirm this. “There is quite a lot of work to tidy things up, and also staff probably need to be concentrating on getting their own homes sorted out,” she said. She hoped the campus would open again on Wednesday.

Update 10am 6/9

• The Apparel and Textile ITO’s head office in Christchurch will be closed until at least Wed 8/9. It is in the CBD and they need to be sure that services are up and running, and the site is safe. They’re based in ITO House and there are a number of head and branch offices for ITOs there.

Update 11.40am 6/9

• NZAPEP’s annual conference, scheduled for 8-9 Sep in Christchurch has been postponed, according to Ako Aotearoa.
• Aoraki Polytechnic’s Moorhouse Ave and QEII campuses will be closed Mon 6-Tue 7 Sep.

Update 1pm 6/9

• Te Wananga O Aotearoa’s advised on Facebook that its “buildings at Moorehouse Avenue (Science Alive) and 159 Manchester Street are closed until further notice. A further update will be made Monday evening 6 September”.
• WelTec has a Christchurch campus in the Science Alive building too, so I imagine that is closed too, but have no info from WelTec.