About 250 students and staff held a two-hour demonstration outside the offices of Waikato University's vice-chancellor on Tuesday.

A protest against proposed changes to Waikato University's structure drew students and staff out into the rain on Tuesday.

"This is for two hours so let's not get hōhā," Māori and Indigenous Studies Associate Professor Te Kahautu Maxwell told the 250-strong gathering outside vice-chancellor Neil Quigley's office.

"The repercussions of the decisions that are made … will carry on for a long, long time so standing in the cold and the rain for two hours is not too much to ask for."

DOMINICO ZAPATA/STUFF Associate Professor Te Kahautu Maxwell said the repercussions of proposed changes to the Faculty of Māori and Indigenous Studies would be felt for a long time.

Tuesday's demonstration was in response to a proposal which would see the Faculty of Māori and Indigenous Studies be subsumed into a division of Arts and Social Sciences.

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The proposal would see the position of dean of Māori and Indigenous Studies be retained but that person would report to a pro vice-chancellor and not Quigley directly.

CHRISTEL YARDLEY/STUFF Waikato University vice-chancellor Professor Neil Quigley said proposed changes at the university would help streamline reporting lines to him (file photo).

The faculty would have its status changed to a school.

Quigley said the proposed changes to the university's structure aimed to create more uniform academic unit sizes and did not diminish the autonomy of the Faculty of Māori and Indigenous Studies.

The proposed "divisional pro vice-chancellor" structure was used in most other New Zealand universities, Quigley said.

DOMINICO ZAPATA/STUFF Māori and Indigenous Studies Associate Professor Alice Te Punga Somerville said proposed changes to Waikato University's structure represent more than "just tinkering in the background".

The university grounds were the perfect place to engage in robust debate, and peaceful protests were always welcome, he said.

"The key thing that I'm trying to achieve here is rather than have more than a dozen direct reports … I'm hoping to have four direct reports from the four pro vice-chancellors who would be responsible for all of the schools and all of the deans.

"The job of the dean of the Faculty of Māori and Indigenous Studies is to run the teaching and research programmes. These days it's not the job of a vice-chancellor to be into the detail of that sort of stuff. The university is just too big and complex."

Under the proposal, one new position would be created: a pro vice-chancellor for science, engineering, computer science and health.

Associate Professor Alice Te Punga Somerville, of the Faculty of Māori and Indigenous Studies, said it was incorrect for anyone to suggest Quigley's proposal was "just tinkering in the background".

Māori and Indigenous Studies achieved faculty status about two years ago and gave staff a level of autonomy which could be lost in the proposed restructure, Te Punga Somerville said.

"This proposal puts us under Social Sciences and we have concerns about our ability to make decisions affecting ourselves," she said.

"As a standalone faculty we are represented on every board across campus that has faculty representation. If it becomes a division structure, we are no longer at the table and we think that potentially has a devastating effect for our students and for the curriculum."

Te Punga Somerville said staff were officially told about the proposed changes about six weeks ago. She expected opposition to the proposal to grow in the coming weeks.

"There's certainly international interest in what is essentially a bad look for the University of Waikato, particularly given the strength of Waikato has always been Māori. I'm aware of one other university in New Zealand that has a divisional structure, all the other universities use a faculty and college structure. At the same time, Waikato has always been a unique university, so why do what everyone else is doing if what we are doing is working so well."