‘A lot of financial stress’: UC students fear scholarship fallout after major lab flood

Saturday, 20 June 2026

The pipe burst in the University of Canterbury’s state-of-the-art Rutherford building a little over four months ago.

A burst pipe in a state-of-the-art University of Canterbury science building left laboratories inundated with water and damaged valuable equipment earlier this year, forcing students to send samples used in their studies overseas for their work to continue.

The postgraduate science students say the resulting closures have caused significant delays to their research – and with many of them on time-sensitive scholarships, financial stress too.

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The Press understands the pipe burst in a ground floor laboratory in the University of Canterbury’s (UC) Ernest Rutherford Building – a science facility that opened in 2018 – overnight on January 31, a Saturday.

Scholarship students say the delays to their research have caused them financial stress.

Water poured into it and surrounding rooms for some time before it was noticed, leading to considerable structural damage.

UC is now on the verge of reopening most of the affected facilities after months of repairs, and staff say they have been taking a range of measures to support affected students.

More than 100 students are understood to have seen their work suffer as a result.

One postgraduate student, who The Press has agreed not to name, said the burst pipe “completely flooded the place”.

“In that specific lab, the water rose to 30cm before they were able to stop it.”

Expensive equipment was damaged, they said, including the university’s mass spectrometer. Other nearby labs were also flooded.

“That whole section of the building has just been closed for months now.”

A pile of towels a University of Canterbury student says are used for sopping up water when the Ernest Rutherford building leaks during rain.

This included facilities they and their peers had needed. The student said their research group even had to send some of their samples to Australia in someone’s carry-on luggage, so they could be measured using another university’s facilities.

“The big deal is that our scholarships run out after three years. So if we’re held back for six months, say, that’s quite significant financially on students who really rely on using these labs.”

The university had largely kept students up to date, they said, and recently sent around a questionnaire asking how they had been affected.

“I’m not sure if they are planning on extending scholarships for students that [are] really affected. I haven’t heard back from this,” they said.

“But I would like to know the outcome of this. This is kind of what we’re all waiting on at the moment.”

A second student, who also did not want to be named, was originally slated to have already handed in their PhD thesis. But they said the flooding had left key equipment for their research out of commission for some time.

“It basically pushed my submission date back by about four months.”

While they were able to get an extension from the university, their scholarship ran out during that time.

“I unfortunately did have to pay extra for those fees… It’s just been a lot of financial stress.”

This was to the tune of several thousand dollars. The student had heard talk of financial compensation for some students potentially being included in the university’s insurance claim, but had received no further confirmation.

They too said UC staff had kept them up to date with progress on re-opening the labs – which had included complexities like getting in overseas experts to help fix machines.

But sometimes students were unaware machines they needed were back up and running.

“Not every piece of information comes through immediately,” they said. “There’s been a little bit of a communication breakdown there.”

Students claimed the building had been plagued by other issues, including that parts of the building frequently leaked.

Photos seen by The Press showed a pile of tea towels and rags, which a student said were used to sop up water that dripped in when it rained. A UC spokesperson confirmed a pipe failure in the Ernest Rutherford building earlier this year “affected access to research equipment for some students”.

“The university is supporting affected students in a range of ways to minimise any impact on their studies,” they said.

“This includes working with external partners where needed, and supervisors supporting students to identify alternative research approaches where appropriate. UC has also supported study extensions where these have been requested.”

Most equipment was now back in operation, and full access to labs was expected to be restored within the next few weeks.

“As an insurance claim has been made, we are unable to comment further.”

It is not the first time there have been problems with university buildings.

In 2021, the University’s Beatrice Tinsley building – which along with the Ernest Rutherford Building makes up UC’s $220m Rutherford Regional Science and Innovation Centre – had two floors closed off for some time due to issues with mould, just two years after its opening.