digital learning killing textbooks and textbook retailers<\/a>?<\/p>\nStudents say the shop’s closure is a sign of the times.<\/p>\n
“It’s kind of surprising, but I suppose the shift towards virtual learning has added to that, there’s not much emphasis on textbooks, which is an odd future,” said Marlo, a fourth-year psychology student who completes the majority of his coursework digitally.<\/p>\n
He said the last time he visited UBIQ was last year to buy fantasy books.<\/p>\n
Wiley, one of the largest textbook publishers, noted in its 2024 annual report a decrease in print sales but an uptake in the purchase of its digital services.<\/p>\n
And that was backed up by students across Auckland University’s campus.<\/p>\n
“Largely I don’t buy textbooks for money reasons. I’m a poor uni student living off pennies, so if I can get a virtual textbook I probably will because they are cheaper,” Marlo added.<\/p>\n
Second year law and commerce student Natalie has never visited UBIQ.<\/p>\n
“Pretty much everything is online, they [the lecturers] give it to you and you can access it online. I don’t have any textbooks. Everything is downloaded to my iPad.”<\/p>\n
First year student Annabelle, who has a required textbook for her course this semester, lamented paying over a hundred dollars for a physical copy.<\/p>\n
“I bought the textbook The globalization of world politics: an introduction to international relations. It was $111. (I feel) really sad, and really poor. I don’t usually spend that much money on things, this is probably the most expensive thing I bought this year.”<\/p>\n
She said there were no free online versions, and it cost a similar amount to borrow the e-book as to buy it.<\/p>\n
“They basically give you a code to access an e-book for a year. To loan it, it was $80 for a year, so I thought might as well just buy it.”<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/4K3X3NX__Upload_from_mobile_1754628213_IMG_1067_jpeg_1\")
<\/p>\n
\nOn the first day of the second semester, UBIQ is full of students buying coursebooks, textbooks and some are looking to buy fiction.
\nPhoto: Ke-Xin Li\n<\/p>\n
While many students worked digitally with no need for pen or paper, those who did buy stationery said they rarely bought it on campus.<\/p>\n
Marlo bought his pens and highlighters from Daiso, where he said it was cheaper.<\/p>\n
Annabelle bought her pens from MUJI and her exercise books from Warehouse Stationery.<\/p>\n
And, as the store entered its final weeks of trading, stock was running low.<\/p>\n
Finn, a first year law and economics student who preferred pen and paper, walked out of UBIQ disappointed.<\/p>\n
“They are out of stock [of] the coursebook I need, so not much I can do about that. I’m hoping they are going to get it back in stock before they close it down.”<\/p>\n
Alison, who is completing a masters in engineering also did not find what she needed.<\/p>\n
“I wanted to buy some notebooks. But there’s nothing right now. The one I wanted they didn’t have any in stock. And the price is a bit high here as well so it’s better to go into the CBD and get something.”<\/p>\n
The bookstore was expected to remain open until 31 August, with the directors still hopeful someone may buy the business.<\/p>\n
Rachel Mason-Thomas, UBIQ’s liquidator, said there had been a good level of interest from potential buyers with an outcome expected around the end of August.<\/p>\n
Mason-Thomas said preferential and secured creditors would be paid in full, with a good likelihood of a distribution to unsecured creditors.<\/p>\n
She said they had received nearly half of the expected unsecured creditor claims – which included gift vouchers and trade creditors – and called for outstanding claims to be submitted.<\/p>\n
Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some students say stock is running low at UBIQ. Photo: Ke-Xin Li Last month, the University of Auckland’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60999,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[64,1590,63,457,1589,134,44,1591,1588,1586,1587],"class_list":["post-60998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-books","tag-au","tag-audio","tag-australia","tag-books","tag-current-affairs","tag-entertainment","tag-news","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}