A Kaitaia man says it was "heart-wrenching" to find out the NorthTec course he'd planned to do had been axed because of a lack of students.
Dan Needham, 37, enrolled in a one-year automotive engineering course at the start of February after speaking to NorthTec staff about the course late last year.
On Monday, February 12 - a week before the course at the Kaitaia NorthTec campus was due to start - he was told it would not go ahead because they needed 15 students and only 11 had enrolled.
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"There was no indication when I went to see them in December that this course wasn't going to run.
"It's pretty heart-wrenching for me because I sort of had this plan."
NorthTec has undergone major restructuring after financial challenges. In the Towards a New NorthTec document, which covers decisions the tertiary provider reached on restructuring proposals announced in October last year, NorthTec said all courses must meet agreed enrolment targets in order to be offered in 2018.
"NorthTec cannot continue to offer courses with, in some cases, very small cohorts of students," the document said.
The Northern Advocate requested comment from the polytechnic, but has not received a response. But it seems they are not the only polytechnic facing financial challenges.
An urgent meeting attended by about 100 sector leaders was held at Manukau Institute of Technology yesterdayafter a Cabinet paper released on Wednesday said half of the country's 16 polytechnics and institutes of technology will be in deficit by 2020, and 80 per cent by 2022. The outcome of yesterday's meeting won't be known for some days.
Tim Fowler, chief executive of the Tertiary Education Commission, said student numbers at Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics (ITPs) have been in steady decline due to a combination of factors.
"NorthTec is to be commended for identifying the challenges proactively and looking for innovative ways to respond to them, but I firmly believe that a collective collaborative response across the whole ITP network will deliver better results for learners both in Northland and around New Zealand," he said.
The TEC has established the ITP Roadmap 2020 project which will see the commission work alongside the governance and management levels of ITPs as well as other interested parties including employers, iwi, staff, unions, local government and learners to identify the best path forward for ITPs.
Meanwhile, Mr Needham said he can't travel to Whangarei to do the course because his partner is in her last year of midwifery training and he has a daughter at home.
He believed NorthTec should have extended the start date to give extra time to find four more people to do the course.
"I'm lost ... For me it's taken 36 years to discover what I want to do in life and that's been taken away."