Polytechnic posts profit despite cuts

Bay of Plenty Polytechnic, which trains about 10,000 students, has again recorded a "comfortable" surplus - despite a cut in government funding and increased costs.
The polytechnic, with two campuses at Windermere and downtown Tauranga's Bongard Centre, had a $4.5 million profit for the year ending December 2010, its latest annual report has disclosed.
The surplus was 11.27 per cent of the total income, of $43.5 million. Polytechnic chairman Ian Turner said this comfortably exceeded the minimum requirement of a 3 per cent surplus set by the Tertiary Education Commission.
The total expenditure for the last calendar year was $38.5 million, up from $35.49 million in 2009. Income then was $44.1 million, and it meant the latest surplus was trimmed from $8.6 million.
The government funding was cut from $31 million in 2009 to $28 million last year but student tuition fees increased from $9.35 million to $11 million, and other income - including childcare, aquatic centre and conference fees, and Atrium Restaurant returns - rose from $3.8 million to $4.3 million.
A total of 9443 students enrolled for 126 programmes (88 full and 38 short courses), down from 10,253 in 2009. The total EFTS (equivalent fulltime students) was 3374, slightly down on 3426 in 2009.
The polytechnic last year retained 91 per cent of the students and they had a completion rate of 75 per cent, even though the target was 80 per cent. The completion rate from the courses was 6 per cent ahead of 2009.
The students mainly came from the Western Bay (81 per cent), with six per cent from Eastern Bay, four per cent from Waikato and three per cent from the rest of the North Island. Two per cent of the students were either from overseas or from Rotorua, while a smaller number came from Auckland and the South Island.
Turner said the major challenge for the polytechnic this year was how to encourage those people who could benefit from courses of study to resist the lure of quick money available in any of the sites of major reconstruction - Queensland, Christchurch or even Japan.
"We also need to address the issue of high schools encouraging students into university courses, regardless of their skills or the potential for future employment, instead of recognising the benefits of skill-based vocational training matched to employer needs.
"We believe that recruitment into the polytechnic in the current economic and social climate may well suffer to the detriment of the young people of this region."
Dr Alan Hampton, chief executive of the polytechnic, said it was vital that as educators "we challenge previous ways of doing things, including delivery, assessment and learning support".
"That is how we can release further innovation and creative thinking, focussed on provision, successful completion and relevant outcomes of employment or further training," he said.
During the past year, the polytechnic opened a new engineering block and automotive workshops, and an aquaculture laboratory, Ahumoana a Toi.
The Titanium Industry Development Association (TiDA) also opened its state-of-the-art powder metallurgy centre.
By the numbers

Profit: $4.5 million
Income: $43.5 million
Expenditure: $38.5 million
Government funding: $28 million