Polytechs 'trending towards a crisis' - Toi Ohomai head

Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology chief executive Dr Leon Fourie. Photo / File

The head of Rotorua's largest tertiary education provider says the institutes of technology and polytechnics sector is "trending towards a crisis".

Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology chief executive Dr Leon Fourie was one of a group of 100 sector leaders who met at Manukau Institute of Technology on Thursday.

Minister of Education Chris Hipkins addressed the meeting and discussed changes for the sector, which in Dr Fourie's words "continues to be under strain".

The meeting was organised by the Tertiary Education Union, the NZ Union of Students' Association and Manukau Institute of Technology.

A Cabinet paper released this week revealed around half of the country's 16 polytechnics and institutes of technology would be in deficit by 2020, and 80 per cent by 2022, based on current funding formulas adjusted for expected consumer prices.

The last published financial data, for 2015, shows that only three out of what were then 20 polytechnics were then losing money - Tai Poutini (-$1.3 million), Waikato Institute of Technology or Wintec (-$1.8m) and Timaru's Aoraki Polytechnic (-$3.6m).

Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology is one of New Zealand's largest institutes, created after a merger between Bay of Plenty Polytechnic and Waiariki Institute of Technology in 2016.

In a written statement today Dr Fourie said the sector was in a "transformation mode".

"Some media report that the ITP [institutes of technology and polytechnics] sector is in crisis – crisis is too strong a word. However, with the current policy, financial and structural settings the sector is trending towards a crisis."

Ahead of Thursday's meeting, Tertiary Education Union president Dr Sandra Grey said she hoped Hipkins would reverse a decision by the previous National Government to put foundation-level courses up for tender, which had led to many courses being lost to privately owned providers.

Hipkins told the meeting the tender model was a "failed ideological experiment of the previous National Government" and announced its reversal.

Dr Fourie said this was well-received.

"This will allow us to better serve the need of our region and communities more directly and proactively."

He said he fully supported Hipkins' goals for vocational education, and Toi Ohomai agreed the ITP sector needed "substantial structural change".

He listed historical reasons such as; only 1 per cent inflation adjustment over the past eight years, a significant shift in funding to the private training establishments that was volume orientated and suffocating the ITP sector, and an end to the previous Regional Network Support Fund that enabled targeted regional investments and outcomes and limited incentives to innovate or partner.

"Rather than a volume-based funding system we need to be investing in the highest quality vocational training and education capability and ensuring this is accessible to all New Zealanders wherever they might be living and working, with an emphasis on improved regional outcomes."

Dr Fourie also said "perception is everything".

"The ITP-sector needs to do a better job in improving the understanding of the value, opportunity and impact the sector has."