Otago Polytechnic is one of the institutes that is consulting on cutting staff. Photo: Google Street View
Polytechs around the country are cutting staff and courses as they try to prove they are financially viable as stand alone institutions, as Te Pukenga is unravelled.
Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds has said she expects five or six of the original 16 polytechnics will stand alone, while the others will be managed under a federation led by the Open Polytechnic.
She says she expects there will be more job losses.
The arborist course at Otago Polytechnic - the only course of its kind in the South Island - is one of many under threat around the country.
Courses and jobs are also potentially going at Western Institute of Technology in Taranaki, Toi Ohomai in the Bay of Plenty, NorthTec and at Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology, according to the Tertiary Education Union.
A Te Pukenga financial viability document seen by Nine to Noon defines the requirement to stand alone as an institute reaching surplus in the 2026 financial year.
So far only two are forecast to do that: Ara Institute in Canterbury and the Open Polytechnic.
The document suggests that five others - EIT in Gisborne, Unitec and MIT in Auckland, SIT in Invercargill and the Otago Polytech are on a path to viability but need work.
Susana talks to Julie Douglas, national president at the TEU and Gus Gilmore, chief executive of Te Pukenga.
