NMIT weathers financial storm as enrolments grow

The biggest public tertiary institution in the top of the South Island remains confident about its financial position, after further multimillion-dollar government bailouts in the sector last week.

Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology (NMIT) is forecasting a budget surplus next year, after delivering a deficit of $1.7 million in 2017, its first budget deficit in over a decade.

‘‘NMIT has no cash flow problem whatsoever,’’ chief executive Liam Sloan said. ‘‘We’ve got good cash reserves. There is work that still needs to be done to secure our financial sustainability, but we are taking all the necessary steps to make that happen.’’

The Government last week announced a $50m loan to Unitec in Auckland and a $15m capital injection for Whitireia in Porirua, on the back of a $33m bailout for the West Coast’s Tai Poutini Polytechnic in February. All three institutions lost money after sliding student enrolments.

While NMIT’s international student numbers dropped at the start of last year, the costs of a restructure and investment in ‘‘grassroots support’’ for students also contributed to the deficit, Sloan said.

Student enrolment in Nelson this year had been higher than expected, with 2873 equivalent fulltime students now on board, compared to 1727 four months ago.

Last November, NMIT decided to close its international campus in Auckland, foreseeing changes to international visa requirements.

The cost of coming out of its Auckland lease a year earlier than planned, and of the continued programme development project, would continue to be felt this year, Sloan said.

‘‘At the end of 2017 our council approved for NMIT to deliver a deficit budget for 2018. [But] our expectation is that come 2019, NMIT will be delivering surpluses again.’’

NMIT was looking at ways to collaborate with other institutes of technology and polytechnics and industry training associations to make efficiency savings, through measures like sharing resources and reducing duplication, Sloan said.

He also backed a call from the Tertiary Education Union for a fundamental rethink of funding in the tertiary education sector, urging greater flexibility.

‘‘There is work that still needs to be done to secure our financial sustainability, but we are taking all the necessary steps.’’

NMIT chief executive Liam Sloan