WITT JOBS BLOW

"They are excellent tutors, and we are sorry to lose their services."

WITT chief executive Barbara George

Four staff are being made redundant and six courses will be cut at a Taranaki tertiary institute next year.

On Tuesday, the Western Institute of Technology at Taranaki (Witt) announced it would not offer courses in English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) and Early Childhood Education (ECE) in 2018.

The decision to remove these programmes stemmed from low demand making the courses unviable, or that the qualification had expired on the NZQA framework.

Witt chief executive Barbara George said in a prepared statement it was unfortunate four parttime tutors would no longer have work.

‘‘They are excellent tutors, and we are sorry to lose their services.’’

Students taking the Diploma in Creative Technology course have been offered the chance to finish the qualification, but no enrolments are being taken. Witt is also in discussions with five staff in the department, due to funding availability and also lower than anticipated demand.

George said staffing levels continued to be closely managed in light of the forecast deficit already reported.

In November it was revealed Witt was $2.4 million in the red, with student numbers dropping significantly.

International student numbers have been hardest hit, slumping 23 per cent from about 176 full-time international students in December 2016 to 134 in November 2017.

Domestic enrolments have also dropped by about 382 full-time students or 22 per cent.

News of the redundancies and course cutting comes just three years after an investigation by the Tertiary Education Commission and the New Zealand Qualifications Authority found the institute had fraudulently graduated students from two Ma¯ ori performing arts courses.

- Blanton Smith