Mega-polytech deputy quits

Te Pu¯ kenga – the organisation that runs the country’s 16 polytechs – has lost one of its senior leaders just eight months into the job.

Merran Davis was appointed deputy chief executive for transformation and transition at Te Pu¯ kenga in August 2020, one of six deputies paid between $250,000 to

$400,000 a year. She will finish on April 30.

Her decision to quit is seen as a blow to the tertiary sector as she was the only member of Te Pu¯ kenga’s senior management team to have previously been a chief executive of one of the 16 polytechs, having headed Auckland’s Unitec Institute of Technology for two years.

Davis was also a member of Hamilton-based Waikato Institute of Technology’s (Wintec) executive team but said she resigned in

2014 because she felt compromised over what she knew about the organisation and its leadership.

In an interview following her appointment, Davis described the role as her ‘‘dream job’’.

‘‘[It’s] a once in a lifetime chance to change the education system from one based on the industrial model to one based on people and relationships, with learners at the centre, with access and equity.’’

In an email to staff, Davis said she appreciated her resignation would ‘‘come as a surprise and may create some uncertainty’’, but she was leaving the role for ‘‘personal reasons’’. Transformation programme management office director Heather Geddes would act in the role in the interim.

A decision on recruitment for the role would be made in the near future, Te Pu¯ kenga chief executive Stephen Town said.

Last week, Stuff reported that half of the 16 polytech chief executives have resigned since Te Pu¯ kenga was launched.

National’s tertiary education spokesperson Penny Simmonds, who was previously chief executive of Southern Institute of Technology (SIT), said she was ‘‘alarmed’’ that Davis was now leaving.

‘‘Combine this with half the sector’s chief executives already gone and things certainly aren’t looking very stable for the polytechnic sector at a time when they are already under enormous pressure with a decline in international student income and an influx of local students.