Time up for SIT council as bill passes

All eyes are now on who will oversee the Southern Institute of Technology in future, with the current board to be scrapped next month.

The Education Amendment Bill was passed in Parliament this week. It will will mean 16 polytechnics, including SIT, will be run under a national organisation called the New Zealand Institute of Technology.

The Government’s proposal prompted a backlash from various Southland leaders who feared what the centralisation would mean with SIT losing its autonomy.

The current SIT council, chaired by Peter Heenan, will now be disestablished on March 31.

It will be replaced by a yet-to-be-confirmed subsidiary board, which will be appointed by the New Zealand Institute of Technology.

SIT chief executive Penny Simmonds has ruled out the prospect of SIT taking legal action.

The interest now focused on just who was appointed to the new subsidiary board, she said.

‘‘[It] is going to give us an insight as to where things are going to go. If the majority of the subsidiary board is not existing [SIT] councillors that would be disappointing, and that would give us a bit of an indication as to what changes there might be.’’

Heenan confirmed he would like to remain involved, and understood many of the other SIT council members were of the same mindset. He felt there was unfinished business with various SIT projects. The bill passed 63 votes to 57. Simmonds had discussions with Government coalition partners NZ First and she hoped it might have prompted some changes to the bill.

‘‘We had hoped NZ First would come good on their promises that there should be a level of independence left for the subsidiary companies, but that hasn’t happened.’’

While disappointed, Simmonds said it was not unexpected that the bill passed.

Concerns do remain around SIT’s assets, which included $39 million in cash reserves, Simmonds said.

They will be transferred to the New Zealand Institute of Technology, although Education Minister Chris Hipkins has stated that those assets will be ‘‘ring-fenced’’ for the region.

It has not eased Simmonds’ concerns though. ‘‘The decision will made by the central body as to how [the assets] will be used, not by the local subsidiary company.’’

The Invercargill Licensing Trust, Community Trust South, Southland District Council, Invercargill City Council and a group of Southland businesses teamed up to put together a $7.25m fund to get the Zero Fees scheme kick-started in 2001.

In 2000, SIT student numbers were 1100 and declining, but on the back of the Zero Fees scheme, and later the free accommodation scheme, student numbers grew to the point they hovered near 5000.

Despite the centralisation, the planned SIT apartments on the corner of Kelvin St and Tay St will still proceed, Simmonds said.

SIT’s planned ‘‘Creative Centre’’ at the old St St John’s Anglican Church would also procede.

Simmonds’ contract with SIT will be transferred over to the NZ Institute of Technology on April 1.

Otago Polytechnic chief executive Phil Ker was also not surprised the bill passed.

‘‘It has taken on board some of the feedback and concerns expressed by Otago Polytechnic, other ITPs and ITOs, although has ignored submissions to allow for high performing subsidiaries to continue as of right,’’ Ker said.

Ker has now urged Hipkins to address the ‘‘crisis’’ of funding of polytechnic providers.

‘‘The decision will made by the central body as to how [the assets] will be used, not by the local subsidiary company.’’ Penny Simmonds