A third of first-year students quit in the first 12 months

New data paints an alarming picture of the challenges at polytechs, with a third of firstyear polytech students quitting their studies last year and some courses unable to retain any learners at all.

Across the country, 12,642 equivalent full-time students began courses at polytechs last year but 4124 – or 32.6% – dropped out, according to the figures released under the Official Information Act.

The 15 polytechs that make up

Te Pū kenga offered a total of 227 qualifications last year but on 51 courses at least half of all students quit.

On 15 courses, zero learners were retained, including the bachelor of youth development at WelTec, which attracted 12 students but kept none.

The figures did not measure ‘‘positive exit’’, where a learner had left their studies to work, Te Pū kenga said in an accompanying explanation signed by chief executive Stephen Town.

Town, who earns between $670,000 and $679,999 a year, has been on paid special leave since last month for reasons that have not been disclosed and is unlikely to return to the role this year, the organisation has said.

Te Pū kenga was formed as part of the reform of vocational education, which was announced in August 2019 and included the merger of the country’s 16 polytechnics.

Since then it has repeatedly hit the headlines with concerns over the salaries of its senior management team and a forecast $110 million deficit.

Nationally, the Open Polytechnic had the highest number of first-year dropouts: 847 from 1965 starters (43.1%).

Otago Polytechnic had the highest percentage of first-year students leave. Of the 1385 who started, 612 withdrew from their course in the same year (44.2%).

The qualification with the highest dropout rate was the level 6 diploma in construction (with strands in construction management and quantity surveying) at the Open Polytechnic, which had 667 students at the start of the year but 280 quit (42%).

The information was based on equivalent full-time students ‘‘for course completion and head count for first-year retention’’, Te Pū kenga said.

Whitireia and WelTec chief executive Mark Oldershaw said the figures relating to first-year dropouts seemed ‘‘remarkably

high’’ and he would be aware if so many were quitting.

‘‘There were certainly impacts around Covid and high employment, and we have seen a bit of an uplift around cost of living issues but that just does not seem right at all.’’

High employment had had an impact ‘‘but nowhere near as high as that’’.

‘‘We just would not have been able to survive,’’ Oldershaw said, adding that while there had been a small dip in enrolment numbers this year, the bachelor degree programmes ‘‘have grown if anything’’.

Education consultant Dave Guerin said various factors could cause polytech students to drop out. These included more parttime study and distance learning at polytechs, both of which suggested people were juggling priorities. Covid-19 likely also played a role, he said.

‘‘People who go to university tend to be more committed’’ to their course of study, Guerin added.

Last week Te Pū kenga acting chief executive Peter Winder told MPs at a parliamentary select committee hearing that ‘‘only 6% of our total learners come directly from school into Te Pū kenga’’.

‘‘Pathways into Te Pū kenga are many and complex,’’ he said.