Student body hails polytech overhaul
UCOL’S students’ association has welcomed a potential overhaul of New Zealand’s polytechnics, provided students still have a voice.
Palmerston North-based polytech UCOL, which also has campuses in Masterton, Levin and Whanganui, will be affected by a proposal, announced by education minister Chris Hipkins on Wednesday, to merge the country’s 16 institutes into a single entity.
Three key ambitions – merging New Zealand’s polytechs, creating a new vocational education funding system, and making industry training organisations responsible for 140,000 trainees and apprentices to better align on and off-thejob education – aim to prepare the system for a future economy in which Kiwis are expected to retrain throughout their working lives.
Association of Students at UCOL president Karla Davis was at Parliament for the announcement and said she supported the proposal because something needed to happen and institutes couldn’t keep getting bailed out by the Government.
‘‘It’s a positive in the sense that the ministry is wanting to overhaul the curriculum. If you study in Palmerston North but move to Hawke’s Bay, your studies and qualifications are going to be recognised [at another institution].’’
Davis would be making a submission during the consultation process and encouraged the rest of the executive and other students to do so as well.
‘‘I’d like to see where the student voice is going to be in this whole process. That wasn’t made clear [on Wednesday] and I’m just a little bit concerned how much the student voice is going to be heard in this.’’
The polytech sector lost $53 million in 2017, and four institutes – Greymouth’s Tai Poutini Polytechnic, Wellington’s Whitireia and Weltec, and Unitec in Auckland – received $100m in Crown bailouts last year.
In late 2018, all polytechs’ finances were worse than forecast and most were ‘‘not expecting a major material turnaround in fortunes for 2019’’, a Cabinet paper said.
But UCOL had been performing well financially and student numbers were healthy. Davis said it would be interesting to see how the funding would work between successful institutes and those that had struggled.
UCOL had 6500 students last year and numbers were tracking towards 7000.
Its chief executive Amanda Lynn and chairman Ben Vanderkolk were also at Parliament for the announcement. They were still digesting the proposal, but Lynn said they were confident about UCOL’S future.
‘‘UCOL will participate in the consultation process and believes in the importance of regional vocational training, work skills that build careers, support for the wellbeing of local communities, and the substantial contribution this makes to the New Zealand economy.
‘‘UCOL has more than 400 highly skilled personnel and is performing well, with 450 more students in 2018 and a financial surplus of approximately $1m,’’ Lynn said.
Hipkins said at a time of critical skill shortages, too many polytechnics and institutes were going broke.