Review pushed forward

An education boss has asked the Southern Institute of Technology to fast-track a review of their accommodation services in the wake of the death of a Christchurch student last month.

The body of 19-year-old Canterbury University student Mason Pendrous was found in a room at a student hall of residence run by Campus Living Villages (CLV), weeks after it was believed he had died. He was only found when a friend climbed onto the roof at the hall of residence where Pendrous lived and looked into the room.

It has prompted Tertiary Education Commission chief executive Tim Fowler to contact every tertiary provider in New Zealand and request they carry out a review into the accommodation services regarding the safety and wellbeing of students. SIT owns its own apartment complexes in Invercargill, provided for free under the Mayor Tim Shadbolt Accommodation Bursary to help entice students to study at SIT.

In a letter to the SIT Council, Fowler requests an initial ‘‘stocktake and overview’’ of accommodation and for them to report back to him by Friday.

Fowler has also asked that the SIT Council conduct a wider review, preferably independent, and report back by November 29. ‘‘While I acknowledge and appreciate the autonomy of your institutions, I consider it is public interest that all tertiary institutions are able to provide assurances with regard to the safety of every student . . . particularly those using your accommodation services,’’ the letter says.

At an SIT Council meeting on Monday, chief executive Penny Simmonds confirmed staff were conducting a review of procedures and would soon present it to the commission. Simmonds has indicated it might be more beneficial to have a peer review of SIT’s own report. She said they would talk with management at the Eastern Institute of Technology in Hawke’s Bay and ask if they would look over the SIT report, and SIT would offer to do the same for EIT.

Simmonds said an independent firm might not know what to look for in terms of gaps within their accommodation procedures, where a similar institution would. ‘‘I don’t think [EIT] has as much [accommodation] as us, but they certainly have got similar accommodations in that it’s apartments and not halls of residence It’s no point us doing a peer review with somebody that has got halls of residence.’’

Education Minister Chris Hipkins said this week that tertiary providers could be fined $100,000 for failing to take care of students in their accommodation.

A new mandatory code of practice will replace the voluntary one. It will clarify the standard of pastoral care the providers will be required to adopt.

Changes are expected to implemented by the start of the academic year.