Otago Polytechnic council members have an unpalatable decision to make next month - how best to restructure themselves before the current governing body is dissolved at the end of April.
Legislation passed by Parliament in December - four months after it was first proposed - slashes the number of members on polytechnic councils to eight, from 12 to 20 at present.
Otago's membership will be almost halved.
Four members will be appointed by Tertiary Education Minister Steven Joyce, while four can be appointed by the present council or its successor.
Otago Polytechnic chief executive Phil Ker urged the present council to enact statutes as soon as possible, outlining how the four non-ministerial positions would be filled, and what the selection criteria should be.
He also urged the present council to appoint all or some of the non-ministerial positions before May to ensure continuity between the present body and the next.
"I make this recommendation because I believe the risk . . . is high that we will lose all of our current expertise and experience if we rely on the four ministerial appointees, all of whom may be new, to select the council appointees," he said at a council meeting on Thursday.
Otago's present council is a mix of people appointed to represent groups such as academic staff, general staff, students, trade unions, the Dunedin City Council and employers.
The local runanga also nominates two people to represent Maori.
Mr Ker said the council could continue using the representational method or could switch to seeking council members fitting a particular skill set yet to be determined.
His recommendation was to adopt a "hybrid" system, with two or three people appointed using a skills-based system, and one or two continuing to be nominated by Maori.
He recommended students and staff be represented via subcommittees rather than formal council members.
Staff and unions have vehemently opposed that idea.
No seat was required for himself, as he "would always be at the table", he said.
Mr Ker said the four ministerial appointments should be known next month, and advised the council to have its selection system and criteria statutes in place quickly so its appointments could be made as soon as the ministerial appointments were announced.
A lengthy discussion ensued about what system might be adopted to achieve the best result for Otago.
Chairman Graham Crombie, a current ministerial appointee, said he was not sure the new council should be bound to accept members appointed by a previous body.
However, Mr Ker said any appointments made before May were only for one year, after which new councillors would be appointed by the ministerial appointees.
Deputy chairman Mark Ryan, also a current ministerial appointee, said he was reluctant to fetter the new council and reluctant for it to be perceived today's council members were organising "jobs for the boys".
The council made no decisions at the meeting but asked Mr Ker to set out the skill-set criteria and options for Maori appointees.
A half-day workshop will be held in private before next month's council meeting.
Mr Ker said to meet the tight restructuring timeframe, council members would need to be considering draft statutes next month "or otherwise there will be delays which might mean you don't get to control your own destiny at all".