Otago Polytechnic executive director Megan Potiki spoke at a meeting discussing the long-term future of Cromwell Polytechnic on Monday night.
New Otago Polytechnic Central Campus director John Christie was joined by polytechnic leadership team members to discuss the plans for the campus and its accommodation.
It was also announced the town campus would be sold and programmes centralised at the Bannockburn campus. The possibility of selling the Chalets, the polytechnic accommodation, was being explored.
Ms Potiki said she was delighted with the number of people at the meeting, which was more than they were likely to get at a similar meeting in Dunedin.
While they were waiting for directives from Minister of Tertiary Education and Skills Penny Simmonds, Otago Polytechnic was in debt and they would have to take out costs and get it standing back on its own two feet.
However, it was not alone.
"There is not one viable polytechnic at the moment."
Mrs Simmonds told the Otago Daily Times earlier this month SIT and Otago Polytechnic were looking good to standalone but both had more work to do.
Ms Potiki said there was a risk they could be forced into a federation of polytechnics and that was not wanted.
Mr Christie, who had been in the director role for about two weeks, said he was committed to the polytechnic. He had just bought a house and moved his family to Cromwell from Dunedin.
He wanted the community to have pride in the Cromwell campus and staff and learners to be proud to be there every day, he said.
Ms Potiki said getting enough fulltime equivalent students was the key. The number of hours students spent on their course mattered more than the number of students enrolled.
In Dunedin, nursing was the jewel in the polytechnic’s crown.
The polytechnic had to decide whether to invest further in that type of course or in more, smaller ones, she said.
Audience members had plenty of ideas of courses to run and activities that could generate income.
One man pointed outside to the nursery area and said he could not buy native plants in bulk locally yet the polytechnic had a facility to do that on site.
The pending sale of the Chalets was soundly dismissed by the audience, with many, including Central Otago Mayor Tamah Alley, saying if it was sold the polytechnic would never get back into the property market.
Otago Polytechnic deputy executive director operations Max Sims said it would have to be sold under the Public Works Act and that was a complex process.
At the moment there was only 50% uptake in rooms and the increased requirements to provide pastoral care was a problem with low numbers of students, he said.
Asked what options the polytechnic would offer students from out of town, he said home stays were one option.
That was quickly cried down as already being exhausted.
The audience was quick to offer multiple suggestions for using any spare rooms at the accommodation and what to do with them during the summer when not needed for students.
Schools got a reminder to offer polytechnic as a desirable pathway and alternative to university from a number of people in the audience.
Offering evening classes to working people was suggested as an income stream, with topics from car maintenance to upskilling for career advancement proposed.
