Capable New Zealand, which offers fast-tracked qualifications for people with work experience and was at one stage the most popular programme at Otago Polytechnic, has been in negotiations over its status since March, and a final proposal was put forward in June.
At the time, the polytechnic proposed cutting the department’s staff from 30 to 10 fulltime equivalents, and including an additional head of college role.
The final decision was released earlier this month and adjusts the job losses somewhat.
Under the new structure, there will be 12.4 FTE staff remaining, bolstered by 2.33 FTE administrative staff.
About 6.9 FTE roles will be cut, while existing vacant positions will not be filled.
An anonymous Capable NZ staff member said the department was now a "shell" of what it once was, but during the negotiations, they had managed to claw back a few extra staff.
The Tertiary Education Union (TEU) helped with legal wrangling and ensuring the polytechnic followed due process, he said.
TEU general secretary Daniel Benson-Guiu said Capable NZ’s staff had worked "incredibly hard" in their advocacy.
The anonymous staff member was wary of future workloads.
"The feeling on the ground is that the people who are left behind are going to have unbearably massive workloads and insufficient work has been done by Otago Polytechnic to understand what those workloads look like."
Otago Polytechnic executive director Dr Megan Pōtiki said it had opened expressions of interest for any Capable NZ staff interested in voluntary redundancy.
"We will then move to a selection process, if necessary.
Dr Pōtiki said the cuts were made in response to a declining roll — numbers across the Capable NZ programme peaked in 2020 at about 450 students and had been declining steadily to about 300 students this year.
"We have set 2026 enrolment targets for Capable NZ to align closely with our 2025 numbers.
"Many learners are already enrolled to continue their studies next year and new applications are open for our rolling monthly intakes throughout 2026.
"As Capable NZ operates a continuous enrolment model across the year, there is no fixed application period.
"A clearer picture of 2026 enrolments will emerge from those initiating study discussions now, with February remaining one of our largest and most consistent intakes."
Capable NZ allows students to apply and start any time and complete the required work from anywhere in New Zealand.
Qualifications earned through Capable NZ have the same value as those earned through normal Otago Polytechnic programmes or other tertiary institutions.
The restructuring of Capable NZ was part of wider measures within the polytechnic to cut costs by more than $10 million in order to be sustainable enough to become autonomous, after the government lumped Otago Polytechnic in a federation model with Open Polytechnic and Universal College of Learning.
The anonymous staff member said many in the Capable NZ department had been suffering from "change fatigue".
"Otago Polytechnic have tried very, very hard just to tire people out ... to such an extent that they throw their hands up."
Mr Benson-Guiu said in the drive for sustainability, Otago Polytechnic had often ignored the importance of the staff’s work.
"They want to grow student numbers and rationalise staff and we all know those two things don’t fit."
