Lincoln University has repaid the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) $1.5 million after an investigation found the Telford division made a series of funding reporting blunders, including one which led to a student gaining a qualification for a programme he did not attend.
The discovery came after TEC employed Deloitte to interview a random sample of students at the Telford campus near Balclutha to check the legitimacy of student enrolments in programmes.
The investigation also found no students in a 21-student cohort enrolled in a 2013 level 3 national certificate in horticulture programme completed the qualification.
Interim director of the Telford Division of Lincoln University Joan Grace said the outcome of the programme was ''regrettable''.
''There were quite a few issues with how it was designed, and whether it actually fitted the needs of students and I think it is really regrettable that that happened.''
The programme had been reviewed since 2013, she said.
During the interview process a student awarded a Telford Foundation certificate in arboriculture by the Academic Committee said he had never attended the programme.
The mistake ''should never have happened'', Ms Grace said.
''We asked that student and he never thought he got the qualification either and all of the records have been amended.''
Funding provided to the division for the student's enrolment had been repaid to TEC.
The mistake was an ''administrative oversight'' and the student was not charged for the programme, Ms Grace said.
The TEC investigation, which looked at five programmes offered in 2014-15, also found an under-delivery of learning hours provided to students in the level 2 Foundation certificate in arboriculture and the level 3 certificate in farming.
Further investigation into five programmes offered between 2010 and 2015 found students enrolled in the national certificate in horticulture (arboriculture) and national certificate in horticulture also missed out on scheduled learning hours.
Discrepancies between teaching hours in programme documents and actual teaching hours were ''minor'', the report found.
However, funding provided to the division by TEC was on the basis of hours of instruction delivered to students.
All the programmes assessed to be providing hours below what was stated in programme documents were provided by subcontractors, the investigation found.
One of the subcontractors had stopped working with the division, while one would continue and the other was still in discussion with Telford, Ms Grace said.
''The main thing is to make sure we have systems in place to make sure we are monitoring those arrangements to make sure these things do not happen again.''
Teaching hours varied depending on the competency of cohorts, she said.
The division had ''proactively improved some of its processes'' and provided comprehensive responses to all of the matters raised, the report said.
The report recommended the division improve its processes of recording learning hours, inform the ministry of any changes to hours on a timely basis and have greater oversight of subcontracted programmes.
A spokeswoman from Universities New Zealand said the findings did not challenge the academic quality of the division.
The organisation would not withdraw approval for any of the programmes investigated.
