The Invercargill City Council yesterday approved its draft submission in relation to the Government proposal to merge all polytechnics.
In an extraordinary meeting at the Civic Theatre, councillors discussed the document presented by council strategy and policy manager Melissa Brook.
She said the draft submission focused on two key areas.
''The first is the potential impact of this proposal is not yet known, both financially and on the community.''
She said the council would like to comment further once the impact was known.
''The second point is to make sure, from a council perspective, which is the impact that SIT (Southern Institute of Technology) has in our community.''
Mrs Brook also asked the councillors to approve any further amendments to the document as the deadline for submissions had been extended from March 27 to April 5.
In its submission, the council claims the proposals will undermine the Southland region and the Government should consider fixing financially troubled institutions ''rather than risking the success of the SIT by combining it into a single entity''.
The council also pointed out there was little indication of how the costs for the proposed mega New Zealand Institute of Technology would be split.
