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The Education Minister has deferred making a decision on the future of the besieged Tai Poutini Polytechnic, while announcing another bail-out, this time $8.5 million, and a $24.8 million debt write-off from the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC).
This comes three months after the Tai Poutini Polytechnic was humiliated with the lowest category rating in New Zealand after review by the NZ Qualifications Authority.
Critically, the TEC says the Greymouth-based polytechnic failed to deliver enough training hours across a range of courses between 2010 and 2015.
TEC engaged Deloittes after becoming concerned during an internal audit of the scaffolding course, and by media reports, which were widely reported in the Greymouth Star at the time but dismissed by the polytechnic.
TEC monitoring and crown ownership manager Dean Winter said this report showed Tai Poutini Polytechnic had delivered far fewer hours than required across several courses between 2010 and 2015 - scaffolding, search and rescue, quarrying, mining, crane operations, and occupational safety and health.
"In some of the scaffolding programmes, students were receiving as little as 10% of the teaching hours they were meant to. That means that that in a course where students were expected to receive nearly 200 hours of training, they only did 20," the commission said.
Students' qualifications had been assessed by NZQA and were still valid because students had acquired the required knowledge and skills, despite the polytechnic not delivering the agreed form of learning.
The investigation findings do not reflect the current practice at the polytechnic.
Mr Winter said Tai Poutini Polytechnic, along with the TEC, had taken steps to address any risk of this type of learning under-delivery happening again.
Education Minister Chris Hipkins said yesterday the Government was injecting $8.5m so the polytechnic could continue to operate over the coming year.
Mr Hipkins said it had been clear to all for some time the West Coast's polytechnic was in serious trouble, and that substantial change was needed.
"While this change is worked through with the sector, the extra funding is a strong demonstration of the Government's commitment to tertiary education delivery on the West Coast.
"It is critical we address these challenges across the whole network, rather than just one organisation at a time. We need a lasting solution to this long-standing challenge."
Mr Hipkins said he had decided to defer a decision on the Tai Poutini Polytechnic business case, which looked at whether it could stand alone, or should merge.
Tai Poutini Polytechnic chief executive Alex Cabrera, who was appointed after the problems emerged, said they were considering new ways of working with an innovative approach to tertiary education in one of New Zealand's most isolated regions.
"We've worked closely with the local community, partner organisations and Government to come up with a proposal for the future.
"Today's indication of the minister's strong focus on how the regions can be better supported by tertiary education is a positive step towards change," Mr Cebrera said.
Crown manager at Tai Poutini Polytechnic, Murray Strong, said the new management and governance teams were very aware of the financial and strategic challenges they faced, along with the serious issues identified in the TEC report.
"The appointments of myself and Mr Cabrera in 2016 marked a period of positive change for Tai Poutini Polytechnic," Mr Strong said.
Polytechnic council chairman Andrew Robb said it remained committed to shaping a better future for tertiary education on the West Coast.
"We'll have to make tough decisions but our focus must remain on meeting these three core values and ensuring we're ready to deliver for the West Coast."
- by Laura Mills