Over half of Te Pūkenga institutions to be slashed as council chair resigns

Saturday, 9 December 2023

The same day Te Pūkenga’s council chair resigned, Minister for Tertiary Education and Skills Penny Simmonds announced the number of institutions under the mega polytech will be more than halved after it is disestablished.

A spokesperson confirmed Simmonds would be looking for just eight to ten institutions to remain, where previously there were 16 polytechnics and nine training organisations.

“That is where she believes it is going to end up,” the spokesperson said, noting further consultation with community and staff was needed.

On Friday, Te Pūkenga staff received a mass email announcing council chair Murray Strong’s resignation, who had been with the organisation since its inception.

Labour tertiary education spokesperson Deborah Russell said the resignation suggested Strong didn’t feel he could carry out Simmonds’ expectations.

Te Pūkenga staff first heard their organisation would be disestablished via a mass email on Thursday, confirming they had received a “letter of expectations” from the new minister.

Unions condemned the disestablishment as a “grossly irresponsible” step backwards that left the sector in uncertainty.

Russell questioned where the “magic number” of eight to 10 institutions had come from and what advantage it posed. She said the disestablishment of Te Pūkenga needed a cost benefit analysis as it was “going to cost millions” in funding.

“Penny Simmonds is clearly very experienced in running a single institution, running a whole tertiary sector is a different game.”

Tertiary Education Union national secretary Sandra Grey also questioned the cost implications, describing Simmonds’ “grand plan” as “very unsettling”.

“I’m not sure just simply saying ‘let’s roll back time and have a whole bunch of polytechnics’ is financially sound,” Grey said.

Grey explained the previous business model of individual institutions wasn’t financially stable as “five years ago many of them were getting Government bailouts”.

She condemned the minister for sharing “absolutely no detail” around why just eight to 10 institutions would remain, and was concerned about “painful” cuts to staff.

“It’s not just the financial cost the Government has to consider, it’s the human cost,” Grey said.

She urged Simmonds to consult staff “who really know the system” to ensure everyone at Te Pūkenga survives “yet another change”.

Staff were told to “look after yourself and each other” in the mass email they received on Friday.

The email, sent by deputy chair Sue McCormack, said the council had also written to Simmonds regarding her direction of Te Pūkenga.

Te Pūkenga was approached for comment, but directed all questions to Simmonds’ office.

Simmonds declined to comment.

She told RNZ on Friday that Te Pūkenga was a “big, heavy, bloated head office” which slowed decision-making, stopped innovation and removed community involvement.

The sector’s financial situation had been worse under Te Pūkenga, she said, and restructuring wouldn’t be costly as institutions were still largely operating independently.

Simmonds said a quick process was needed for staff experiencing a “convoluted period of anxiety and uncertainty”.

“We need to get that certainty very quickly, but we need to see what is going to be financially viable, and we need to see what is going to meet the needs of their communities.”