Opinion: Hey Te Pūkenga... Can Southland have its money back?

It seemed inevitable Te Pūkenga would eventually centralise its marketing and strip it back from individual institutes. That day has arrived.

Southern Institute of Technology’s Invercargill campus.

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Opinion: It’s the year 2000, and there’s that feeling of ‘last one out turn off the lights’ in Invercargill.

The city’s population was in decline. The Southern Institute of Technology had just 1100 students and that number was dropping by the year.

The situation was dire.

The SIT, and the region as a whole for that matter, has to think outside the square.

What then transpired was a bold example of innovation, a united Southland front, and a calculated punt from the region’s leaders.

The Invercargill Licensing Trust, Community Trust South, Southland District Council, Invercargill City Council, and a group of Southland businesses teamed up to put together a $7.25m fund for SIT.

That fund helped launch a ‘Zero Fees’ scheme and within three years it became self-sustainable.

Invercargill’s population decline started to turn as SIT’s student numbers increased on the back of the free fees for students.

When the Government introduced its own free fees scheme Southland pivoted and offered free student accommodation as its point of difference.

By 2019 the SIT’s student numbers had increased from 1100 to 5000 - and Southland flourished.

On top of the free fees scheme, the SIT went on an overseas marketing drive to attract paying international students. As a result, Southland is a much more multicultural region.

Many of those overseas students have made a life in Southland, and the province is better for it.

An economic impact report estimated SIT added $43m a year to Invercargill's economy alone.

SIT has never made a deficit and by 2019 had built up close to $40m in reserves. The previous board - before being removed as part of the Government’s polytechnic reform - had plans to invest in more student accommodation to help ease Invercargill’s housing shortage.

Fast forward the clock to last week and Te Pūkenga told about 28 staff at SIT that their roles were proposed to be disestablished as part of the ongoing centralisation.

For background purposes, Te Pūkenga was formed to run the merged mega polytechnic made up of 16 individual polytechnics and institutes.

It’s understood many of the jobs affected at SIT have been involved in marketing SIT over the years.

They are the very roles that have been key in helping convince students to choose Southland as the place where they should study and live.

The below video clip is the most recent sample of that work.

It seemed inevitable the merged Te Pūkenga would eventually centralise its marketing and strip autonomy from individual institutes such as SIT.

That day seems to have arrived. The innovation shown in Southland to compete with other institutes and regions around attracting new students has been watered down. Actually, it has been drowned.

That bold $7.25m community investment now seems a world away. Now is a good time to ask those in Wellington for that money back.

There will be supporters of Te Pūkenga bristling with what they are reading here. These are the people who are quick to point out that education shouldn’t be treated as a business. Sixteen organisations throughout New Zealand shouldn’t be scrapping each other in an attempt to attract students - they say.

But generally, the ideology attached to centralisation trumps innovation.

The number of full-time equivalent students at Te Pūkenga polytechnics dropped by 10% of 6972 in 2022, including 5211 fewer domestic FTE students and 2861 fewer international students.

A bit of innovation might be handy about now.

For places like Invercargill, when you are competing with the bigger centres, innovation remains vital when trying to remain relevant.

If Southland leaves it to others in Wellington to sort, we get what happened last week. About 28 people - many of whom have been part of a very successful SIT marketing push - have had their jobs disestablished.

Some of those people who backed the merger of the polytechnics will suggest that SIT had some work to do around improving the quality of the courses they deliver. That might well be the case.

But after effectively blowing the polytechnic sector up, and running up massive costs in what is an inflated top-heavy organisation, at the taxpayers’ expense, have we seen any improvement?

Was there a better way?

Could we lift the standard of courses being delivered, allow students to carry credits between polytechnics, and continue innovation at individual institutions, all while not enduring the mess that has unfolded?

There was a Stand Up for SIT campaign in 2019 which pushed back against the Government’s merger plans when the public was consulted.

Much of what those attached to that campaign suggested would happen has happened. A loss of local autonomy, blow-out head office costs, and redundancies in Southland.

The sad thing is 28 people within the Southland community, who make their livelihoods from SIT, have been caught up in it all.

Nationwide about 950 staff have been impacted by changes at Te Pūkenga – New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology – as part of its restructuring.

Affected staff will be able to apply for more than 550 new positions. About 400 jobs will be axed.