Polytech seeks rationalisation funding

Otago Polytechnic needs to find up to $15 million to wrestle its property portfolio into shape, as a blow-out in one of its leases puts on the pressure.

Chief executive Phil Ker said yesterday the polytechnic had worked out it would cost between $12 million and $15 million to rationalise its properties.

While the amount the Government would be asked to fund was not finalised, it could be a substantial part, Mr Ker said when approached.

In the end, we are going to make a case that if you were in Cabinet, you would want to support, Mr Ker said.

The case would be ready by about June, he said.

An unexpected $500,000 blow-out in a land lease has provided extra impetus for the polytechnic to centralise its operations at its Forth St campus, but such plans have been made previously.

In 2001, then chief executive Wanda Korndoffer tried to make a start, but came unstuck as the budget blew out.

Mr Ker said achieving that now would make the institution extraordinarily efficient from a property point of view.

In looking to the Government for help, the polytechnic was not doing an Oliver Twist, and accepted its job was to manage the institution, but some factors were conspiring against it.

The polytechnic has been buffeted by Government funding decisions in the past two years, as well as hit by falling enrolments due to a strong job market. Those problems, on top of the prospect of higher lease costs, meant the polytechnic was battling an operating deficit this year.

In the end, the Government owns us. It is a Crownowned operation, so it is incumbent on us to put together the sort of case that says, ‘if you are a prudent owner, this is what you would invest in your asset’, Mr Ker said.

The property causing the polytechnic difficulties is L Block, which sits between Anzac Ave and Parry St, and is the base for architecture, building, horticulture and engineering courses.

Deputy chief executive Dr Robin Day confirmed the polytechnic faced a potential $500,000 lease hike at L Block, where the lease has come up for renewal for the first time in 20 years.

Dr Day said the lease was under negotiation, so he did not want to comment further.

However, he said the polytechnic had enough room at its Forth St campus to accommodate all its Dunedin operations, including those in L Block and its Tennyson St catering programmes.

It is not just an issue of our leases, it is also an issue of our other properties, he said.

Other factors include pressure on space from the polytechnic’s fast growing design school, which is using office space in Great King St on a short-term lease, and a shortage of quality studio space for students at the School of Art.


This article was taken from the Monday 10th April 2006 edition of the Otago Daily Times with the express permission of the writer, Tom McKinlay.

Move to allay student fears over course cuts

The financial difficulties facing Otago Polytechnic are scary, according to student copresident Richard Mitchell.

Low enrolments, on the back of several unfavourable Government funding changes, have left the polytechnic facing the possibility of a $1 million deficit unless it can get a cash injection from Wellington.

But whatever happened, students already enrolled would be looked after, Mr Mitchell said when contacted.

Chief executive Phil Ker has given an assurance that they are going to phase courses out, he said.

If students were in the first-year of a three-year degree course that the polytechnic judged to be not viable long-term, they would still get to finish.

The polytechnic would just stop taking new enrolments, Mr Mitchell said.

There aren’t any courses I have seen that in my opinion would need to be phased out, but I am not the one keeping the books and I see it from more of a community perspective, he said.

Mr Ker has launched an institution-wide review of the viability of courses, but it is not expected to identify many to be immediately phased out.

The polytechnic is down 230 students on last year, but much of the shortfall is spread thinly across a large number of courses.

Mr Ker said earlier this week the polytechnic was hopeful of Government funding help on the basis that its programmes were meeting the Government’s strategic objectives for the sector.

Mr Mitchell said it was not a case of the polytechnic running courses that were not relevant.

The country needed scientists, but the polytechnic had been forced to shut its science programme last year because people simply were not enrolling, he said.

While many of the factors that had contributed to the institution’s very serious financial situation were beyond its control, it was now clearly up to the polytechnic to plot a way forward.

Mr Mitchell said he had confidence in Mr Ker to lead that effort.

The polytechnic is to quicken the development of flexible delivery options for courses, to allow those in work or who can not otherwise attend full-time classroom-based courses to enrol.

It is a model Mr Ker has been advocating both at Otago and through the Tertiary Accord of New Zealand grouping of polytechnics.

Mr Mitchell said flexible delivery had a lot going for it but they would have to take care in its implementation.

Unless it was done correctly, with the right support from staff, course quality could suffer, he said.

In many situations there was no substitute for the classroom environment.

However, the polytechnic did have to act, as there was no reason to believe a cool-down in the job market, that had been a factor in low enrolments, would turn their fortunes around, he said.


This article was taken from the Saturday 8th April 2006 edition of the Otago Daily Times with the express permission of the writer, Tom McKinlay.