Let us take more students, techs plead

Jobless people looking to upskill through polytechnics could be turned away if the Government does not lift the enrolment cap.

The Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics group says tertiary providers would be able to stretch funding to cover 2000 more students a year if the cap was bumped up by just 1 per cent.

Enrolment caps, introduced at the start of last year, were set to prevent tertiary institutes from letting numbers rise or fall more than 3 per cent above or below the number for which they were funded.

The group's executive director, David Guerin, was unsure what action the Tertiary Education Commission would take against an institute that breached the cap but suggested it could order funding cuts or impose tougher regulations.

He confirmed polytechs would have too many people applying to study this year as the growing number of unemployed looked to upskill. Accepting these people into courses would be helping the community at large.

"If people are willing to go and study and do the hard work, let's help them."

The institutes are doing their best to help move people into courses but Mr Guerin said they were forced to state on advertisements that limited places were available.

Enrolment numbers were up 5 to 10 per cent throughout the country and five of his members predicted they would exceed the 3 per cent threshold this year.

Mr Guerin predicted the full effect of rising unemployment would not hit the sector until midway through next year when the job market dried up.

Rick Ede, the chief executive of Unitec in Auckland, said he was expecting his student numbers to at least hit the cap, "with a very real chance that we will go over it if we do nothing". He said Unitec had seen students enrolling a semester or even a year ahead.

Mr Ede said that if enrolment numbers surged in fields with skill shortages, Unitec would mount a case to the commission to raise the cap.

Until then, the institute would not see any financial gain from allowing everyone in the community who wanted to study into its courses.

Similar technical training organisations in the United States, Britain and Australia have been awarded funding in recognition of their role in up-skilling the unemployed to help them get ahead at the end of the recession.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act 2009 has provided $787 billion in "critical funding" for what it calls "community colleges".

Mr Guerin said the New Zealand institutes' group was looking to make better use of what money it had.

"We haven't asked for money because we know that the Government has incredibly tight resources. We want to be freed up to enrol the most students we can."

He said the sector could use the funds it had to enrol a further 2000 to 4000 students, but would require more funding beyond that.

David Nicholson, director of the Tertiary Network, said the commission was not considering lifting student enrolment caps in light of the recession. "We expect [institutes of technology and polytechnics] to discuss this issue with us when they are facing significantly increased enrolments above agreed levels."

Mr Nicholson added that the commission had never removed funding from any institution exceeding the agreed number of students.

Meanwhile, Unitec, MIT, Wintec, WelTec, CPIT and Otago Polytechnic have decided to withdraw from membership of ITP New Zealand, the institutes' group, from December.

Mr Ede of Unitec said the decision reflected that the large metropolitan institutions collectively had more in common than other organisations in the group.