Minister reveals polytech faces serious financial risk

New Plymouth's polytechnic is in serious financial trouble, says Education Minister Trevor Mallard.

He indicated that the Western Institute of Technology at Taranaki (WITT) faced an uncertain future when he released the Government's latest set of priorities for tertiary institutions yesterday.

"We've got one institution which is at very serious risk," he said.

"I haven't had a report yet on what needs to be done. All I know is that they're in serious financial trouble."

WITT chief executive Paul Sutcliffe resigned in December after the institution indicated it was facing a $2.3 million deficit for the year.

Mr Mallard said yesterday that a Crown manager now had the chequebook.

"There's been a Crown observer there until quite recently. There was a change of status to Crown manager about the end of March," he said.

"It's an institution which has not been good at its knitting. It's got major international commitments; it hasn't looked carefully at the viability of some of its courses."

Mr Mallard said Taranaki was booming economically, and there should be room in the region for a viable tertiary institution.

"It might be ... that to keep the institution viable there needs to be a special funding relationship.

"One thing I don't want to do is say to every wee polytechnic, 'Here's another half a million a year and it doesn't matter what you do with it'.

"If we're going to put more money in, we've got to buy change."

He said it was important, from his perspective, that high-quality courses were available in New Plymouth, "especially for industries important to Taranaki".

WITT was not a good acronym for the polytechnic, Mr Mallard said.

"There's a temptation to put another letter in front of it."

- NZPA