Special team takes over running of Northland Polytechnic

A special project team has taken over the running of Northland Polytechnic in an attempt to remedy a financial fix that has seen it lose up to $50,000 a week.

The polytechnic this week announced it planned to lay off 40 staff as part of a review into its finances that followed a $1.2 million operating deficit last year. This year the polytech has been operating at a loss of up to $50,000 per week.

That figure has apparently dropped, although polytechnic chief executive Denis Snelgar and polytechnic council chairman Jules Flight yesterday could not say what it had dropped to.

Mr Flight said the polytechnic was being run by a project team that would be told next week what that loss was. The project group consists of council representatives, Mr Snelgar and three key polytechnic staff and Crown representatives.

Mr Flight said the group had met for the first time this week and would run the polytechnic until its finances improved.

The polytechnic's "extreme" circumstances were behind the group's formation. Its initial task would be to get the review off to Associate Minister of Education (tertiary) Steve Maharey, as well as firm up which staff would be made redundant.

Meanwhile, a union representative for Northland Polytechnic staff claims there was no consultation over the redundancies. In his announcement on Thursday, Mr Snelgar had said regular weekly meetings had been held with delegates from the two unions representing polytech academic and support staff.

The meetings had been held as part of the review process.

However, Peter Dalton, Northland branch president of the Association of Staff in Tertiary Education, said staff were not consulted.

"Nobody knows anything about it. That's the bottom line. Staff have not been kept informed."

Staff had been told about the review earlier this year, and had been aware of a data collection process that included student numbers and student-to-tutor ratios.

However, no other information had been received.

"We have had meetings with him (Mr Snelgar) but there has been no real consultation with the union because we have not seen any facts or figures yet."

Mr Dalton said he could appreciate Mr Snelgar's stance that he did not want to discuss the review document until it was complete. However, aspects of the document -- such as the redundancies -- had begun to leak.

Staff were only told of the redundancies after the Northern Advocate newspaper heard of them and approached the polytechnic for comment.

The impending redundancies are expected to be made in mid-June.

- NORTHERN ADVOCATE (WHANGAREI)