44701 (2024). Francisco Hernandez to the Minister for Tertiary Education and Skills

44701 (2024). Francisco Hernandez to the Minister for Tertiary Education and Skills: Why has the Tertiary Education Commission prescribed specific consultancies to conduct a review of the financial situations faced by the country’s polytechs and also identified individual partners for Te Pūkenga to hire out as part of this plan?

Hon Penny Simmonds: Section 332 of the Education and Training Act 2020 enables the TEC to require Te Pūkenga to obtain specialist help, including specifying the people or organisations from which help is to be obtained. I have been advised that the TEC worked with Te Pūkenga to identify consultancies with the necessary expertise and capability to deliver on the required objectives. The consultancies engaged were chosen due to both their knowledge of the tertiary sector and their significant experience in restructuring and turning around underperforming businesses. They also were chosen because they had the capacity to deliver on the objectives within the required timeframes.