Under section 341H of the Education and Training Act 2020 (“Act”) the Secretary for Education gives notice determining the criteria for assessing risks to the operation and viability of a polytechnic, or a related entity of a polytechnic, and risks to the education and training performance of students enrolled at a polytechnic.

Notice

1. This notice may be cited as the Notice of Risk Assessment Criteria for Polytechnics and Related Entities.
2. Nothing in this notice limits or affects the duties of the council of a polytechnic under section 281 or section 321 of the Act, or the duties and obligations of the council of a polytechnic under any other enactment.
3. Words and phrases used in this notice bear the same meaning as under the Act.
4. This notice comes into effect on 1 January 2026.

Risk Assessment Criteria

Organisational Risk

5. The polytechnic, or the council of the polytechnic, has not fulfilled, and continues not to fulfil, its statutory functions and duties under the Act, including, but not limited to section 281(1)(e) of the Act which requires the council of a polytechnic to ensure that the institution operates in a financially responsible manner that ensures the efficient use of resources and maintains the institution’s long-term viability.
6. The polytechnic, or the council of the polytechnic, or the board of a related entity of the polytechnic has failed, and continues to fail, to ensure that the polytechnic, or a related entity of the polytechnic maintains adequate systems and processes for:
1. effective planning
2. effective management of financial and educational performance
3. effective management of infrastructure, and
4. effective capital-investment management.
7. The polytechnic, the council of the polytechnic, or the board of a related entity of the polytechnic has failed, and continues to fail, to meet a material obligation under the Act, the Companies Act 1993, the Crown Entities Act 2004, the Public Finance Act 1989, or any other statutory or regulatory obligation.

Financial Risk

8. The polytechnic, or a related entity of the polytechnic, is at risk of being unable to pay its debts as they become due in the normal course of business.
9. The polytechnic, or a related entity of the polytechnic, has breached any of the conditions imposed by the Secretary for Education in a borrowing consent under section 282(7) of the Act, and the breach has not been remedied.
10. The polytechnic, or a related entity of the polytechnic, is in default under any loan or other facility agreement with a bank or other commercial lender, or the Crown, and the default has not been remedied.
11. The institution’s most recent published annual report has reported a deficit of over 5% of revenue and this deficit continues to exist if one-off, non-recurring expenses noted in the annual report are excluded.

Educational Risk

12. The polytechnic, or a related entity of the polytechnic, has failed to meet the educational or training performance commitments in the investment plan agreed by the TEC.
13. NZQA has identified areas of concern as a result of a formal quality assurance process under the Act about the educational or training performance of students enrolled at the polytechnic.
14. The polytechnic has failed, and continues to fail, to work collaboratively with Industry Skills Boards, schools, wānanga and other tertiary sector organisations, industries, and local communities including Māori and iwi, to identify the education, training and skills needs in the region served by the polytechnic.

Dated at Wellington this 14th day of December 2025.

ELLEN MACGREGOR-REID, Secretary for Education.

Notes

1. These notes are intended to clarify the purpose and effect of the risk criteria set out in the Notice but do not form part of the criteria for assessment of risk.
2. The Chief Executive of the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) or the Minister of Education (“Minister”), as the case may require, must apply the risk assessment criteria when deciding whether intervention under subpart 4 of Part 4 of the Act is necessary.
3. The council of a polytechnic may make a request under section 341Q of the Act for the Minister or the chief executive of TEC to apply an intervention, and the risk assessment criteria apply to any such request.
4. The council of a polytechnic is primarily responsible for monitoring, managing and mitigating risks to the polytechnic or the related entities of the polytechnic.
5. The different levels of intervention under subpart 4 of Part 4 of the Act correspond to three risk thresholds: ‘may be at risk’, ‘is at risk’, or ‘is at serious risk’.
6. Section 341I (requirement to provide information), section 341J (appointment of Crown observer), section 341K (requirement to obtain specialist help), and section 341L (requirement to implement a performance improvement plan) apply where a polytechnic, or a related entity of the polytechnic, ‘may be at risk’ or the education and training performance of the students enrolled at the polytechnic ‘may be at risk’.
7. Section 341M (appointment of Crown manager) applies where there ‘is a risk’ to the operation or long-term viability of the polytechnic, or a related entity of the polytechnic, or the education and training performance of the students enrolled at the polytechnic ‘is at risk’.
8. Section 341P (appointment of Commissioner) applies where there ‘is a serious risk’ to the operation or long-term viability of the polytechnic, and other methods of reducing the risk have failed, or would be likely to fail.
9. The interventions for when a polytechnic or a related entity ‘may be at risk’ are intended to address possible and emerging risks before they materialise and typically may be used to avoid the need for the other interventions.
10. In practice, a developing risk that does not yet constitute an actual risk in terms of the risk assessment criteria may provide reasonable grounds for the Chief Executive of TEC, or the Minister, as the case may be, to consider that a polytechnic, or a related entity of the polytechnic, or the education and training performance of the students enrolled at a polytechnic, ‘may be at risk’.
11. For example, although a polytechnic has not yet failed to comply with a material obligation under the Crown Entities Act 2004 (see clause 7 of the Notice), the Minister or the Chief Executive of TEC may decide to intervene if there are reasonable grounds to consider the polytechnic may be at risk of failing to comply with that obligation.
12. The interventions for when a polytechnic or a related entity ‘is at risk’ or ‘is at serious risk’ are available to the Minister where a risk specified in the risk assessment criteria has materialised, and significant intervention is warranted.