Briefing for the Education and Workforce Committee

Locations of tertiary education institutions

2018 at a glance

We audit all 27 public tertiary education institutions (TEIs) from Whangarei to Invercargill.
232,000 of which 31,000 were international students. Overall, universities saw increases in domestic and international students, but numbers fell elsewhere.	Number of full-time equivalent students*
Types pf TEI and number of EFTS
8 universities (136,044)	16 Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics (ITPS) (72,740)	3 Wānanga (23,490)
$5.4 billion up$116 million from 2017.	Total revenue
	Surpluses and deficits All universities made a surplus, but 10 of the 16 ITPs made a combined loss of $81.6 million (2017:9 ITPs/$70 million loss). One Wānanga also made a loss.
	$14.7 billion in assets (up $610 million from 2017) $2.36 billion in liabilities (up $90 million from 2017)
* The full-time equivalent student value is worked out by course length and complexity - it is not the same as headcount.

Group surpluses/deficits by sub-sector 2015-2018

For further explanation of this briefing, please contact Pat Johnson, Sector Manager, Parliamentary Group on 04 917 1500 or email patricia.johnson@oag.govt.nz

Audit results

24 of 27 reported on time Tai Poutini Polytechnic, WelTec, and Whitireia Community Polytechnic did not meet their statutory reporting obligations. Several other TEIs were under-prepared, but signed their statements of responsibility on time with a lot of effort and extra cost.
Unmodified audit opinions 24 of 27	This means you can be assured that the financial statements are a fair reflection of the financial position of the TEI at year-end and its activities during the year. Three TEIs did not report, so we could not give them audit opinions.
126 new recommendations for improvement TEIs addressed 115 recommendations from previous years, but 165 remained open – making a total of 291.	291 Total number of outstanding recommendations and urgency
Categories for new recommendations iin 2018	Top 4 1 – improving controls related to expenditure, including payroll 2 – improving the application of accounting or other policies 3 – improving performance reporting 4 – improving IT systems.
"Emphasis of matter" paragraphs We used these in the 16 ITP audit reports to draw attention to the disclosures about uncertainty created by the Government's planned reforms of vocational education.