Te Pūkenga ends 2024 in first ever surplus of $16.6m

Thursday, 26 June 2025

Megapolytechnic Te Pūkenga, which has been in the process of disestablishing, ended last year in its first ever surplus as a single entity, in contrast to its financial deficit in previous years.

The organisation finished 2024 with a surplus of $16.6 million.

In its annual report, tabled in Parliament on Thursday, it showed the organisation made a $122m turnaround within the two years Te Pūkenga existed as a single entity.

But the last year also saw $11.5m worth of redundancies and $19m spent on external consultants.

It was the result of an intensive cost cutting exercise across its business divisions after the Government announced it would be disestablishing Te Pūkenga in December 2023, confirmed a year later.

Student numbers – both domestic and international – had increased as well as course achievement rates and student satisfaction, from 90% in 2023 to 93% in 2024.

International student revenue increased 36% from $100m to $136m. Domestic student numbers were up 7%. Last year there were 10,828 trainees and apprentices who completed their programmes and 45,146 graduates.

“I'm incredibly proud of all of the kaimahi who have been delivering each and every day to over 226,000 learners in our system,” Te Pūkenga chief executive Gus Gilmore said.

The previous two years as a single entity had come with a significant amount of uncertainty and change, he said.

“But we've managed to turn it around and deliver a $16m surplus for 2024 – that's a substantial improvement on the $37m loss in 2023, in fact it's a 144% improvement.”

In 2022, the organisation had been in a deficit of $105m.

The business had also seen improvements in course completion rates for Māori, Pasifika and students with disabilities last year, with an overall course completion rate of 82%, up from 81% in 2023.

A partnership with Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand, with an investment of $4.1m, saw more than 12,500 learners access mental health services which was a 71% increase from 2023.

The financial result was the outcome of addressing financial performance across all divisions, including structural changes, vacancy management, lease reduction, property sales and programme cutting, Gilmore said.

In 2024, there were $2m worth of redundancies in the national office and $9.5m across the network which equated to 288 redundancy payments.

Consultation was ongoing and further redundancies were likely, he said.

The cost for total external consultants in 2024, who provided advice including on the disestablishment of Te Pūkenga, amounted to $19m. In 2023, it spent $21m on consultancy fees.

“We have 25 business divisions and the collective sum of those business divisions in 2025 were profitable, hence the $16m surplus.”

But among them, some were “very profitable” while others were still in deficit and would require further assistance, he said.

It was also in the process of working through and declaring assets but it would form part of the advice to Government about the number of businesses that would stand up as single entities.

Gilmore said the changes were “behind the scenes, structural changes”.

“We will lean into and ensure that any disruption that may occur in the future will be absolutely minimal to our learners.”

A cabinet decision was expected to be made at the end of the month on which polytechs would be able to standalone, which would face closure or merge under a federation and how many Industry Skills Boards (replacing Workforce Development Councils and the current work-based learning model) would be set up for January 1.

Te Pūkenga will remain in place until the end of 2026 in case some institutes and polytechnics take longer to achieve financial viability.