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Wellington polytechs Whitireia and WelTec are considering closing their central city campus, Te Kāhui Auaha.
They are among Te Pūkenga divisions reviewing their programmes and properties to see how they can remain financially viable.
It follows the National-ACT-NZ First coalition beginning the process of disestablishing Te Pūkenga at the end of December 2024.
Te Kāhui Auaha, the creative campus on the corner of Cuba Street and Dixon Street, opened in 2018 with facilities including two theatres, a 55-seater cinema, exhibition gallery and a performance studio.
The campus had close to 600 students in 2018 but provisional numbers show that figure is now down to 192.
Whitireia and WelTec executive director Mark Oldershaw declined an interview with RNZ but said in a statement part of the process was to review all campuses to see if they were meeting current and future requirements.
He said the pandemic contributed to the drop in numbers.
"The campus has been under utilised partially due to the negative impact Covid-19 had on both domestic and international enrollments.
"It is important to note that no decisions have been made on the future of programmes that are currently delivered at our Te Kāhui Auaha campus or the campus itself. All programmes currently taught at the campus will continue as normal this year."
Staff would be consulted and the polytechs were committed to supporting them and their students during the process, Oldershaw said..
"Whitireia and WelTec play an important role in meeting the vocational education and training needs of the Wellington region. We therefore need to ensure we remain financially viable to be able to meet the longer-term needs of our learners, staff and communities."
There is currently no date for when a decision will be made.
It is not the first time Whitireia and WelTec have faced financial troubles.
In 2019 the institutes proposed to cut about 70 teaching jobs to make ends meet because of how much student enrolments had fallen over five years at the time.
Chief executive Chris Gosling at the time said teacher to student ratio was too high.
Gosling said the institutes had lost about 1500 full-time equivalent domestic students between 2019 and 2012.
The Tertiary Education Union said the proposal to shut down Wellington city's only polytech campus signals more are likely to close.
There are currently 200 union members across Wellington central, Petone and Porirua who work between Whitireia and Weltec.
National secretary Sandra Grey said the government's funding model wasn't helping the survival of campuses.
"Across Te Pūkenga we have around 2500 members who are facing very uncertain times because it's not just Wellington that's been affected. This government has said every campus has to look at its numbers, what courses its run. Some communities are going to start missing out big time," Grey said
The union has had warnings from Te Pūkenga about job cuts and was urging union members to fight against them, she said.
"We're going to fight for every job, these are peoples livelihoods, how they support their families, but more than that, these people are teaching vocational qualifications people need."
