1
00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:02,840
Speaker 1: Some question marks around the financial health of our universities.

2
00:00:02,920 --> 00:00:05,360
Speaker 1: This s morning paperwork from the Tertiary Commission to the

3
00:00:05,480 --> 00:00:08,800
Speaker 1: Tertiary Minister suggests, among other things, Massy and Victoria, for example,

4
00:00:08,800 --> 00:00:11,440
Speaker 1: the books are seen as high risk Universities New Zealand

5
00:00:11,480 --> 00:00:13,640
Speaker 1: Chief Executive Chris William with us on this Chris Morning

6
00:00:13,680 --> 00:00:17,960
Speaker 1: to you, Good morning. They don't agree how open to interpretation.

7
00:00:17,520 --> 00:00:21,880
Speaker 2: Is all of this looked like everything. These are large,

8
00:00:22,120 --> 00:00:25,320
Speaker 2: complex organizations. There's a lot of leavers that they can pull.

9
00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:29,000
Speaker 2: The one leaver they can't pull as government funding, and

10
00:00:29,120 --> 00:00:31,560
Speaker 2: of course government controls about seventy percent of their funding,

11
00:00:31,680 --> 00:00:34,479
Speaker 2: so they've got a lot of choice around expenditure and

12
00:00:34,520 --> 00:00:38,239
Speaker 2: they're making those choices. But like most of these things,

13
00:00:38,280 --> 00:00:39,880
Speaker 2: that comes down to a conversation with government.

14
00:00:39,960 --> 00:00:41,479
Speaker 1: Correct me if I'm wrong, because I can see that

15
00:00:41,720 --> 00:00:44,760
Speaker 1: I can believe figures right, eight universities with a collective

16
00:00:44,800 --> 00:00:45,840
Speaker 1: debt of forty two million?

17
00:00:45,920 --> 00:00:49,840
Speaker 2: Is that right? That'd be right. You're talking about un Yeah, well,

18
00:00:49,840 --> 00:00:51,960
Speaker 2: that's right. You're talking about universities that are turning over

19
00:00:52,000 --> 00:00:55,640
Speaker 2: about four billion dollars a year. But doesn't mean they're

20
00:00:55,640 --> 00:00:58,480
Speaker 2: not under a lot of pressure. Their costs are continuing

21
00:00:58,520 --> 00:01:01,960
Speaker 2: to go up, and funding unfortunately isn't okay.

22
00:01:02,040 --> 00:01:05,240
Speaker 1: So for a budgeting a deficit to a break even

23
00:01:05,280 --> 00:01:07,720
Speaker 1: to a surplus, some of them paperwork suggests that this

24
00:01:07,880 --> 00:01:11,200
Speaker 1: is heroic in their estimations. Do you accept that or not? Really?

25
00:01:13,040 --> 00:01:16,600
Speaker 2: Look hard to tell. Every university has a council. Councils

26
00:01:16,640 --> 00:01:20,520
Speaker 2: contain independent members, and you know, their job is to

27
00:01:20,600 --> 00:01:23,479
Speaker 2: ensure that there is a realistic financial view of how

28
00:01:23,560 --> 00:01:27,600
Speaker 2: universities are fairing. Of course they're running upside and downside scenarios,

29
00:01:27,640 --> 00:01:30,640
Speaker 2: good and bad, you know, and they're all trying to

30
00:01:30,680 --> 00:01:33,520
Speaker 2: manage their way through what is a very tough financial situation.

31
00:01:33,720 --> 00:01:35,960
Speaker 1: Exactly how much of this is about international students and

32
00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:38,480
Speaker 1: they haven't come back and the money didn't come with them.

33
00:01:39,160 --> 00:01:42,600
Speaker 2: Actually, it's less about that the international students have come back.

34
00:01:43,520 --> 00:01:45,959
Speaker 2: We had a few problems earlier this year with real

35
00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:50,360
Speaker 2: bottomnecks around immigration visa processing, and it looks like they're

36
00:01:50,360 --> 00:01:52,320
Speaker 2: going to be fixed for future years. So there are

37
00:01:52,320 --> 00:01:55,080
Speaker 2: some students that just couldn't get here. But actually the

38
00:01:55,160 --> 00:01:58,160
Speaker 2: numbers are looking good. We're almost back to pre COVID levels.

39
00:01:58,320 --> 00:02:00,000
Speaker 1: Okay, nice to talk to you, appreciate it very much

40
00:02:00,080 --> 00:02:01,720
Speaker 1: Chris Wiel, I'm glad we got that number right. Eight

41
00:02:01,800 --> 00:02:03,560
Speaker 1: universities think of the science of the universe and they've

42
00:02:03,520 --> 00:02:05,160
Speaker 1: got forty two million dollars worth of dinner. Mean, really,

43
00:02:05,240 --> 00:02:05,960
Speaker 1: is that a problem?

44
00:02:06,440 --> 00:02:09,360
Speaker 2: For more from The Mic Asking Breakfast, Listen live to

45
00:02:09,440 --> 00:02:12,520
Speaker 2: news talks. It'd be from six am weekdays, or follow

46
00:02:12,560 --> 00:02:14,080
Speaker 2: the podcast on iHeartRadio.