EIT crowned a year of significant achievements and new opportunities with an independent ranking that put it at the forefront of New Zealand’s tertiary educators, says Council Chair David Pearson.

Commenting in EIT’s annual report on ITP Quality’s 2010 External Evaluation & Review exercise, Mr Pearson noted that the institute had rated ‘highly confident’ in educational performance and ‘confident’ for its self-assessment capability.

EIT received an ‘excellence’ in such wide-ranging areas as nursing, foundation education, business, computing, applied social sciences, fashion design and research.

Chief executive Chris Collins said learner achievement, outcomes for stakeholders, teaching effectiveness, learner support and guidance as well as government and management were also rated as excellent.

Other highlights in EIT’s 2010 year include:

• Six percent growth in equivalent full-time students (3298 EFTS). This represented nearly 9000 students, of whom 79 percent studied part-time.
• Degree-level activity that accounted for 35 percent of EFTS – the single highest area of programme enrolments. The number of Year 13 students starting degree study increased by 41 percent, and overall 61 percent of all EFTS studied at level 5 and above.
• A new early childhood early education teaching degree attracted strong demand from the community and teaching profession and boosted the portfolio of bachelor degrees to 10. EIT also continued to offer a range of postgraduate qualifications.
• Māori students represented 25 percent of enrolments, ahead of the regional population percentage. More than 440 international students came from 44 different countries to study at EIT.
• Places for the newly-launched Youth Guarantee programme, which targets school leavers not in training or education, filled quickly. Students enrolled in a wide range of programme offerings achieved a strong record of success.
• Partnership programmes with local secondary schools increased, again with strong educational outcomes for students.
•  The Government approved the establishment of an EIT-based Hawke’s Bay Trades Academy, to operate from next year.
• EIT was chosen from a field of 113 applicants to be one of 11 academies nationwide.
• Prime Minister John Key officially opened EIT’s $8.5m project-based integrated trades and technology complex in August.
• Minister of Tertiary Education Steven Joyce approved the merger of EIT Hawke’s Bay with Tairāwhiti Polytechnic, effective from 1 January this year.
• Research outputs increased by 15 percent and external research income by 38 percent.
• EIT achieved a $3.6m operating surplus for the year, and its strong financial performance bettered Government guidelines for public institutions.
• EIT connected to the Kiwi Advanced Research Education Network, which provides very high speed electronic connection to other research institutions, universities and institutes of technology throughout New Zealand and the world.

Mr Pearson said 2010 had also been a year of significant change for EIT.

Government legislative amendments had moved Councils from the large representative model to that of a smaller, focused business governance model. This had reduced the membership on EIT’s Council from 18 to eight.

“We were sorry to lose some very strong Council members with the change and while we had some concerns about the loss of representation we also recognised the potential of a smaller more focused Council.”

The new smaller Council had continued very positively, with the new governing body comprised solely of members from the pre-existing Council – “recognition of the high regard in which government of the EIT Councils has been held over a long period”.

EIT was strongly supported by a staff committed to excellence and serving the people of the region, Mr Pearson said, and the institute’s partnerships with businesses, agencies, professions and industry ensured it remained connected to its communities.