EIT is governed by a Council

The Council was established via the constitution published 17 November 2025. 

The role of the Council is to provide governance, leadership, and strategic oversight to ensure EIT delivers high‑quality, industry‑aligned programmes for the Hawke’s Bay, Tairāwhiti regions.  This includes:

• strategic leadership – setting the long-term vision and direction, approving strategic plans and priorities.
• financial stewardship and risk – approval of budgets, financial planning and sustainability, organisational risk and compliance.
• academic quality – ensuring institutional performance, quality assurance and compliance.
• partnership with community, iwi and industry – ensuring EIT engages with key partners to ensure programmes meet learner, community and workforce need, are culturally responsive, and uphold the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi
• oversight of the Chief Executive.

The Council currently comprises four members appointed by the Minister of Vocational Education. You can find more information on our Council and leadership team in the Our people section of our website. 

An additional three Council members will be appointed in due course as community members.

Council meetings

In 2026 the Council will meet monthly as the institution establishes itself.  Meetings are expected to move to bi-monthly subsequently. 

Meetings will generally be hybrid, with members meeting in person at our Hawke’s Bay campus in Taradale and joining online as appropriate.  Agendas for scheduled meetings will be published here 2 business days prior to the date of the meeting. 

Details of meetings can be found in the Schedule of meetings.

Notice of meetings

Under section 46 of Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987 (LGOIMA), the  Council generally must, not more than 14 days and not less than 5 days before the end of every month, publicly notify a list of all meetings of the Council scheduled to be held in the following month (together with the dates on which, and the times and places at which, the meetings will be held).  Extraordinary meetings must be publicly notified as soon as practicable before the meeting is to be held. 

About Council meetings

The legal requirements for Council meetings are set down in the Local Government Act 2002 and LGOIMA.

The agendas and minutes for all meetings are available in the Schedule of meetings. 

Council meetings are open to the public, unless there is reason to consider items in public exclusion (as per s.48 of LGOIMA).  These circumstances generally relate to protection of personal privacy, or professional privileged or commercially sensitive information. The Council agenda and minutes are public documents, but parts may be withheld if the above circumstances apply.

Council committees

The EIT Council has several committees with delegated responsibility for key business accountabilities.  All committee meetings are also open to the public, unless there is reason to consider items in public exclusion (as per s.48 of LGOIMA). 

The committees are:

• Academic committee – provides institutional academic oversight, including programme portfolio, monitoring performance and consistency, and the academic quality processes at EIT. Details of meetings can be found in the  Schedule of meetings.
• Employer committee – to manage the employer/employee relationship with the Chief Executive.
• Audit committee – to oversee the internal and external audit functions, and any other audits.