The Taratahi and Telford farm training campuses have similar genesis.
The formation of the not-for-profit private vocational farm training educators was made possible through generous bequests of land and industry and community support.
In 1918 Sir William Perry gave his Wairarapa farm to the Government to provide a training ground for servicemen returning from World War I.
The first intake in 1919 was of 60 men who received practical farm training.
After World War II it was again used to rehabilitate returning servicemen but in 1951 the farm trustees enlarged their activities and targeted the training of young people aged 16 to 20.
Similarly, the descendants of William Telford, who began farming in south Otago in 1867, gave the property to the Telford Farm Training Institute in 1964 for training young people wanting a career in agriculture.
The 670ha commercial dairy, sheep, beef and deer farm is held in trust by the Telford Farm Board.
For Telford’s first 10 years it ran without any government aid but in 1974 entered a partnership with the then Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in which MAF delivered the education.
In 1989 the Ministry of Education replaced MAF as a partner and in 1991 it became a polytechnic before the 2011 takeover by Lincoln University.
Lincoln viewed the investment as encouraging graduating sub-degree students to continue their education at Lincoln.
It was never a comfortable relationship and in December 2016 as Lincoln addressed its own financial issues it made 17 Telford staff redundant.
In mid 2017 Lincoln divested the campus to Taratahi for $1 but the transaction included Lincoln making a $2 million payment to Taratahi.
Both Taratahi and Telford have their own acts of Parliament that give them some independent governance from the Ministry of Education.
The enlarged Taratahi now owns two farms, leases six, has formal management contracts for three others and formal access arrangements to more than 200 other properties.
It owns 42,000 stock units of sheep, beef and deer and milks 1000 cows.
According to the 2017 annual report total revenue was $23m, $5m more than in 2016, with the Tertiary Education Commission providing $10m compared to $8m a year earlier. Farm revenue was $7.6m against $12m in 2016.
Expenses for the year were $25m, up from $18m in 2016, but higher livestock values and a $7.7m asset gain on the Telford acquisition saw a net surplus for the year of $7.2m compared to a $384,000 loss a year earlier.
At the end of 2017 the Taratahi board said it was a viable, going concern based on the support of its bankers, achieving budgeted forecasts and cost reductions, becoming a national sub-degree training provider with the acquisition of Telford, meeting bank cashflow guidelines, diversifying revenue streams, support from stakeholders and the TEC recognising the primary sector as a focus for 2019-20.
Taratahi has an extensive partnership network working in conjunction with the Manukau Institute of Technology, a dairy partnership with Theland Farm Group in Taupo, Wintec in Waikato-Bay of Plenty, Eastern Institute of Technology in Hawke’s Bay and Invercargill-based Southern Institute of Technology.
Its board has representatives of the Wairarapa branch of Federated Farmers, Wairarapa Agricultural and Pastoral Society, Masterton Agricultural and Pastoral Society, Ministry for Primary Industries, Primary ITO and the Minister of Tertiary Education.
The courses offered cover basic livestock farming, apiculture, equine, school programmes, farming systems, the NZ Certificate in Agriculture, agriculture diplomas from Massey and Lincoln, agribusiness management diplomas and primary industry foundation skills.
In recent years it has been buffeted by numerous squalls.
In January 2015 the former chief executive died suddenly and was replaced by an interim chief executive before Arthur Graves was appointed in 2016.
An audit requested by TEC of the 2014 year found irregularities in the delivery of primarily the level 3 Certificate in General Farm Skills, requiring Taratahi to refund $4m to the TEC, a debt that would plague it in coming years.
Subsequent monitoring by the NZ Qualifications Authority did not identify any issues with its delivery of courses but in 2018 Taratahi was unable to recruit the number of students for which it received funding and again had to refund the TEC, this time $6.5m.
The NZQA in 2017 noted a major change strategy was implemented in April 2016 to address gaps previously identified and various structures, roles and procedures established or modified to address the matters.
The changes included reviewing its curriculum early last year and forming three sub-committees to better govern business planning, risk and education and an overhaul and modernisation of financial systems.
The NZQA noted the changes appeared substantive, broad and well considered.
Like other educational institutions, Taratahi has been squeezed by declining student numbers as fewer young people seek careers in agriculture.
Following the 2017 addition of Telford there were about 150 full time equivalent staff and more than 1330 students or 582 effective full-time students, well down on the peak of 1200 efts in 2015.
The TEC estimates about 750 current and potential tertiary students are affected by Taratahi’s collapse.
Of them, about 500 are yet to complete qualifications and are due to finish this year.
There are about 250 students signed up to start their studies this year.
Taratahi was also addressing that decline by launching a programme to engage with school leavers, people in urban centres, Maori and Pasifika and collaborating with partners.
But late last year that restructuring and planning counted for little as attempts to seek concessions from the TEC to tide it over were rejected as too little, leaving the board with no option but to call in the liquidators.
