The university repaid the money to the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) after the independent investigation revealed the discrepancy but a spokesman confirmed “Lincoln University is seeking legal advice regarding recovering costs from the third-party delivery partners.”
The courses were delivered on behalf of the university’s Lincoln Telford Division from 2010 to 2015 but the TEC found fewer hours of instruction were delivered to students studying four programmes than they were being funded for.
The programmes affected were the Telford Certificate in Farming (Practices), National Certificate in Horticulture (Arboriculture), National Certificate in Horticulture and Telford Foundation Certificate in Arboriculture.
A report by Deloitte found that between 55% and 69% of funded time for each programme was delivered.
In one case a student told the investigators he had enrolled in the Telford Foundation Certificate in Arboriculture but, having got a job, he did not attend the programme.
Despite that the unnamed training provider included him as an enrolled student.
A statement from Lincoln University said it moved quickly to address the TEC concerns once it was alerted and regretted the situation arose.
“Students who have successfully completed the Lincoln University programmes are not affected.”
The TEC also did not raise concerns about the division’s other 29 vocational, certificate and diploma courses, the statement said.
Deloitte said the Lincoln Telford Division had been co-operative during the investigation and had voluntarily introduced new practices to monitor the performance of delivery partners.
