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Funding guarantee for providers who under-deliver due to COVID-19

Funding guarantee for providers who under-deliver due to COVID-19

Last updated 23 October 2020
Last updated 23 October 2020

The Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) is not recovering some funding from tertiary education providers who under-deliver in 2020 due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

TEC chief executive Tim Fowler has previously advised tertiary education organisations (TEOs) that “On-Plan” investment plan funding and Fees Free payments to TEOs in 2020 are not in general being recovered. Some of the Off-Plan Funds are also covered by the funding guarantee: the Gateway Programme, the Secondary Tertiary Interface – Trades Academy, ICT Graduate Programmes and some components of the Maori Pasifika Trades Training. The full list of the Funds covered is below.

When does the funding guarantee not apply?

The funding guarantee does not apply to:

  1. On-Plan Funds which are based on actual delivery such as Equity Funding, the Performance-Based Research Fund and the Exceptional Travel part of the Youth Guarantee Fund
  2. 2020 in-year additional funding. This means any additional funding approved after 1 April 2020 may be recovered in 2021 if there is under-delivery. Additional funding includes any allocations to providers that were increased after 1 April 2020. We have directly contacted the TEOs who have received this funding.
  3. The six new Funds that have been set up in response to COVID-19 (i.e. recoveries will apply if they are not fully used by providers). The new Funds are:

All other Off-plan Funds are being managed as usual, or with adjustments agreed directly with the affected providers.

Updated 2020 recovery methodologies for all Funds will be published here on our website in November 2020.

Here is the complete list of Funds covered by the funding guarantee:

Type of funding                Name of Fund
On-Plan

ACE in Communities
ACE in Schools
ACE in TEIs
Direct Access Industry Training
ESOL – Intensive Literacy and Numeracy
ESOL – Refugee English Fund
Industry Training Fund
LN – Adult Literacy Educators
LN – Intensive Literacy and Numeracy
LN – Workplace Literacy Fund (TEO led)
Student Achievement Component Levels 1 & 2
Student Achievement component Levels 3 and above
Youth Guarantee
Youth Guarantee – Premium Payments

Off-Plan Fees Free
Gateway Programme
ICT Graduate Programme (SAC component in 2020 only)
Secondary Tertiary Interface – Trades Academy
MPTT Brokerage Monthly
MPTT Consortium – Activities
MPTT Consortium – Learner Support
MPTT Fees Top-up

For any questions please contact us on 0800 601 301 or email customerservice@tec.govt.nz.