With barely a month left in the year, a handful of tertiary institutions look set to fall on the wrong side of a tough new repayment threshold that is likely to cost them millions of dollars.
Enrolment numbers previously agreed with the Tertiary Education Commission are expected to fall short by more than 1% and the institutions will have to repay some of their funding.
Last year, repayments were required if enrolments were more than 3% below the agreed levels. This year the threshold is 1%.