Polytechnics had a horror year last year losing tens of millions of dollars as student enrolments at most of the 16 institutions continued to fall.
And it's not going to get better any time soon with the latest Education Ministry forecast predicting polytechnics's domestic enrolments will fall again this year and next.
The figures come as the sector waits for the government to decide its future.
RNZ education correspondent John Gerritsen joins us with the details.