Christchurch's Avonmore Tertiary Institute has gone into voluntary liquidation following its lowest enrollment numbers in 30 years.
The move has left students struggling to work out what to do next.
The family-owned, private tertiary institute announced today it will close its doors after 30 years in business.
The institute provided practical courses including hairdressing, IT, hospitality, and tourism.
"It's taken us a long time to reach this conclusion and this is been worked over for many months and we've arrived at this decision because we don't believe we've got an economic and viable model moving forward," Director Avonmore Tertiary Institute Mike Hardley told Newshub.
Twenty-five staff have lost their jobs along with 120 domestic students and 16 international students now having incomplete qualifications.
One hair and retail student Newshub spoke to, Tyler Sadler, says "I'm very upset because I don't know what to do now because I left school and I came here and iI finally felt like I found what I like to do and I fitted in and all that so it's quite upsetting."
"We got told the doors would be locked. Like we got told today if we came we'd be on the street waiting outside, but no we all went up there and supported every single tutor that was crying and you know for a tutor to cry in-front of a student, it's a big thing," Another tourism and hospitality student, Nova Middleton says.
NZQA say they were informed on Thursday of the closure and they'll be working with the Tertiary Education Commission and Immigration New Zealand to identify options for all students to continue their studies.
Low enrollment numbers due to fees-free university study, and changes to immigration rules for international students are being blamed for its closure.
"International students have declined dramatically, in 2016 across the country we had 350 students, we have a handful left," Mr Hadley says.
"The impact of those has come through and we took an early decision simply because immigration requirements make it very difficult and also NZQA have made the rules surround english language more difficult."
And Mr Hadley doesn't think the institute will be the last to close their doors.
"The sector is under pressure crisis is quite an emotional word but the sector is under pressure," he says.
Meetings are booked for Monday morning in an effort to place students in other tertiary training institutes.
Newshub.
