Teaching enrolments way up at Waikato

Numbers enrolling for teaching qualifications at Waikato University are way up on last year, particularly early childhood.

Last year, the School of Education had 40 enrolments in its early childhood graduate programme; this year it has accepted 101 students for the one-year, on-line course.

The programme provides a flexible way of studying, appeals to women with families and is particularly attractive to people already working in an early childhood setting,” says Bev Cooper, acting director for Waikato’s Centre for Teacher Education.

“The early childhood sector is crying out for fully qualified staff,” she says.

“Our programme is clearly meeting a need and its reputation has grown rapidly. But even so, we’re surprised by the number of people enrolling.”

Enrolments are also high in Waikato’s two year ‘career changer’ programme – specifically for people with industry qualifications in technology areas who want to teach. Waikato is the only university to offer this pathway and students are supported by generous TeachNZ scholarships.

“We had 24 enrol last year and this year we have 50 about to start their first year,” says Mrs Cooper.

Overall, enrolments at the School of Education are up by almost a quarter on last year with 491 new domestic students so far enrolled compared to 396 in 2008.

People doing the four year primary conjoint degree (where students study for two degrees at once) are up from four last year to 22 in 2009 and the Mixed Media primary Bachelor of Teaching – mostly taught on-line – has more than doubled its intake from 47 to 104.

“Despite the increase in enrolments we’re equipped to deliver all our programmes, with a full quota of high quality staff and our administration and processing is all going smoothly,” says Mrs Cooper.

Waikato’s School of Education is ranked number one in NZ under the Tertiary Education Commission’s Performance Based Research Fund.

As of 13th February, new domestic enrolments at Waikato University are up three per cent and overall domestic enrolments (new and returning or transferring students) are on a par with this time last year, at 5162.

International enrolments are down one per cent at 599 students on the same time last year. More than half of those will come to study at Waikato from China.

Good growth is also being seen at Waikato’s Tauranga campus, with enrolments already at 311 – up 39 per cent on the same time last year.

In 2008, Waikato University had a total of 9685 Efts (Equivalent Full-Time Students) and 12,014 actual students enrolled.

The semester begins on 2nd March this year.