CPIT is delighted to announce 100 new ‘CPIT Ara Ake Rise Up Scholarships’, aimed at supporting people keen to enter tertiary education in 2012. The scholarships acknowledge young academics, emerging leaders, sportspeople, and those committed to culture and their community.

The Otago University Students’ Association (OUSA) has had a record October and a record year for Food Bank use.

All Black Aaron Cruden was presented with a $5000 Massey University study award at his homecoming in Palmerston North.

Finding better ways to teach science still drives University of Waikato Faculty of Education senior lecturer Dr Anne Hume, the winner of this year’s Kudos Science Teacher/Educator/Communicator award.

By Karina Abadía

Low Maori participation in tertiary education has sparked an initiative to help Maori get into Auckland polytechnics, universities and wananga.

Maori Into Tertiary Education (MITE) project leader Maria Paenga says the ‘Pathwaying’ project will address a gap in Maori education that has always been there.

A Victoria University scientist has become the first in the Southern Hemisphere to win a prestigious international prize for outstanding PhD research in the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) field.

Fears rise that students will not be able to study at tertiary level as the NZQA will make it more difficult to gain university entrance.
From 2014, students will need to gain NCEA Level 3, achieve at a higher numeracy level, and meet stronger literacy requirements to enter university.

“Organisations who work with children should stop talking and get serious about keeping these children safe,” says Anthea Simcock, chief executive of Child Matters. “There are still many child focused agencies who need to improve practices and procedures around protecting children.”

“We know that many organisations are concerned about how to protect children, but too many of the simple things are still not being done such as making sure the environment the children spend time in is safe and staff are appropriately trained to deal with all their needs,” she says.

An internal document that forecasts the University of Canterbury’s finances for the next 10 years, says more than 350 jobs could be cut over the next three years.

This means staff numbers would fall from 1947 to 1596 – a decrease of 18 per cent. The cuts will affect academic and technical, as well as general staff.

Young Cantabrians will have more opportunities to start training for their careers while completing secondary school, after education minister Anne Tolley said Canterbury Tertiary College (CTC) places will treble next year.

Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology (CPIT), as the leading provider of CTC, currently has 148 places for students studying trades such as carpentry, electrical engineering and automotive.

University of Auckland’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Stuart McCutcheon, blames the low level of investment in the NZ university sector for universities’ slippage in world rankings.

McCutcheon told The Press he is not surprised that NZ universities are continuing to fall behind their rival overseas institutions.

The cost of study will go up yet again as borrowers are charged new fees in the Student Loan Scheme Act passed under urgency in Parliament last month. On the positive side, student representatives will celebrate good administrative changes in the Bill.

“This Bill was intended to improve the administration, efficiency and ease of use of the Student Loan Scheme, however the original draft contained several concerning clauses, particularly those altering repayment obligations from an annual to a pay-period system,”

Students around the country are urging National to be ‘rational’ and stop supporting ACT’s Bill to end universal membership of student’s associations. Rallies were scheduled to coincide with an originally scheduled Member’s Day in Parliament when the Bill was due to be debated further.

A nationwide campaign to get people talking about quality public education in ECE centres and primary schools is generating strong interest in centres, schools and communities all over the country.

The Speak Up for Education campaign organised by the NZEI, was launched in South Auckland last month.

Albany is now a learning hub for vocational education with the opening of Unitec’s Albany campus.   

The new campus was officially opened by Tertiary Minister of Education Steven Joyce at a ceremony last month.

The University of Canterbury has increased its scholarship funding for 2012 and beyond by more than a third. This includes increased scholarships that support Maori and Pasifika students at UC and Emerging Leaders.

NZ´s third official language has become more accessible with the launch of an online multimedia dictionary of New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL).

Victoria University’s deaf studies research unit, which produced the first dictionary of NZSL in 1997, has created an online dictionary with about 4000 NZSL signs, accompanied by line drawings and video clips to show how to produce each sign and how the signs are used in context.

Air NZ is on the hunt for the country’s most promising young leaders to take part in its annual CEO for the Day programme.

Ten senior high school students will be chosen to join the airline’s CEO Rob Fyfe and his executive team for an inspirational day behind the scenes at the national carrier.

More than 60 Auckland schools have donated over 25 tonnes of electronic waste in a two-week long programme which is aimed at improving the sustainability of NZ schools.

Under the scheme, electronic waste was collected from participating schools, before being disposed of using the latest recycling technology.

A Victoria University alumnus has made a substantial donation to establish a Visiting Scholar Programme at Victoria’s School of Economics and Finance.

Professor Stephen Turnovsky, a distinguished international scholar and researcher in economics, completed a Bachelor of Arts in economics at Victoria in 1962 and a Masters of Arts with First Class Honours in mathematics in 1963 before completing a PhD in economics at Harvard.

A University of Canterbury academic has received international recognition from the world’s largest organisation for psychologists.

Associate Professor William Helton has been awarded the Earl Alluisi Award for Early Career Achievement by the American Psychological Association (APA) in recognition of his work in the field of human factors psychology.

Despite gloomy economic predictors, employer demand for university graduates is growing significantly.

The number of graduate vacancies on the NZUniCareerHub website to the end of April has doubled compared to the same time last year with nearly 60 per cent more employers using the website to advertise internships, scholarships and graduate positions. 

Manukau Institute of Technology (MIT) has confirmed the addition of four certificate programme intakes in May - in order to immediately assist with the future demand of trained people to help with the restoration of Christchurch and to meet local demand.

There are not many industries where you can train for five months and potentially be earning $100,000 dollars only a year after graduating. But a shortage of experienced drillers means such salaries are being offered in order to keep drillers in the country.

President of the New Zealand Drillers Federation, Ian Haycock, says: “There is a real shortage of skilled drillers in New Zealand. The pay offered in other countries is higher so a huge number of Kiwi drillers go overseas.

The Whitireia New Zealand Media Training Centre was officially opened in Wellington on May 12th, 2011 by the Minister of Tertiary Education Steven Joyce.

The new Media Training Centre in the former Wellington Workingmen’s Club building in the Cuba precinct will be a one stop shop for all Whitireia media teaching elements.

Economics is not known for being one of the most exciting subjects at school, but a South Auckland teacher has changed just that.

With the invention of his board game Gumption, head of business studies at Ormiston Senior College, Mark Snoad, has found a way to engage students and make them participate in real-world economics within the classroom.

Press release by Wellington Institute of Technology

Six large urban Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics say they are committed to helping Christchurch rebuild.

Led by the Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology (CPIT), the Metro Group – the consortium of the six institutes from around NZ – says it wants to work with the Government and industry to train the people needed to restore Christchurch.

Press release by Victoria University

Learning in dance and drama has traditionally involved face-to-face tuition, but that may change following Victoria University research into the potential of online tuition.

Research by Victoria’s Faculty of Education shows students may be able to learn just as effectively using technology and the expertise of online dance and drama specialists.

Despite an increase in reports of discrimination towards Muslims, a researcher at Victoria University says Muslims are doing comparatively well in this country.

The research project, conducted by final year PhD student Jaimee Stuart from Victoria’s Centre for Applied Cross-Cultural Research, compared the experience of Muslim young people in NZ and the UK.

Fulbright NZ invites applications of academics, artists or professionals for its first round of short-term NZ-US exchange awards for 2011. 

AUT University has been responding to enquiries from Christchurch students who need to consider their options following the Canterbury earthquake.

“Some students have been completely displaced due to loss of accommodation, family moves and other impacts of the disaster,” said Vice Chancellor, Derek McCormack.   

Protecting the quality of teaching and research may cost academic staff at the University of Auckland a pay rise but they are prepared to make this trade-off and use industrial action to achieve it.

At meetings across every campus at the University of Auckland, academic staff are exasperated at their employer for trying to take away conditions crucial to doing their job well. The university is offering a 4 per cent pay-rise, which academics have said they would rather not take if it means they lose key conditions from their employment agreements.

Twelve associate professors at The University of Auckland have been promoted to professor, which is a mark of distinction, recognising professional and academic eminence at an international level.

The government is looking at ways to encourage repayment of student loans, as it emerged that nearly two-thirds of students loans issued since the scheme started had not been fully repaid.

Loans had been issued to more than 900,000 people since 1992, according to a MoE report, which said only NZ$6.4 billion of the NZ$13.9 billion borrowed had been paid back.

Tai Poutini Polytechnic and the NZ College ECE of Christchurch are making it count for nanny students who want to further their career with a Diploma in Teaching (ECE) now available on the West Coast.

Students who have successfully completed the one year NZ Certificate in Nanny Education will be eligible to apply to the NZ College of ECE to enter stage two of the Diploma of Teaching (ECE), which they can study on the Coast as a field-based programme. This requires the student to work at least 15 hours per week in a licensed early childhood centre.

WASHINGTON, DC – A Kiwi bach powered by the sun is one of only 20 entries worldwide – and the first entry ever from the Southern hemisphere – to be selected for one of the most popular and highly anticipated design competitions. 

The prestigious United States Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2011 gives New Zealand an unprecedented opportunity to showcase its best on a world stage.  

Tai Poutini Polytechnic’s (West Coast) new pre-employment programme, The Certificate in Drilling - Non-hydrocarbon (Driller’s Assistant), has generated a huge amount of interest in New Zealand and across the Tasman since its launch in January. 

 “Australia might beat us in the mineral wealth stakes but when it comes to drilling for it, there’s plenty we can teach them about pre-employment industry training,” says Peter McRae, Head of Department for Civil and Mining at Tai Poutini Polytechnic.

 Philanthropic support totalling $120 million has been given for research and learning at The University of Auckland since 2006, the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Stuart McCutcheon, announced two weeks ago.

The University’s “Leading the Way” fundraising Campaign aims to raise $150 million by the end of 2012 – an achievement that would make it as successful as any campaign in Australasian university history. Originally set at $100 million, the Campaign target was raised as philanthropic funds given through the University’s advancement, research, and scholarships offices were pooled.  

 Researchers at The University of Auckland have discovered that students attending Alternative Education (AE) have much higher rates of dangerous driving, smoking, drinking, unprotected sex and suicidal behaviours than mainstream students – yet they have the most difficulty accessing the services they require.

 Computer enthusiasts on the West Coast are being given the opportunity to progress their careers even further thanks to a new qualification at Tai Poutini Polytechnic. 

 Auckland’s newest Performing Arts School is seeking talented performers who have the ‘X-Factor’ in acting, singing or dancing.

The new 2010-11 Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings have confirmed the University of Auckland’s position as the top university in NZ.

In the newly-launched THE World University Rankings, the University of Auckland was placed 145th. The ranking is a further endorsement of the University’s pre-eminent status as the leading NZ research-intensive university.

BEST Pacific Institute of Education (BEST) has congratulated the government on its publication of performance indicators, which for the first time provide an accurate representation of student achievement across the entire tertiary sector.
“The published information will help the government to direct resources where they are most effectively used, and this is good news for Pacific people” said BEST director Anita Finnigan

The University of Auckland’s Identity Federation solution – CECIL Connect – was awarded the Supreme Innovation Award at the annual Tertiary ICT Innovation Awards in Auckland.
Held at the University of Auckland Business School as part of the 28th Tertiary ICT Conference, the Innovation Awards identifies excellence in ICT in the tertiary education sector – either in processes, which improve efficiency or effectiveness of services, or new product development, which satisfies stakeholder needs. The Innovation Awards were open to any conference delegates involved in the tertiary sector, whether at the individual, team or institution level.

A digital ‘pet’ developed by Victoria University researchers, has won first prize at an international electronic language festival.
The shiny brass device known as “Tardigotchi? references the plastic handheld Tamagotchi, the digital pet from Japan that was popular in the mid-1990s, but with a twist-inside the Tardigotchi is a living microorganism.

Founder of Comvita, a natural health product company, Claude Stratford marked his 100th birthday recently and as part of the celebrations a scholarship has been created in his honour.
The Claude Alexander Stratford Research Scholarship is sponsored by Comvita and established in association with The University of Auckland.
The ongoing scholarship will provide a three year stipend for a PhD student studying a topic related to natural health products, based at The University of Auckland.

Kent Hamilton is NZ’s ‘Scaffolding Student of the Year’.
Hamilton, an apprentice with Opportunity The Training Organisation and working at NZ Steel in Auckland, received the award in Wellington recently, during the annual Scaffolding and Rigging NZ (SARNZ) conference dinner.

The educational institution Queenstown Resort College is celebrating a hotbed of international diversity by administering students from 13 countries this year.
For the first time, students from the USA, Venezuela and the Philippines are part of QRC’s diploma in either Adventure Tourism or Hospitality Management.
The July intake also features students from Canada, Sweden, Vietnam, China, Australia, Germany, Brazil, Fiji and India.

Scammers and hackers are on their way out and censorship breaches and online child exploitation now another step closer to being stopped, with NetSafe’s The ORB - Online Reporting Button – www.theORB.org.nz

An education expert from The University of Auckland has been selected to represent NZ in an international working group tasked with transforming the world’s education system.
Dr Brian Annan, director of Business Development at the Faculty of Education, is one of four NZers chosen for the second year of the Global Educations Leaders Programme (GELP).

The University of Canterbury and Microsoft New Zealand have announced a partnership that will see the formation of a world-class education centre of excellence in the region.
The alliance is the first of its kind in NZ, but joins 50 other public-private partnerships already in place around the world.
These educational alliances have been designed to transform education, foster local innovation and enable jobs and opportunities.

Waikato University biology lecturer Dr Alison Campbell has been recognised for her outstanding teaching practices with a national Tertiary Teaching Excellence Award presented at a ceremony in Wellington earlier this month.
Funded by the Tertiary Education Commission, the annual Ako Aotearoa awards acknowledge teaching practices that are student-focused and committed to promoting effective learning. They also provide an opportunity for teachers to further their careers and share their good practice with others.

 Secondary teachers throughout the country will be attending Paid Union Meetings (PUMs) on 24th and 25th August, 2010 to decide the next step in PPTA’s collective agreement campaign.

In the spirit of showcasing some of NZ’s most historic artefacts, MOTAT is displaying photography of its collection taken by Auckland secondary school students in a new exhibition ‘Through a Lens’, from now until 31st October, 2010.

A team from Victoria University of Wellington has taken out top honours in the world’s second largest university debating tournament.

Fulbright NZ has partnered with Nga Pae o te Maramatanga – NZ’s Maori Centre of Research Excellence – to offer a range of new exchange awards in fields of indigenous development.

The biggest ever International Relations conference to be held in NZ will have a distinctly Pacific flavour, according to organisers.

Waikato University produces high-quality teachers who are highly regarded in the profession thanks to its stringent selection procedures, says the head of teacher education at the university’s top-ranked Faculty of Education.

Adult children who keep returning to the family home were the inspiration for a new board game called Grow Up.

As experts reveal that the weight of the flu burden has shifted towards children, last month a class of five- year-olds at Roscommon Primary School in South Auckland took on the flu statistics which some would argue are stacked against them.

Graduation 2010 at Manukau Institute of Technology (MIT) this week marks an auspicious occasion celebrating the first two doctoral graduates to come out of MIT in amongst a graduating total of 1091.

There aren’t many Hamilton bouncers who have been up close and personal with a tiger, but University of Waikato student Toby Fitz­Patrick has done that and more during a year-long placement at Hamilton Zoo as part of his studies.

Secondary teachers are being asked to pick up the tab for NZQA’s mistakes – a situation PPTA president Kate Gainsford says is unacceptable.

Dear Editor,

In response to M.J. Burr’s letter dated 10th May, 2010, the NZ Teachers Council has absorbed the rising costs of the expanded services we provide to teachers for many years.

Tertiary institutions are currently increasing their student service fees despite claims that the introduction of voluntary membership of student unions would bring about such increases.

Thirteen universities in Australia and NZ have selected Century of Social Sciences(TM), a superior and unique set of archival data (backfiles) covering ground breaking research in the social sciences back to 1900, from Thomson Reuters for their education and research needs.

A new partnership between Tai Poutini Polytechnic and the Buller Regions major rest home O’Conor Home is giving carers an opportunity to jump-start in their career in 2010.

Tai Poutini Polytechnic has started 2010 in positive heart with work commenced on three change projects funded through the TEC's Supporting Change Fund.  Confirmation of the $3.9 Million was received late in 2009.

What happens when two religions and two world views collide?
That was the question Victoria University graduate Hugh Kemp sought to answer via research that focused on how and why NZ'ers convert to Buddhism.

The application deadline for the East-West Center's 2010-11 Asia Pacific Leadership Program (APLP) - considered the premier leadership education program in the Asia Pacific region - is 31st Jan 2010.

The University of Auckland has sealed an agreement to help the Philippines improve children’s reading and writing levels.

The importance of leadership in education has been recognised with the establishment of a new research and development centre.

The New Zealand Society of Authors (NZSA) has run a highly successful mentoring programme for writers since 1999.

A management lecturer who brings real-world consulting into the classroom and an economist who draws on the slave trade in the Sudan to illustrate economic principles are the winners of this year’s Waikato Management School Outstanding Teaching Awards.

English Renaissance drama is full of death and some of the most memorable deaths are prefaced by marvellous speeches. Waikato University PhD student Fiona Martin is researching dying words in early modern English drama and recently won $5000 to put towards her study.

It’s well known that small and medium-sized enterprises struggle to grow, but maybe they’re content as they are.

A love of science fiction, gaming, interactive technologies and trading cards coupled with a flair for drawing spaceships gave University of Waikato computer graphic design student Hemi Ormsby the idea for his degree show project.

Tai Poutini Polytechnic IT graduate success story Craig Liddell is stepping his way up the employment ladder with two major companies now under his employment belt. After two and a half years at Hewlett Packard he recently accepted an IT role at Statistics NZ as a Software Tester.

Hamilton Boys High student Siva Manoharan starts at the University of Waikato next year well ahead financially. He is the recipient of not one but two scholarships from the School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences – one for computer science and one for maths.

The Human Rights Commission supports plans to improve the governance of polytechnics in NZ but says proposed new legislation will not achieve this and potentially threatens academic freedom.

Sony is pleased to announce that applications are now open for the annual AUT Creative Technologies Scholarship.

An ingenious mathematics based computer game and a user-friendly magnetic window washer saw Westlake Boys High School take out the two top honours at the annual Smales Farm North Shore Regional Awards as part of the Lion Foundation Young Enterprise Scheme (YES).

American business magnate Donald Trump is a great believer in – and a walking example of – doing what you enjoy to create success in life.

Teaching a computer to think may sound futuristic, but University of Waikato doctoral student Sam Sarjant has just been awarded a government-funded Top Achiever’s Doctoral Scholarship to do just that.

When Michael Walmsley came back to finish his degree at the University of Waikato after two years of missionary work in Japan, he didn’t want to forget the language he’d worked so hard to learn.

A music composition student, a trainee teacher and a video maker are among this year’s winners of the University of Waikato Vice Chancellor’s Adult Learners Awards.

Five Gisborne students were awarded this year’s Walter William McLean scholarships.

“The quality of graduates of initial teacher education programmes has a strong impact on the future quality of the teaching profession,” according to Dr Peter Lind, director of the New Zealand Teachers Council (NZTC).

With over 20 years of teaching her own three (now adult) children herself at home and over 15 years writing for and speaking to home schooling audiences all over the USA as well as in Canada, the UK, Thailand and East Europe, Diana Waring is making her third trip to NZ during September.

Vanuatu-born Andrina Thomas left school at 16 to start a family. Today she is one of six Commonwealth Scholars currently at the University of Waikato, and hopes her PhD work on good governance and the participation of women will help open doors for her female compatriots and encourage more women into leadership positions.

They might be something most of us associate with days gone by, but steam-powered transport is alive and well in NZ, says Warren Smith, Tai Poutini’s Head of Department – Automotive Engineering.

A new qualification aims to help teacher aides in NZ primary schools upgrade their skills and qualifications to meet the growing responsibilities of their job.

UCOL was named Tertiary Institute of the Year for 2009 at the recent national Epson/NZIPP Iris Professional Photography Awards.
 

If you’re expecting to find a definitive statement about who we are in the just-published New Oxford History of New Zealand, think again.

Ten top NZ academics and artists have been selected for Fulbright exchanges to the USA in 2010.
 

The shelling by a German warship of a Polish military depot at the Westerplatte peninsula was one of the first episodes in Nazi Germany’s aggression on Poland that led to the war.

A computer genius studying Mechatronics at The University of Auckland’s Faculty of Engineering has won a worldwide programming competition.

If you fancy spending the summer watching the waves at Raglan, or sunbathing for several hours a day, or even sampling fine wines – all in the name of research, then a University of Waikato Summer Research Scholarship may be for you.

Joseph Haperou can neither read nor write, but in just three days he’s been able to create a story about his life on a computer.

If listening to the ski report each morning on the way to work is making you itch for the slopes, perhaps it’s time to think about going back to school – snow school that is!

Research by Victoria University PhD graduate Kim Miller could help to successfully manage tuatara and skink populations in danger of becoming extinct.

•    Support for ambitious students of the natural sciences, engineering and medicine, and for students training to become science teachers.

New Zealand Industry Train­ing Organisation (NZITO) has announced it has signed a lease at the Waikato Innovation Park and will move into the park’s new building on 31st July. The organisation is currently located in Hamilton’s central business district.

A University of Waikato lecturer in computer graphic design has walked away with an award for excellent artwork at the recent Shanghai Science and Art Exhibition, beating designers from a dozen other countries with his 3D colour, sound and movement installation.

A Waikato Management School student has won one of two scholarships for NZ students offered by the Japan Airlines Foundation to participate in a 17-day programme aimed at boosting cultural awareness in the Asia-Pacific region.

AUT University will be exchanging ideas and research with the world’s next superpower, thanks to a partnership with a prestigious Chinese education centre.

Danica-Lea Larcombe isn’t one to sit still for very long. The Wanganui-born, Perth-based woman is currently enrolled for an on-line Graduate Diploma in Education at the University of Waikato while holding down a part-time job, and has just published an account of her solo travels around the world.

As a young child in Baghdad, Nadin Janan Wadi remembers hearing the windows rattle as the bombs fell during the 1991 US bombardment of that city in the first Gulf War.

ITP New Zealand, the national association for the country’s institutes of technology and polytechnics (ITPs), has announced the finalists for its annual awards.

On Monday 11th May, 2009, Whitireia Community Polytechnic and Wellington Free Ambulance (WFA) signed a five year contract, ensuring the continued provision of a top class degree programme for aspiring paramedics.

The University of Waikato is a major driver of the region’s prosperity, generating three per cent of the Waikato’s total regional revenue and nearly one billion dollars for the NZ economy as a whole, according to a new study.

Recent political fluctuations in NZ and the US provided inspiration for an upcoming adaptation of Shakespeare’s political tragedy Richard II.

“The recession does have a silver lining,” says Tai Poutini Polytechnic’s head of business and computing, Kate Campbell.

AUSTRALIA – The opening of the University of Western Australia’s new AU$50 million (NZ$nn) Business School could not have come at a better time – according to Alcoa of Australia managing director, and UWA engineering graduate, Alan Cransberg.

Fulbright NZ invite applications by leading NZ research scholars, lecturers, artists and professionals to take up Fulbright awards to the US in 2010 and 2011.

Waikato University and Wintec have signed an agreement which will further enhance learning and research in the region and will see the complementary delivery of some programmes.

The NZi3 National ICT Innovation Institute has opened at the University of Canterbury.

The University of Waikato has won a three-year contract to lead and deliver professional development in adult literacy and numeracy.

The Council of The University of Auckland will confer an honorary degree on former Prime Minister Helen Clark, one of its most illustrious graduates.
 

Waikato University academic and keen snowboarder Dr Holly Thorpe has been awarded a Leverhulme Fellowship which will take her to Britain for a year.

An economist turned-motorbike adventurer, a champion runner, marine explorer, leading educationalist, Family Court Judge and a renowned historian are the six winners of Victoria University of Wellington’s third Distinguished Alumni Awards.

The West Coast of the Southern Alps is where it is at for outdoors students this year, if enrolment figures at Tai Poutini Polytechnic are anything to go by.

An essay by a University of Waikato student promoting the use of social networking tools, such as Facebook, to support Dutch culture in NZ has won the 2008 Hanny van Roekel prize.

Otago Polytechnic is about to become the first NZ-based institution to offer a specialised training and professional certification programme in workplace disability management, designed to plan for better management of valuable ‘people resources.’

A new state-of-the-art coastal research facility was officially opened on Wellington’s south coast on Thursday 12th March.

Fulbright NZ invites applications for the most prestigious international scholarship in science and technology – the International Fulbright Science & Technology Awards.

At the opening of the Paramedic Learning Centre at Whitireia Community Polytechnic on Wednesday 11th March, Prime Minister John Key reflected on the personal stake he places on education and on the development of the health sector.
 

Waikato University is changing the face of student recruitment in NZ with its innovative on-line campaign which ‘follows’ visitors to its site.
 

A new partnership agreement between two of NZ’s largest providers of distance learning will help up-skill supervisors of school-age distance pupils.

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

The teaching of languages could be revolutionised following ground-breaking research by Victoria University PhD graduate Paul Sulzberger.
 

The University of Canterbury will offer up to 300 Te Reo Maori Scholarships totalling about $60,000 to Maori and non-Maori students studying stage one te reo in 2009.

Government-owned polytechnic UCOL is offering free study during 2009 to people who lose their jobs as a result of the current economic downturn.

Tai Poutini Polytechnic is excited to be announcing their new Certificate in ‘Pre Health Science’ which will give students a taste-test into the world of nursing, midwifery or applied sports science.

Part of a $1 million donation last year to Victoria’s Antarctic Research Centre from alumnus Alan Eggers will help scientists better understand the relationship between glaciers and climate change.

Waikato University hosts a conference this month to bring together schools and teachers who are using a ground-breaking approach to Maori learning.

UCOL is getting into the world of social networking to get through to – and create some fun for – the second wave of Gen Y.

Victoria University has appointed Prof. Penny Boumelha to the position of Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic).

High-achieving, eco-minded students are being called upon to help find innovative and sustainable solutions for a range of energy issues being discussed at next year’s Eco-Minds Youth Forum.

The University of Auckland has appointed Associate Professor Graeme Aitken as the new Dean of its Faculty of Education.

Whitireia Polytech lecturer Le’autuli’ilagi M. Sauvao has recently returned from the International Conference for Samoan Language and Culture, held in Long Beach, Los Angeles.

Victoria University’s first wholly-owned hall of residence, Weir House, will celebrate its 75th anniversary at a major reunion event in Wellington this November.

UCOL is leading the way in a campaign to encourage more young people to vote in this year’s General Elections.

“Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics (ITPs) are sharing data about enrolments, finances and facilities to improve the education that they offer to students, employers and the wider community,” said Dave Guerin, ITP NZ executive director.

Victoria University’s Masters of Business Administration (MBA) has been awarded international accreditation by the British-based Association of MBAs, or AMBA.

Te Kuiti Wintec and on-line recruitment company QJumpers have spearheaded a new initiative to offer an on-line career planning course called ‘Get Set’ to their local communities for free.

Applications for the Mike Pero Mortgages Foundation, which opened on 1st June, have been coming in steadily, and Mike Pero Mortgages chief executive Sandra Pigram says they want more.

he West Coast of the South Island is expecting an influx of students and an injection into the West Coast economy following a decision by Tai Poutini Polytechnics Council to continue it’s ‘No Tuition Fees’ Policy in 2009.

The increasing use of e-learning is creating a need to up-skill more education and training professionals in the field, according to head of The Open Polytechnic of NZ’s e-learning office Sue Dark.