8. Student Participation and Performance


In 2015 the University of Waikato continued its multi-year project to deliver a relevant, futurefocused curriculum and a world-class student experience, as well as its work to increase access to university study within the Waikato and Bay of Plenty regions.


Rochelle Molina

Third-year engineering student Rochelle Molina travelled to Germany at the end of 2015 after being selected for an all-expensespaid traineeship at the University of Stuttgart. She received a placement with the International Association for the Exchange of Students for Technical Experience (IASTE). While at Stuttgart she researched chemical absorption processes and gas cleaning techniques during combustion.

New Deputy Vice-Chancellor Academic
The Pro Vice-Chancellor Education was selected for the role of Deputy Vice- Chancellor Academic during 2015. Professor Robyn Longhurst, a social and cultural geographer, has primary leadership responsibility for the University's academic portfolio, articulating the University's academic strategy and overseeing the planning, development, implementation and review of curriculum development including the University's academic programmes and delivery of teaching and learning.


Curriculum Development
The University strives to attract the best students and deliver a dynamic and forwardlooking curricula that is more relevant to the changing needs of students, employers and society. To achieve this the University continues to focus on the content and structure of curricula and also on the overall educational framework within which they are delivered.

A new Curriculum Design Framework (CDF) was agreed in 2015 and is being implemented through revisions to and streamlining of the paper, course and degree offerings of all of the Faculties of the University. The changes being brought about by the CDF will make the structure of Waikato degree programmes easier to understand and will make the value offered by studying each programme more transparent to students and employers.

New undergraduate degree requirements introduced through the CDF will differentiate three compulsory aspects of a student’s study that are specifically designed to create a distinctive and highly employable University of Waikato graduate. All students will be required to take three for-credit papers: one on the disciplinary foundations relevant to their degree; one on cultural competencies to enable them to function with confidence and competence anywhere in the world; and one centred on engagement via work placements, internships or volunteer programmes.

Student experience and learning are at the heart of the changes being introduced under the CDF across the entire spectrum of study, from transitioning into the University environment through to new approaches to doctoral programmes and enhanced guidance on pathways to careers.

Degree Qualifications

Also focussed on enhancing learning and the student experience are changes to the structure of the academic year which were approved during 2015. Under these changes, the summer semester will be lengthened to provide greater study and work experience opportunities, Orientation Week will occur before teaching begins, and all 100-level papers will have an assignment within the first three weeks of the semester to ensure students get early feedback on their understanding of and engagement with the course material.


Student Success
The University continues to support Pacific students in a variety of ways, including the Edna Money Future Pacific Leaders Scholarships. In 2015, the University of Waikato had 6.7% of its Ministry-funded EFTS generated by Pacific students – the highest proportion ever recorded by the organisation. There was significant growth in the proportion of Pacific students from outside the Waikato/Bay of Plenty region choosing to study at Waikato.

Student Statistics

The University continues to attract a high proportion of Māori students. In 2015, more than 22% of the Ministry-funded EFTS at the University of Waikato were Māori students, above the target of 21% agreed with TEC. The bulk of the University’s Māori students – 75% – come from the Waikato/Bay of Plenty region.

The University of Waikato leads the way in this respect, with higher rates of Māori involvement than other universities, and consistently good rates of achievements from those students.

The University’s support initiatives for Māori students are strong and have been built up over many years; these were labelled “excellent” and singled out for comment in the 2015 AQA Cycle Five Audit. The achievement rates of students enrolled as Māori remains about 80%. The University aims to improve this level of achievement and will be reviewing its support for students’ transition to university and Māori student support programmes in 2016.

International student completion rates were well above target in 2015 at 89%. This was on the back of growth in Full-Cost International EFTS, well up on 2014, with significant numbers of students from China choosing to study at Waikato.


Support for Māori and Pacific Students
As part of its drive to ensure Māori and Pacific students have access to and are successful at university study, Waikato focuses strongly on these groups. Within this ongoing engagement and oversight of Māori students, the Pro Vice-Chancellor Māori Office continued to work with the Waikato Students’ Union and the various Māori student groups to deliver the well-received social cultural programmes on the Hamilton campus. Groups and support co-ordinators also travelled to Tauranga throughout 2015 to connect with those students.

The University believes it has a significant role to play in engaging with secondary school students. In particular, the University serves its regions by engaging with Māori students from Waikato and Bay of Plenty to promote the study of science at tertiary level. This provides an understanding of what it’s like to study at university and exposes the students to the benefits of tertiary study.

The Māori Science Summer School Te Huakirangi is an annual week-long science experience in which Year 11 and 12 students from Hamilton and Tokoroa visit the Hamilton campus. They look at astronomy and DNA in the Faculty of Science & Engineering laboratories and visit the Sulphur Point research station in Tauranga. In this way the University encourages the scientists of the future and is able to engender a sense of purpose in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths subjects.


Illuminating the Pathway to University Study
The University maintained an integrated approach to marketing and recruitment of students in 2015, continuing to use the “where the world is going” brand and utilising digital story-telling to engage with prospective students.

Visits to schools and careers fairs increased by 30% in 2015, in part because the University employed a substantial team of student ambassadors to visit schools and provide relevant, first-hand accounts of life as a student at Waikato and what it takes to succeed.

In addition, the University focused on providing relevant information for parents through parent information sessions, while also holding online chat sessions with prospective students, and a range of drop-in sessions. For the first time, the University also held an Applicant Day in addition to its annual Open Day. Applicant Day was designed to assist secondary school students with the application process for the University, and to answer questions parents and prospective students had.

In 2015 work continued on a major website project to further enhance student recruitment and the student experience. The new website is due for release in 2016.

Higher Degrees Completed

Response to Changes to University Entrance
Changes to the requirements for University Entrance in 2015 resulted in many students who planned to attend University not having the minimum requirements; Māori and Pacific students were hit particularly hard.

Waikato took the lead, devising specific programmes for students who had narrowly missed out gaining UE, allowing them to transition to study at the University.


New Regional and Access Initiatives
The University of Waikato is committed to assisting the communities in its region to overcome barriers to university study. In 2015 Te Ara ki Angitū – the Pathway to Excellence project was launched with the four high schools in Tokoroa and Putaruru.

In these communities, the cost of study and the distance from the University’s campus create barriers to university study for a substantial number of students. Te Ara ki Angitū combines work with the four high schools to promote programmes of study in NCEA that will allow students to obtain University Entrance, provides new scholarships (a substantial net addition to the scholarships provided by the University) and a subsidised bus service that will run daily from Tokoroa and Putararu to the University each week-day during A and B Semesters.

Distribution

The launch of Te Ara ki Angitū resulted in a very large increase in applications to study at the University from the four high schools in Tokoroa and Putararu. As a result, and with the support of the community in the Waitomo District, a decision was made late in 2015 to extend the bus service provided by the University to Te Kuiti and Otorohanga. Further extension of the service will be considered in 2016 where appropriate partnerships with communities and schools can be established.


School of Graduate Research
Changes to the structure of the University introduced during 2015 included the creation of a School of Graduate Research with Professor Kay Weaver appointed as Dean in the second half of the year.

The School will build on the excellent outcomes already being achieved with doctorallevel study at the University of Waikato and will ensure that graduate research continues to be an area of high priority.

In particular, the School is charged with creating a stimulating interdisciplinary postgraduate research environment and overseeing all issues relating to postgraduate student issues within the University. The School has central responsibility for the quality assurance, policy, regulations and oversight of all doctorates (higher doctorates, professional doctorates and Doctor of Philosophy), Master of Philosophy (MPhil) and 90- or 120-point Masters theses.

Total Volumes

The Scholarships Office is now housed within the School and oversees all undergraduate and graduate scholarships; the move is expected to benefit not just students, but provide financial clarity and sustainability for the area.


Student Innovation
During 2015 the University worked closely with the Waikato Students’ Union to establish a programme for student innovation.

The Summer Start-Up Programme gives students 10 weeks to develop their own project or idea with the help of an expert start-up coach, workshops and full-access to a shared working space. Outside organisations have sponsored and are supporting the programme which has presented a total of 29 scholarships – 19 to students studying at the Hamilton campus, five studying at the Tauranga campus, and another five were awarded to students studying at the Bay of Plenty Polytechnic for a related programme called Project Ignite.



Waikato students making a difference

Students making a difference

University of Waikato Engineering student Mahonri Owen has won a Health Research Council Māori PhD Scholarship worth $111,550 to help develop a prosthetic hand that can perform the basic functions of a human hand.

“I’m attempting to design a brain-controlled prosthetic hand that’s easy to produce, easy to adapt to and affordable,” says Mahonri (Ngāti Tuwharetoa and Ngāpuhi). “One that can restore function and quality of life in a better, faster and cheaper way than we’ve seen before.”

To date, he has made several different hands using an Arduino micro-controller and off-the-shelf components. His skeleton hand was made using on-screen CAD (computer aided design) to map-out the mechanism. He then created the 50-plus components using an Objet 30 3-D printer, which lays the design down in resin 0.3 of a millimetre at a time. As one layer hardens, another is added until the skeleton is built up. The first hand took seven hours to print.

Using Electroencephalography (EEG), the hands are able to execute basic movements, such as open and close. What Mahonri wants to develop is a more sophisticated hand. “I want to make my own EEG headset specifically for hands. So when the brain says ‘pinch’ or ‘grasp’ that’s what the hand will do.”

Amputees often have difficulty performing simple day-to-day tasks, which means Mahonri's work in developing robotic prosthetics has exciting potential for improving patient quality of life.

PhD student Ngahuia Murphy was awarded a $109,700 PhD scholarship from the Health Research Council. Ngahuia was one of 21 emerging Māori health researchers to receive an HRC Māori Career Development Award in 2015 with a combined total of $1.8 million awarded. Her PhD is entitled ‘Investigating customary Māori philosophies regarding the whare tangata [womb]’ and examines censored and marginalised ceremonial traditions related to Māori women through a mana wahine theoretical framework. Theories of mana wahine are concerned with the way Māori women’s knowledge, ceremonies, roles, status, and stories have been corrupted and re-defined through the Victorian interpretative lens of many of the colonial ethnographers.



Region finds pathway to excellence leads to Waikato

Regio Pathway

In 2015, the University of Waikato launched a new initiative with the secondary schools and communities of South Waikato.

Te Ara ki Angitū: Pathways to Excellence is being led by the University’s Director of Māori Advancement, Joseph Macfarlane (pictured), and is designed to provide a pathway to university study by alleviating the barriers of affordability and transport, and installing quality support to guide students through the transition to university.

It includes heavily subsidised bus transport between the University of Waikato and Tokoroa and Putaruru, fees scholarships, university learning hubs in the high schools, and the provision of student learning devices based on need. The first student cohort of Te Ara ki Angitū: Pathways to Excellence will start university study in A Semester of 2016.

‘Te Ara ki Angitū’ is about potential, opportunity, success and excellence, and in this context, it refers to students who have the potential and the aspiration to study at university, and through this programme, now have the opportunity to make the aspiration a reality – to be on a pathway of excellence and success through university study.

The initiative was developed following discussions between University of Waikato Vice-Chancellor Professor Neil Quigley, and the four high school principals in Tokoroa and Putaruru about improving access to the University for Year 13 students.

Professor Quigley says university participation rates in the Waikato region could be higher, but more needed to be done to make the University of Waikato a practical option, particularly for those living in rural areas.

“We want students who have the potential and the aspiration to attend university to also have access to the opportunity that makes it a realistic and viable option. This requires positive collaboration between the University, the schools, families and the communities.”

More than 20 students were awarded a $5,000 University of Waikato Tokoroa and Putaruru School Leaver Scholarship: Te Ara ki Angitū in 2015 to study at Waikato in 2016.

3 Minute Thesis

The Three-minute Thesis competition requires students to present their research to a lay audience in three minutes using a single PowerPoint slide. The 2015 winner was Neda Nourmohammadi (centre) from Iran, with Sarah Lockwood runner-up and Jason Sun winner of the people’s choice award.



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