About the Division of Health

We’re passionate about teaching and research that leads to better and fairer health outcomes.

There is a health workforce crisis in New Zealand and we ask that you join us in addressing this and making a positive difference to the health of your community.

Health is much more than the absence of physical disease. We combine an understanding of sport and human movement, with expertise in mental and physical health, Western knowledge and mātauranga Māori, for a more positive and integrated approach to health. We offer a range of clinical and non-clinical programmes, recognising the importance of a wide range of factors as determinants of health.

We have recently established a full range of Nursing qualifications, from Bachelor’s to PhD, including a highly successful Nurse Practitioner programme. Our Nursing graduates are sought after and we are incredibly proud of the difference that they are making in their communities.

We are innovative in our approach, recognising that to address the current health workforce crisis, we can’t just do more of the same. This includes ground-breaking research to deliver better and fairer health outcomes and adopting new models of health education that have proven to be successful in other similar countries, such as Australia.

We are strong advocates for graduate-entry health programmes, which are accelerated pathways to becoming a registered health practitioner for students with an existing Bachelor’s qualification. These programmes are ideal for students wanting to change careers or who are unsure of their career plans when they initially leave high school and begin university study.

Our graduate-entry Master of Nursing Practice degree is the largest of its kind in New Zealand. Following on from this success and in response to requests by local health stakeholders, we have developed the country’s first graduate-entry programmes in Midwifery and Pharmacy and expect to begin delivery of these in 2025.

Finally, we have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Health to establish a graduate-entry medical school at the University of Waikato. This will focus on addressing our biggest medical workforce needs, which are in primary care specialities and working in regional and rural communities.

We are committed to meeting the current and future workforce needs of the health sector in Aotearoa. There’s a lot of work to do, but we’re up for it, and we hope that you are too.

Professor Jo Lane
Dean of Health