Ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages
We provide a comprehensive range of fitness and wellness services on campus through Unirec (opens in a new tab) with significant discounts for students and staff.
We host Park Run (opens in a new tab) on campus every Saturday, a 5km community fun run.
Our practical Bachelor of Nursing degree continues to grow from strength to strength and our graduate-entry Master of Pharmacy Practice launched in 2025.
In 2024, 378 of our graduates (9.9% of the total) were in health professions.
All University of Waikato campuses are smoke-free and vape-free (opens in a new tab).
Smoking is also prohibited in any University vehicle.
In 2024, 9.9% of our graduates began working in health professions.
| 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Proportion of graduates in health professions | 9.5% | 10.1% | 9.9% |
To meet New Zealand's health workforce needs, we're establishing New Zealand's third medical school, with entry pathways that will attract people who want to become primary care doctors in rural and regional communities.
We're partnering with the University of Wollongong (opens in a new tab) to help shape the curriculum, and using expert advice from our Medical Advisory Board (opens in a new tab) to guide the establishment of the School.
Waikato psychologists report a connection between students’ interpretation of a university taking sustainability seriously and improved student wellbeing, as outlined in their study on sustainability and student health (opens in a new tab). The findings support the connection between SDG3: Good Health and Wellbeing, and the environmental SDGs 11–15, and show that even a small investment in bike storage facilities can promote sustainable practices and improve student health.
The University of Waikato Adams Centre for High Performance (opens in a new tab) is a cutting-edge facility based at Mt Maunganui’s Blake Park, equipped with the latest in sports science and research capability. It is a valuable resource for many of our biomechanists and other academics working with elite sportspeople from around the country.
Why do some robots feel creepy? We deliberately built one to find out
University of Waikato researchers deliberately designed a creepy robot to explore why some machines unsettle us, revealing how appearance and behaviour shape our comfort and interactions with robots.
Waikato graduate takes AI health research to Cambridge
Dr Christopher Mayo is heading to Cambridge’s Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, supported by a prestigious Woolf Fisher Scholarship.
Brainwaves: Engineering a deeper understanding of the brain
A new approach to magnetic brain stimulation could give researchers more control over the pulses they use and inform how the brain responds to different types of stimulation.
Hungry scent detection dogs more likely to ‘cry wolf’
New research has found hunger could affect the accuracy of scent detection dogs – with dogs working for treats more likely to falsely identify a scent when they haven’t eaten.
Nursing students are rejecting careers in aged care. A staffing crisis is coming
Students are not rejecting older people; they are responding to the conditions in which care is delivered.
Waikato University superbug researcher wins national award
University of Waikato researcher Dr Keely Oldham has won a national award supporting her research into phage therapy as a potential treatment for antibiotic-resistant infections.
The use of AI in biotechnology is changing faster than the rules governing either technology
Scientific advances are rapidly outpacing regulatory frameworks in New Zealand and around the world.
Three minutes, one critical question: Waikato PhD student wins thesis competition
Each PhD student had just three minutes to explain their complex research to a non-specialist audience.
NZ First says population trends are at a ‘crisis point’. The reality is not that simple
New Zealand’s population trends are complex, with falling fertility, an ageing population and migration shaping growth - challenging claims the country is at a demographic crisis point.
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