Free counselling services for students
100% smoke-free campuses
Brand new Bachelor of Nursing degree
We proudly put our people first during 2020, recognising the unique pressures of lockdown life which saw many staff and students juggling childcare and battling technology issues, on top of the many other stresses that a global pandemic brings. We adopted an approach grounded in compassion, giving people flexibility to get through as best they could and guiding them with clear communications. In 2020 we also saw our offerings in health education go from strength to strength with two professorial appointments and the launch of our new Bachelor of Nursing degree.
Some things we are especially proud of
200 staff volunteers participated in an outbound calling programme to check in on every New Zealand-based student when lockdown hit.
We made a suite of health and wellbeing resources to support staff and students through lockdown including a popular home workout series through UniRec.
We transitioned swiftly to online learning and continued a flexible delivery approach when lockdown lifted to give students options and take the pressure off returning to campus for face-to-face learning.
We took a highly personalised response to student performance including an extensive grade moderation process.
We ramped up communications with staff via video and ran a series of surveys to keep tabs on morale.
We continued to offer flexible working opportunities to staff after lockdown.
We reviewed our operational health and safety system, created new committees to give more people a voice and revamped the website to make it easier to find information they needed.
We overhauled the booking system for counselling, reducing the wait time and enabling same-day appointments for students who need urgent support.
Boost for health services on campus
Our Student Health Centre in Hamilton offers general practice medical care and in 2020 saw a suite of new initiatives launched, including:
- A new booking system for counselling to improve wait times.
- A new staff member to lead health promotion on campus.
- Same-day appointments for urgent mental health support.
- The appointment of two mental health nurses.
- A dedicated Violence Prevention Coordinator appointed.
Extending options for health education
The University of Waikato is blazing a trail in health education and in 2020 we launched a new Bachelor of Nursing degree. The programme was developed to meet a national shortage of nurses and as a response to the Government Inquiry into Mental Health and Addiction in 2018. The programme offers more clinical hours than any other provider in New Zealand and integrates a focus on mental health and addictions throughout the degree. The University is also developing biomedical scientists and population health specialists through its Bachelor of Health programme and its established Bachelor of Health, Sport and Human Performance is a popular option, particularly for those eager to pursue careers in high performance sport.
We started Parkrun on campus
In 2020 we launched Parkrun at our Hamilton campus, a free, 5km running event held every Saturday at 8am. It proved popular with staff and students and the broader community, and continues to attracts hundreds of runners each week. We love having more people enjoy our beautiful park-like grounds. We also have a comprehensive array of sport and recreation facilities and wellbeing services for our staff and students.