The Last Decade

Since the landmark 50th anniversary celebrations, the University has embarked on a journey of structural and curriculum changes and campus development driven by our commitment to excellence in education and research. More recently we have done this through the backdrop of Covid-19 and the rising cost of living crisis but always with the needs of our students and community as the focus.

It saw us reorganise our schools, faculties, and research units into four main academic divisions: Arts, Law, Psychology and Social Sciences (ALPSS); Education; Health, Engineering, Computing, and Science (HECS); and Management.

In 2017 the University also celebrated the launch of Te Huataki Waiora, the School of Health, Sport, and Human Performance. The school brings together expertise from across the University into research and teaching focused on sport science and high-performance sport to health communication, and education.

Alongside redesigning many of our papers at 100 and 200 levels across programmes, we also launched new qualifications, including our world first Bachelor of Climate Change and our Bachelor of Nursing programme, both launched in 2021. Building on our curriculum development we have since launched our new Academic Plan 2022-2026, to guide our aspirations for teaching and learning over the next five years.

With the needs of our community and our students at the forefront of our decisions, our Bachelor of Climate Change is the first of its kind in the world, combining scientific knowledge with understanding of economic, social and political systems and Māori and Pacific responses to climate change. The multidisciplinary nature of the qualification is developing graduates ready to tackle the world’s biggest challenge.

Meanwhile our Bachelor of Nursing, launched alongside partners Te Whatu Ora Waikato and clinical partners from community care, is already delivering on its goal of growing a more diverse health workforce. Our first cohort, 30% of whom identify as Māori or Pacific, will graduate this year.

The success of our nursing programme has also served as a launch pad for new qualifications underway including a Master of Pharmacy Practice and our goal of establishing New Zealand’s first graduate entry medical school, which we are working with the Ministry of Health to create a business case for this year.

While developing our curriculum, the University has also remained at the forefront of research and innovation, securing significant research contracts and achieving recognition both nationally and internationally for the impact our researchers are making in the world.

Part of supporting our researchers has been developing facilities to support their work. Our new Law and Management building was opened in 2016 housing Te Piringa - Faculty of Law and our Te Raupapa - Waikato Management School. The Management School also achieved the ranking of number one in New Zealand for Business and Economics in the 2022 Times Higher Education rankings.

In 2019 we opened our Tauranga campus, cementing our longstanding relationship with the Bay of Plenty, and we have continued to build on this work with the development of our aquaculture facility at Sulphur Point in 2020 and the launch of our Blue Green Lab in 2022, the region’s first university Research and Development lab focused wholly on engineering and technology for the primary industries sector.

In 2021 we launched Te Ipu o te Mahara, our Artificial Intelligence (AI) Institute, focused on translating New Zealand’s world-leading expertise in AI into commercial businesses and applications for the benefit of New Zealand industries and communities.

And in 2023 Te Kura Mata-Ao - School of Engineering at our Hamilton campus opened our Mata-Tina Lab. The $8 million building extension provides more project-based and ‘hands-on’ learning facilities for our engineering students, including a 24-hour prototyping lab.

Bringing it all together was the opening of The Pā in 2023. The landmark new building at the heart of our Hamilton campus acts as the new centre for students, staff and our wider community, delivering a truly Waikato experience.

As the first lockdown arrived in 2020, we successfully transitioned more than 13,000 students and almost 1,500 staff into an entirely digital environment with only a one week break to facilitate this. Then, as alert levels fluctuated between regions in 2021, we supported our cohort of students throughout.

Our student satisfaction with the University’s Covid-19 response was 93%, compared to a global average of 80% in the i-Graduate’s Student Barometer Survey. Staff satisfaction with respect to the University’s Covid-19 response was also high, with 75% saying the University had done its best to deal with challenging circumstances.

While we rose to the challenge, it also gave us the opportunity to review the delivery of our learning as students and staff adapted to an online environment. As we return to normal there is still a strong desire to maintain flexible modes of learning and the University is adapting to this, increasing the number of papers able to be delivered online.

While we reflect on the past 10 years as part of our 60th celebration, we also know our work is far from over.

Our commitment to excellence and innovation will continue to see us shape the future of education and research in Waikato, the Bay of Plenty, and Aotearoa, just as it has done for the past decade.