Within the?,?Goal 4: Quality Education?aspires to inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all. As the Hub of the?United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI)?for that Goal, the?, a member institution in New Zealand, is working towards this in a unique context, with a diverse student body including cohorts of Māori and Pacific students.?
Taumata Teitei, the university’s vision and strategic plan, affirms the institution’s commitment to the principles of?Te Tiriti o Waitangi?| Treaty of Waitangi -a key document in the country’s history and political constitution-, which include actively protecting Māori interests, equity, and?Tino rangatiratanga?(self-determination). As per official statistics, New Zealand’s estimated Māori ethnic population is 17.4% of the national population.
The university aims to welcome all learners, providing them with an inclusive and, at the same time safe space to achieve academic success while fulfilling their ambitions and acquiring the knowledge and skills to contribute to a better world. With this in mind, the institution recognizes that its students come from diverse backgrounds and with different levels of preparedness for tertiary education.
Māori and Pacific students, in particular, are more likely than average to come from high schools in economically disadvantaged areas, where there are limited opportunities to complete the curricular and co-curricular activities that could best prepare them for university life. Inequitable outcomes, including lower academic participation, completion, and success for Māori and Pacific students, remain significant and persistent.
The institution’s ‘Learner Success Plan’ (LSP), developed in partnership with the New Zealand Tertiary Education Commission, wants to address the historical disparities that continue to affect Māori and Pacific students specifically. It sets out specific targets to close the existing gaps in inequity for these students, intending to achieve parity across ethnic groups within the next three to seven years for different indicators.
Such indicators include undergraduate pass rates, first-year undergraduate retention, and students’ transition to postgraduate programs. “Striving for equitable access to quality education for Māori, Pacific, and all equity groups is important for the country’s future,” says Jemaima Tiatia, Pro Vice-Chancellor Pacific. “Implementing the Learner Success Plan is critical in ensuring these students thrive,” she adds.
The LSP puts learners at the center of the decision-making process at the university, and the actions to make progress have been informed by student journey mapping, which considered specific cohorts, including Māori and Pacific students. Implementation roadmaps were developed to assist in delivering specific initiatives that have all been designed to be culturally appropriate, with inputs from relevant university offices.
The students’ journey starts before they enrol at university. The LSP seeks to help prepare them for university through school and community outreach activities. For this, the School and Community Engagement Team developed the?笔ō飞丑颈谤颈?model (a?辫ō飞丑颈谤颈?is a traditional Māori ceremony) to make the university a welcoming space for new students, particularly indigenous ones, through early and reciprocal engagement with them.?
Under the LSP umbrella, the university delivers initiatives supporting skills development to close the achievement gap for Māori and Pacific students before they begin tertiary education. These include the Pacific Academy, strengthening numeracy for students in the lowest-decile schools, and the South Auckland Mathematics Challenge, helping schools with high numbers of Māori and Pacific students to prepare for regional competitions.
To aid the transition, the Summer School of the University of Auckland allows new learners to get a head start by taking a for-credit course during the summer before their first semester. The programs UniBound and?Tōia ki Waipapa?are designed explicitly with Māori and Pacific school leavers in mind, helping them through practical workshops, team-building activities, and peer mentoring over the season.?
Embedding?Mātauranga Māori?(Māori knowledge) into teaching and learning is also a significant commitment the university is working towards, through its Curriculum Framework Transformation Program or CFTP. The institution acknowledges the need to increase staff diversity, increasing the responsibility for culturally conscious teaching and learning, and raising cultural competencies among its staff overall.?
Reporting mechanisms have been developed to monitor student engagement and help identify those at risk of dropping out so that they can be supported at the earliest opportunity. Peer support is also critical and culturally vital to these students. Along these lines, culturally appropriate tuition services are offered, connecting them with more experienced peers as well as Māori and Pacific teaching staff.
To support the well-being of all its students during their time at the university, initiatives such as?Oranga Tauira?| Student Well-being Plan and?Te Papa Manaaki?| Campus Care aim to create a campus culture that fosters a sense of belonging while recognizing diversity.?Whakamana Tangata?| Student Services Strategy specifically aims to provide more student-centric support, sensitive to our students’ needs.
The student journey culminates in graduation and transition to work, and the ongoing CFTP will introduce more work and community-integrated learning opportunities to facilitate this transition. In addition,?Te Haerenga, the Māori and Pacific Employability Program, supports Māori and Pacific students in articulating the value of cultural diversity in the workplace, fosters increased confidence, and provides valuable networking opportunities.
“We see the huge task ahead of us, and we are working hard at all levels to realize our ambitions,” says Te Kawehau Hoskins, Pro Vice-Chancellor Māori. “But it is about more than just hitting targets. We want long-term sustainable success for our Māori whānau and our Pasifika whānau [a term encompassing family and community]. We want the university to be a place where our people can belong and flourish,” she comments.
The University of Auckland’s aspiration for all its students to succeed is embodied in our Māori name,?Waipapa Taumata Rau. This name signals a call to excellence in scholarship and the pursuit of knowledge, sustainability, relevance, fairness, and a positive impact in all the institution does. The Learner Success Plan is a crucial element of its commitment to supporting all students on their individual journeys to excellence and impact.
