A world-class education
Over the past decade, focused efforts have been made to attract a diverse student body of the highest possible academic potential, including students from our equity target groups, and to provide excellent educational opportunities for them. Particular attention has been paid to the recruitment and retention of Māori students and Pacific students and to establishing pathway programmes that will meet the needs of students from these communities.
The University is known for its excellent teachers and does very well in national teaching excellence competitions, with our teachers winning more than 35 National Teaching Excellence Awards since their introduction in 2001. The University supports excellent learning and teaching through a variety of tailored initiatives, including the TeachWell@UOA teaching capability framework.
The University uses Canvas as its institutional learning management system and has accelerated its capability in utilising educational technologies, tools and systems to support flexible pathways and diverse educational experiences for our students. A central Learning Design Service, Ranga Auaha Ako, supports curricula design and innovative delivery, deploying a range of course delivery methods within the context of our campus-based strategy that optimise educational opportunities for students. The pandemic accelerated the update of digital tools in learning delivery and staff continue to adopt best practice from what has been learnt during this time.
A clear vision for the future of Waipapa Taumata Rau education, supported by a range of plans, an annual cycle of quality assurance and developmental initiatives, and a partnership with students, will see the educational experience transformed over coming years. The new curriculum framework puts the students at the centre of learning and teaching and recognises and values their social and emotional selves alongside their academic contributions. It looks to create an individual experience for students in a collective environment. It also supports staff to innovate to meet the changing demands of tertiary education through the adoption of a suite of signature pedagogical practices. This interwoven, underlying foundation will lead to a tertiary experience that will be highly distinctive, recognisable, and sought-after by learners, staff, and wider communities both nationally and internationally.
Underpinning the curriculum framework are the Curriculum Taumata, guiding principles of curriculum transformation that advance the University’s commitment to open intellectual inquiry, collaboration, creativity, and equity and diversity founded on the principles of manaakitanga, whanaungatanga and kaitiakitanga. The Taumata present a holistic set of aspirations we are seeking to realise through the curriculum programme redesign (and subsequent course redesign) activity.
In this rapidly-growing, diverse and busy city, the University maintains a strong investment in our learning infrastructure. This includes libraries containing important collections of New Zealand and international intellectual heritage. In an array of new buildings, a range of flexible classroom designs are being employed for active and peer learning.
While pursuing our mission as a primarily campus-based centre of learning and research, we actively explore the opportunities presented by alternative delivery models. From 2020 the University’s Auckland Online initiative has developed and delivered a range of masters and postgraduate programmes that are taught wholly online; with 12 programmes currently available.
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