Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington and the University of Otago have agreed on a collaborative delivery model that will be piloted for teaching some language subjects in 2024.
The collaboration will see Te Herenga Waka lead the delivery of teaching German for students at both universities and Otago lead teaching of Latin and Greek.
Te Herenga Waka Vice-Chancellor Nic Smith says it is an exciting prospect to have two high-quality universities seeking to combine their talent and expertise to offer students from both institutions new study opportunities and the enrichment of existing programmes.
“This kind of collaborative approach, with the two universities contributing their individual distinctive strengths and not competing with each other but working together, has enormous potential benefit both for the young people of Aotearoa and the future of our country as an island nation in the Pacific.”
Professor Smith says with so many New Zealand universities experiencing significant financial challenges, it is clear the current university funding model in a number of areas is serving neither the country nor university staff and students well.
“I’d like to acknowledge the leadership of the University of Otago throughout these discussions. They have been open, generous, enthusiastic, and inclusive in their approach and this has allowed us to envision real change in the way we think about the delivery of tertiary education in this country.”
University of Otago Acting Vice-Chancellor Professor Helen Nicholson says the University is always looking for innovative ways of working and is relishing the opportunity to work closely with Te Herenga Waka.
“We have appreciated the opportunity to work closely with Te Herenga Waka and we look forward to jointly delivering an innovative and enriching teaching programme to our students.”
Under the pilot, students will enrol at their own home university which will continue to provide them with pastoral care, course advice and student support services. Teaching will be provided online by the other university.
Staff in Te Herenga Waka’s Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences—Te Wāhanga Aronui and Otago’s School of Arts—Te Pae Takata have begun working through the details to implement the pilot.
Professor Smith says university funding currently derives from a competitive pursuit of student numbers, which has led to universities often offering the same courses sometimes in the same locations.
“In the current climate of financial difficulties, universities are now also cutting the same courses even though these decisions might not ultimately be valuable for the prosperity of the country as a whole.”
“We hope the government will provide funding to support this initiative between Te Herenga Waka and Otago. We would also like to see this collaboration inform the university sector review that has been announced by the Government as it could offer both tangible study opportunities for our students and economies of scale across the country’s university sector.”
