Pathways to higher education
An initiative launched by the University of Waikato last year in South Waikato, is now being extended to other schools and communities across the wider Waikato region including MatamataPiako.
Te Ara ki Angitu¯: Pathways to Excellence focuses on making the university more accessible to students of the regional secondary schools and communities in the Waikato.
As part of the initiative, the university has recently launched a major scholarship programme that extends across 25 secondary schools of the Waikato region including Te Whare Kura o Te Rau Aroha, Morrinsville College and Te Aroha College.
Regional transport is also a feature of the programme, and from A Semester 2017, four major bus systems will run daily to the Hamilton campus through 15 Waikato townships – as far North as Te Kauwhata, and as far South of Hamilton as Tokoroa and Te Kuiti, reaching out to Thames, Hauraki and the Matamata-Piako districts also.
These bus systems will be wifi-enabled and heavily subsidised by the university so students pay only a nominal fee per ride.
Student mentoring and pastoral care and a wha¯nau/common room on campus round out the supports that make up the programme.
The Pathways to Excellence initiative was developed last year following discussions between the university’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Neil Quigley and the four high school principals in Tokoroa and Putaruru around improving access to the university for Year 13 students.
The discussion led to a pilot programme with the South Waikato that has been running successfully throughout 2016.
The South Waikato cohort will be joined on campus by students from across the wider Waikato region, from the Otorohanga and Waitomo districts, as well as from the Thames-Coromandel, Hauraki, Matamata-Piako, and North Waikato districts from 2017.
Recruitment teams from the university are visiting the schools in the newly added regions over the coming weeks to promote the new scholarships, which are open until September 14.