Uni welcomes boost in student numbers
Waikato University is welcoming a boost in student numbers for the start of the year.
For vice-chancellor Neil Quigley, the university is beginning to feel like it did before Covid-19 swept the globe, impacting heavily on the university’s student numbers.
The pandemic meant students had to study online and international students were not able to get into the country.
Figures for A trimester show overall student numbers are up by more than 6%, with Ministry Funded Equivalent Full-Time Students (EFTS) growing over 3% in Hamilton and more than 6% in Tauranga.
International EFTS are 25% higher than the same time last year, albeit remaining below pre-pandemic levels.
Quigley said these days you've got the competitive nature of other universities advertising for students in the Waikato.
“And at the same time people might decide there's lots of jobs and they're paying really well, why go to university instead of just going straight out and getting a job.”
Postgraduate numbers are up 16% on last year and school leaver numbers have remained relatively stable, despite a smaller number of Year 13 students achieving University Entrance.
“Students transferring from elsewhere in the tertiary sector is up by 19% over 2023 and there is a stronger pipeline of returning students with the volume up from last year.”
He said areas seeing growth are Waikato’s law and psychology programmes.
“I personally think law is a good liberal arts degree. Even if people don't want to practise law in the end, it never hurts to know some.” And psychology is also attracting growth, one of the reasons being the residual CSI effect.
“People who watch CSI on TV and they think that’s what psychology is about. And also I think awareness about mental health challenges in the community and the fact that there's a big need in the community for more people in that space.”
There’s also a demand for the total immersion Māori language programme.
Quigley said the demand for healthcare professionals is also driving enrolment growth, and he’s excited about the opportunities that lie ahead, especially with the prospect of a new Waikato medical school.
“We have had notable enrolment increases for the Bachelor of Nursing and Master of Nursing Practice qualifications.”
Although he didn’t think the proposed medical school or the pharmacy programme had driven enrolment numbers.
“I don’t think it has explicitly quite yet. The reason is that we haven’t really articulated a pathway for students into those programs either medicine or pharmacy at this point. That’s because we don't think it's appropriate to do so until we actually have approval to offer those programmes.”
Despite the increased number of students, Quigley said the university continues to operate in a highly constrained environment.
“The problem we have is the funding environment for the university is still sufficiently difficult that we have parts of the university that are going backwards in terms of student numbers, we are going to have some change.”