The newly established scholarships are awarded on academic merit to students of Māori and Pasifika heritage who have completed their first year of study at Victoria. The scholarship goes directly towards their tuition fees.
Professor Kate McGrath, Vice-Provost (Research) at Victoria, says the one-off scholarships, worth over $156,000 in total, are an example of the University’s strategic commitment to improving Māori and Pasifika tertiary study participation and success rates.
“These scholarships are an investment in our talented Māori and Pasifika students and will help them realise their potential.
“While the scholarship recipients are key members of our student community and role models for their peers, they also represent our future. The skills and knowledge they gain while studying at Victoria will set them up to be our next generation of leaders, disrupters and adopters.”
Commerce student, Justyce Loau, who is of Samoan heritage, is grateful to be selected for the scholarship.
“I was extremely proud and thankful to receive my scholarship. The money was very useful for covering fees and it also made me feel more confident going into my second year at Victoria.”
The scholarships are part of the University’s constantly growing suite of initiatives aimed at increasing Māori and Pasifika academic participation and success.
Work in these areas is on-going, although the University has seen encouraging gains over the last few years.
For example, the latest figures show course completion rate for Pasifika students is over 73 percent, an increase of over 10 percent on 2010’s figures. Māori are seeing similar success, with the latest course completion rates at 81.8 percent, up 5 percent over the same period.
Māori students currently make up 11.1 percent of Victoria’s student population, and Pasifika 5.9 percent.