Two Māori University of Auckland students tell Sherry Zhang about their struggle to get coffee with racist imagery removed from campus – and why they think it’s emblematic of a bigger problem. A few weeks ago, The Spinoff received a peculiar email: Subject: Auckland University Racist Coffee!! Body: Please investigate! Photos Attached: Caricatures of a … Read more
The harassment of teaching assistants by students in tertiary institutions is a widespread but under-reported problem, write Sarah Ives and Ann E. Bartos When the #MeToo movement gained momentum in 2017, it exposed widespread sexual harassment in the workplace, and academia was no exception. Yet the Covid-19 pandemic has dimmed the spotlight on this issue … Read more
Waikato University has started an internal inquiry after a number of senior Māori staff alleged structural racism from the institution. One former and one current staff member say the issue’s been bubbling away for years. In 2018, staff and students of the University of Waikato’s Māori and Indigenous Studies faculty fought to stop the faculty … Read more
Communication issues and policy changes exacerbated students’ uncertainty during the lockdown period, reports Ellen Sinclair. The level four announcement on March 24 signalled the start of a period of upheaval for all New Zealanders, but few groups faced more challenges over lockdown than university students. From the rush to get home at short notice, to … Read more
Emerging Māori and Pacific academics are already severely underrepresented at universities. Now they’re in jeopardy of being the first ones to go. As the impacts of Covid-19 bite, universities are looking for ways to cut budgets. There’s a serious danger that in doing so, they erase a generation of Māori and Pacific researchers. The pandemic … Read more
Four PhD students engaged a clinical psychologist to help them navigate an uncertain time in their studies. They share their findings here. As four PhD students from Massey University’s Joint Centre for Disaster Research we, like many others, can’t stop reading and talking about the unfolding events that have gripped our communities and the world … Read more
A recent opinion piece on the Spinoff warned of the dangers of voluntourism, a term for programmes that charge travellers for short-term volunteer experiences. Here, two volunteering organisations tell Josie Adams why what they do is different. A tourism-volunteering hybrid, the burgeoning industry of “voluntourism” has been criticised for charging westerners thousands while costing communities … Read more
As controversy including a $10m lawsuit and ‘ghost’ offices continues to swirl around Jamie Beaton, his fellow Rhodes scholars have slammed him for trying to recruit them. Those who gain a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship must display “truth, courage, devotion to duty, sympathy for and protection of the weak, kindliness, unselfishness and fellowship”. Given this ethos … Read more
It’s setting up a high school and John Key is an investor, but leaked documents show the $380m education startup locks parents into tough contracts worth tens of thousands of dollars. A tutoring company with former prime minister John Key on its board is charging parents as much as $60,000 to chase the dream of … Read more
With the university campus rapidly becoming a space of conflict, is it possible to remain faithful to academic freedom while at the same time mitigating the most harmful effects of hate speech? Massey University provost Giselle Byrnes discusses. Academic freedom and free speech have been much debated in New Zealand in recent months. Chief among … Read more
Chloe Blades reviews Kate Weinberg’s first novel, which is selling like mad and earning the London writer comparisons to Agatha Christie and Donna Tartt. It was always going to be unfair on whichever book I read after Lisa Taddeo’s Three Women; that divisive, genre-defying masterpiece on the manipulation of female desire. Yet The Truants, also … Read more
Laura Southgate’s debut novel is a dive back into flatting and uni and that particular weariness that comes from never having enough money or self-esteem. Also featuring a couple of emotionally absent parents and a gross, abusive boyfriend, the book feels grimy and creepy and hungover a lot of the time – but most of … Read more
The gap between lectures and exams is often a crucial time for students to regroup and prepare for the oncoming exam storm. So it’s understandable that a proposal by Victoria University of Wellington to remove it is causing a stir. Faced with a condensed exam period and shorter break for students, Victoria University administrators have … Read more
There’s something about universities that make entitled young men feel safe pushing the boundary between consensual sex and rape – and it has to change, writes Jai Breitnauer. Admittedly, when I saw my old higher education institute, the University of Warwick, hit UK headlines earlier this year over a group rape chat scandal, I wasn’t … Read more
Last week, a study was released listing the top 20 jobs New Zealanders should be studying for the future. This week, we asked those working in four of those jobs to explain how and why they chose their careers and what advice they’d give to students today. Chef Brody Jenkins (Little Easy/Jo Bros Burgers) What do … Read more
A study using salary data, employment prospects, skill shortages and training positions suggests aspiring engineers, builders, teachers, midwives and panel beaters are off to a great start. First published in February 2019. One of the most difficult choices in a young person’s life is deciding what they want to study. They have to think about … Read more
This week, the government proposed a major shakeup of New Zealand’s polytechnics and industry training organisations (ITOs). Associate professor at MAINZ Dr John Bassett weighs up both the pros and cons of this controversial move. In 2014 I moved from teaching in the Australian university sector to set up a music degree in the polytechnic sector … Read more
Every week on The Primer we ask a local business or product to introduce themselves in eight simple takes. This week we talk to James Koo, co-founder of student discount and job listings app Niesh. ONE: How did Niesh start and what was the inspiration behind it? Niesh actually started as a project between me and … Read more
The waterfront stadium debate bubbles up once every couple of months in Auckland. But why has the debate over a waterfront university never resurfaced, asks editor of Interest.co.nz Gareth Vaughan? A group of Auckland business interests has come up with the latest proposal for an Auckland Waterfront Stadium. Ever since the concept was seriously looked … Read more
Kate Aschoff began university with high hopes for her future. A year later she had dropped out, unable to cope with the stresses of university study while navigating her mental illness. I started studying at Victoria University of Wellington in March 2017. I was planning to complete a BA majoring in Sociology with a minor … Read more
The chair of Universities New Zealand appears to think that training programmes alone will solve the gender imbalance in the academic workforce. But we need to stop trying to fix the women and focus on fixing the system, write Sandra Grey, Cat Pausé and Sarah Proctor-Thomson, representing the Tertiary Education Union. One of the key … Read more
In the wake of this week’s news about Otago University’s art history programme, Francis McWhannell considers the current crisis in the arts in tertiary education and wonders whether we’re beyond salvation. “The building is crumbling round us – which is scary, coz I just got in the elevator.” This comment was made to me the … Read more
To grasp why the push to change has caused such a fuss, and to appreciate why it’s so muddle-minded, we need to consider how the university got its name, and what names mean to the university community, writes André Brett Universities are funny things. They have evolved from rarefied campuses of privileged elites into mass educators, … Read more
It may sound like a sweet gig, but halls of residence can be incubators of stress, anxiety and awful mental health problems. This article was first published in April 2018 in the Otago University student magazine Critic Te Arohi. My parents may not be legally obligated to look after my drunk ass after age 18, … Read more
Would a journal publish a pseudo-study about arse-wiping? Gary Lewis, senior lecturer in psychology at Royal Holloway decided to find out I had what seemed like rather a good idea a few weeks back. Building on some prominent findings in social psychology, I hypothesised that politicians on the right would wipe their bum with their left hand; and … Read more
Parking passes for the University of Canterbury campus are set to cost $475 next year. Student Kelly Phillips says it’s revenue gathering, pure and simple. When the woman gave me the total, I asked her to repeat herself. This was 2016, when an annual parking pass for students at the University of Canterbury cost $304. … Read more
What are our children missing out on when they’re excluded from graduation ceremonies? And what is it like for parents? Heidi North makes the case for inclusivity. I graduated from the University of Auckland in May with a Master in Creative Writing. I’m a study-junkie, so this is the third time I’ve got a qualification from … Read more
Grey Lynn arts lovers just don’t get it. The debate over plans to close libraries at the University of Auckland lays bare a battle for the middle classes, writes design historian Peter Gilderdale. If one were to look for a watershed moment in New Zealand cultural history, Auckland University’s decision to axe specialist libraries in Art, Architecture, … Read more
Spinoff Parents editor Emily Writes unloads her anxiety about her children who are nowhere near university age one day maybe going to university onto Spinoff staffers, genuine millennials, and recent students Alex Braae and Alice Webb-Liddall. Hi Alex and Alice! Thanks for agreeing to let me grill you. Basically I’ve been waking up at 2am … Read more