University campus for Manukau on the cards

By GREGG WYCHERLEY

Manukau City - the largest centre in New Zealand without a university - has asked Waikato University to consider establishing a campus.

The university, which has centres in Auckland City and Tauranga, is also looking at establishing a campus in Taupo.

The Manukau plan will be formally presented to councillors next Friday.

They are expected to approve the proposal next month.

Manukau City spokesman James Rowe said that with a young and fast-growing population of about 300,000, the establishment of a university was a logical move.

"We're talking about a very large area without a university so it's a natural step.

"The idea is to have the facility as close as possible to the people to make it easier and more convenient and offer a wider range of educational opportunities."

Mr Rowe said plans from two other tertiary institutes had also been considered but Waikato University had put forward the strongest proposal.

An area next to the council buildings at the Manukau City Centre had been set aside, and it was hoped the first students would sit down to lectures in February 2006, he said.

Waikato vice-chancellor Bryan Gould said the new campus would fit in well with the university's expansion plans.

"It raises our profile, it gives us a very significant further base and growth point, and it gives us a foothold in a part of Auckland where there is a great deal of population growth."

The identity, values and goals of the university were closely aligned with those of Manukau City, said Professor Gould.

"They wanted to be satisfied that we could interact well with the local business community; that we could serve the interests of Maori, Pacific and Asian students; that we shared their values about equity of access.

"We found that the two institutions really had a very similar approach on virtually all of these issues.'

Although it was too early to say what courses would be offered or how many students would enrol initially, Professor Gould was confident the campus would grow quickly.

"You could certainly expect a pretty rapid rate of growth in Manukau, I would have thought."

The Manukau campus would not occur at the expense of projects in Hamilton or Tauranga.

The university runs the University of Waikato at Tauranga as a joint initiative with the Bay of Plenty Polytechnic and is talking to the Lake Taupo Development Company about a campus in Taupo.

Professor Gould said a new campus in Manukau would be known as the University of Waikato at Manukau.

The university would work closely with Tainui and other iwi to ensure that the needs of Maori students in the region were met.