New First Early Childhood Degree coming to Whanganui in 2024

UCOL Academic Portfolio Manager and Early Childhood Education Teaching Diana Entwistle. Photo / Supplied

Whanganui will soon be one of the homes of UCOL's first early childhood degree.

The Whanganui UCOL campus will begin accepting Year 1 and 2 intakes in 2024 following the establishment of Manawatū and Wairarapa campuses in 2023.

A Bachelor of Early Childhood Education is now being offered from UCOL Manawatū campus for Semester Two for our past NZ Diploma graduates.

The Bachelor of Teaching (Early Childhood Education) Level 7 degree was recently awarded accreditation by both NZQA and the Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand.

UCOL academic portfolio manager Diana Entwistle said work on creating the degree course has been ongoing since 2019.

"The early childhood education sector has been struggling with significant teacher shortages for several years and our graduates have been asking for the next level of study," Entwistle said.

"The support we have had from early childhood services and staff across our rohe has been a key factor in gaining accreditation for this programme."

Entwistle said the new degree is a field-based programme where students would spend two days of the week on campus and two days on placement, and would learn about child development theories, cultural competencies, research and professional standards.

UCOL's executive dean of Humanities and Business, Dean Rankin, said the organisation had collaborated with Eastern Institute of Technology (EIT) in developing this programme, and would continue working closely with them around its implementation, including resource development and research.

"Achieving accreditation was a culmination of many years of work for UCOL, and the degree programme is a key addition to our growing early childhood education portfolio."