{"id":43898,"date":"2025-09-26T05:47:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T05:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/43898\/"},"modified":"2025-09-26T05:47:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T05:47:08","slug":"auckland-university-vice-chancellor-dawn-freshwater-recommends-controversial-waipapa-taumata-rau-course-be-made-optional","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/43898\/","title":{"rendered":"Auckland University Vice-Chancellor Dawn Freshwater recommends controversial Waipapa Taumata Rau course be made optional"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhile students have found the courses valuable, they have also indicated where improvements could be made and told us they would like greater flexibility in how WTR fits within their programme of study,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

\"AucklandAuckland University’s Waipapa Taumata Rau course was made compulsory this year. But after only one semester, it is now likely to become optional. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs we do with all courses, we aim to use staff and student feedback to strengthen how they are delivered. <\/p>\n

\u201cTo that end, and in response to that feedback, a proposal will be discussed at Senate on 15 September recommending that WTR become an optional choice within General Education for most programmes, rather than a core requirement.<\/p>\n

\u201cSenate\u2019s advice will be reported to Council in October.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the September 15 meeting, the senate voted to recommend that the WTR courses be made optional. The university\u2019s governing body, the University Council, is expected to act on this advice next month.<\/p>\n

The Waipapa Taumata Rau courses are designed to provide foundational skills and knowledge, including an understanding of the Treaty of Waitangi and other elements of te ao M\u0101ori (the M\u0101ori world).<\/p>\n

Not all students were sold on its educational value, or the cost.<\/p>\n

Comments online included: \u201cFrom what I\u2019m seeing, you either pay for this course or some other. You can debate whether another elective or transdisciplinary would be more useful than WTR.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another said: \u201cThis class is literally primary school-level content. I love the idea of a compulsory class on Te Tiriti, but obviously they failed at it. This class has been the biggest waste of my time, I learnt more in my Year 4 class.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some students said the course costs – between $900 and $1200 – were high and the courses had little relevance to their studies when compared to other general education courses.<\/p>\n

\"ActAct leader David Seymour called the WTR courses \u201ca perversion of academic freedom\u201d.<\/p>\n

The majority of comments were negative but not racist.<\/p>\n

Act\u2019s tertiary education spokeswoman, Dr Parmjeet Parmar<\/a>, said in March that international students were being forced to pay thousands of dollars for a course with little relevance to their future careers.<\/p>\n

Joseph Los\u2019e joined NZME in 2022 as Kaupapa M\u0101ori Editor. He was a chief reporter and news director at the Sunday News, covering crime, justice and sport. He was also editor of the NZ Truth and, before joining NZME, worked for 12 years for Te Wh\u0101nau o Waipareira.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWhile students have found the courses valuable, they have also indicated where improvements could be made and told…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[74,51,3952,5195,9341,10039,18478,21537,3054,8984,18957,8243,71,42,1362,2720,3403,43,21307,18481,38960,38957,13120,1516,3767,38959,40,38,41,39,38961,1528,122,38956,38958,27704],"class_list":["post-43898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-after","tag-auckland","tag-aucklands","tag-be","tag-compulsory","tag-controversial","tag-course","tag-courses","tag-criticism","tag-dawn","tag-feedback","tag-freshwater","tag-from","tag-headlines","tag-made","tag-mori","tag-negative","tag-news","tag-optional","tag-politicians","tag-rau","tag-recommends","tag-remain","tag-staff","tag-students","tag-taumata","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-treaty","tag-university","tag-unlikely","tag-vicechancellor","tag-waipapa","tag-waitangi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}