Listen Now: 
Click here for the full interview.
Te Wānanga o Aotearoa opens its doors on Monday to 30,000 tauira for the first semester.
Student experience head Shanan Halbert says the country’s second-largest tertiary institution has enjoyed phenomenal growth since its origins as a koroki centre for Māori rangatahi in Te Awamutu 30 years ago.
Its Mangere campus alone is expecting to cater for 5000 students this year, including not just Māori but large numbers of Pasifika, new migrants and also a strong cohort of Pākehā women.
"There’s a lot of educators and people who work in the social sector who want to learn te reo me ōnā tikanga, that's become attractive to them, and they are committed to life long learning. There's a home for them here and they realise they are part of the whānau," he says.
!["p_facebook"]("/site/uma/images/story_img/facebook.jpg")
& !["p_twitter"]("/site/uma/images/story_img/twitter.jpg")
Copyright © 2020, UMA Broadcasting Ltd: www.waateanews.com
RELATED NEWS
