June 28, 2022
Sasha McMeeking
The director for Māori, Pacific and equity at the University of Canterbury says a new scholarship aims to change the story of who gets to university.
For the next two years the university, Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha, is offering 150 places a year to tauira from low decile schools in Te Waipounamu.
Sasha McMeeking says Te Kākau a Māui scholarships include not just fee support but wraparound care.
She says they will be awarded on the basis of factors like rangatahi commitment to creating positive change and being engaged in their community, rather than a single-minded focus on academic excellence at the secondary school level.
Under existing settings, 80 percent of scholarships go to students from decile 8 and above schools.
“What that does it means talented rangatahi coming out of lower decile schools seem to think they are less worthy of coming into university, so we’ve got a pattern where only the top 5 percent of achieves out of lower decile schools have a crack at getting into university,” Ms McMeeking says.
Students from high decile schools with low grades are far more likely to end up at university because they get the message throughout their lives that it is the place for them to be.