Tā Te Kaiwhakatere

Chief Executive's report

E huri tō titiro ki ngā puke o Tautoru, ka huri ki reira ki te kāmaka o te rangi e tauwhirotia nei a Kīngi Tūheitia Pōtatau Te Wherowhero Te Tuawhitu e noho ana i te ahurewa tapu o ōna mātua, o ōna tūpuna, o tōna whaea – ko Te Arikinui Te Atairangikāhu. Ko ia ki te rangi, ko Tūheitia ki te whenua ka hīria, ka hīria, ka hīria te ingoa.

He poroporoaki tēnei mō koutou kia whakatakina atu ō koutou mātua i te mate. Te hunga nā rātou i whakatō iho ngā rākau nei a Puna Te Aroha a Māturu Roimata, me Te Rangimarie, ki runga ki ngā iwi mahuetanga iho. He ōhākī ka hora ki runga ki ngā iwi i mau ai te rongotaketake, haere ngā mate.

E ngā kai pupuri o ngā iho taketake o tā tātou kaupapa o tā tātou wānanga tēnā rā koutou katoa. He tau tēnei kua wero nei i te ngākau o tēnā, o tēnā ō tātou, kua whakamātauria hoki tō tātou wānanga e Ngā Taero a Kupe. He koanga ngākau ki te kite i tō ngākau whakaū me te ngākau whakapuke e manaaki tonu rā i ngā tauira puta noa. Hei te roanga ake o ngā kōrero i te pūrongo nei aua kaupapa e whakamāhuki heoi anō ka whakatepe ake taku mihi ki a koutou ki te kōrero nei: Whāia te kotahitanga, whakapono, ngā ture – engari ko te mea nui ko te aroha.

Following my first full year as chief executive of Te Wānanga o Aotearoa, I am extremely proud to present our annual report, Te Pūrongo 2022.

As an organisation we have made significant progress on several fronts while overcoming the many challenges presented by the COVID-19 global pandemic.

Most pleasing was the outcome of our much-delayed External Evaluation Review (EER), which saw evaluators expressing high levels of confidence in our organisation and supporting a move to a Category Two tertiary education organisation.

This result has and will continue to have positive flow-on effects for Te Wānanga o Aotearoa, enabling us to better provide educational opportunities rich in mātauranga Māori to our communities throughout Aotearoa while also enabling us to continue planning towards growing our presence in the vocational space.

Among the most significant challenges we have faced over the last year has been the impact of our Outbreak Infection and Transmission Reduction Tikanga Whakahaere (policy), which was introduced late in 2021 and required all kaimahi, tauira and manuhiri to our sites to be vaccinated against COVID-19. This policy – in line with Government public health measures - placed significant pressures on both our kaimahi and our tauira, particularly during our Semester A 2022 enrolment period.

The impact of this policy ultimately contributed to the significant shortfall in enrolments for 2022, with only 80.1% of funded EFTs achieved.

Despite these additional barriers, tauira still indicated their desire to learn while not being able to enter our campuses, so we made a decision to develop an online offering of our popular Level 1 He Papa Reo programme, enabling us to enrol a significant number of wait-listed tauira to the programme. This enabled us to somewhat offset the shortfall in enrolments.

This reflects our ability to act quickly and decisively, something we have become accustomed to over the last two years where the pandemic has seen us regularly reacting to rapidly changing situations, often at extremely short notice.

The pandemic also influenced our graduate numbers, and while we saw an increase in graduates from our Level 1-3 programmes, graduate numbers are still well below pre-pandemic levels, leading to further impacts on other education performance indicators.

We will continue to innovate and develop our educational experience over the next plan period, including further development of our programme offering along with refinement of our delivery model to better fit with the needs of our tauira.

Despite these significant challenges faced during 2022, it is pleasing to report improved outcomes for our tauira in areas such as cultural identity and career prospects.

Our continued focus on providing educational opportunities accessible to all saw us again provide in excess of $10million in fees income forgone through our offering of fees-free programmes across our subject areas, but predominantly in the area of te reo Māori and tikanga Māori. This represents a significant investment in the revitalisation of te reo me ōna tikanga throughout Aotearoa.

Te Wānanga o Aotearoa also contributes to bringing life to te ao Māori though cultural initiatives such as Mahuru Māori, which sees participants speak as much te reo as possible during the month of Mahuru (September).

In 2022, while our Mahuru Māori campaign had a predominantly internal promotional focus, more than 15,000 people from across the motu registered to take part, an increase of more than 1500 from the previous year, indicating the continued growth of interest in learning and using te reo Māori.

The popular bi-lingual podcast Taringa – which received more funding from Te Māngai Pāho and NZ On Air than 2021 – also continues to grow its audience, with nearly 850,000 downloads in 2022, adding to the 2.6 million overall since its launch in 2017.

Our Centre of Research Excellence, Te Manawahoukura, continues to grow its capability during 2022 and delivered a series of workshops where leading Māori researchers and scholars shared their knowledge with our kaiako and kaimahi. These workshops highlighted the importance of incorporating Kaupapa Māori research into our mahi and will develop further in the coming years, with the appointment of the inaugural director of Te Manawahoukura expected in early 2023, following earlier senior appointments late in 2022.

An increased emphasis on processing our enrolments and a refreshed approach to our marketing campaigns has already shown significant benefits, with more than half our 2023 equivalent full time students (EFTs) target achieved before the end of 2022, our best ever result.

During the latter part of the year, our senior leadership team have been visiting campuses and sites across the motu and we have been consistently impressed by the dedication of our kaimahi to Te Wānanga o Aotearoa, under what can only be described as trying circumstances.

While the global pandemic continues to compel us to consider new and different ways of doing things, we remain true to the kaupapa of the organisation and focussed on providing high quality educational experiences, rich in mātauranga Māori for all New Zealanders.

Our contribution to the revitalisation of te reo Māori over a significant period of time saw Te Wānanga o Aotearoa – along with Te Wānanga o Raukawa and Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi - recognised at the Ngā Kaka Kura o te Reo Awards in 2022 and encourages us to remain focussed on our core purpose.

I also recognise the support from Te Mana Whakahaere chair Vanessa Eparaima and her fellow board members during what continues to be a challenging period of our history.

Most significantly, I cannot emphasise enough that it is our kaimahi that enable Te Wānanga o Aotearoa to continue its role as a leading provider of te reo me ōna tikanga education in Aotearoa and I recognise them all.

Nepia Winiata Kaiwhakatere | Chief Executive Officer