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Auckland, October 30, 2017
Responding to the need for top-level business expertise and leadership within the burgeoning Maori economy – now worth over $42 billion and growing faster than the wider New Zealand economy – the Business Schools at the University of Auckland, Auckland University of Technology, Massey University, the University of Otago, Victoria University of Wellington and the University of Waikato are joining forces to offer a new, part-time online Master of Maori and Indigenous Business in 2018.
Responding to the need for top-level business expertise and leadership within the burgeoning Maori economy – now worth over $42 billion and growing faster than the wider New Zealand economy – the Business Schools at the University of Auckland, Auckland University of Technology, Massey University, the University of Otago, Victoria University of Wellington and the University of Waikato are joining forces to offer a new, part-time online Master of Maori and Indigenous Business in 2018.
Task Force recommendation
The programme arose out of a 2012 Maori Economic Development Task Force report that identified business education as the main driver for Maori economic growth.
Professor Greg Whittred, Deputy Chair of the Maori Economic Development Task Force and former Dean of the University of Auckland Business School, worked with his fellow deans and Maori thought-leaders to conceive an advanced business qualification for leaders and managers in the Maori and Indigenous economies. The six universities consulted widely with businesses and iwi in designing the programme.
Significant change
This is the first time that so many universities have collaborated on a degree programme. This collaboration signals a significant step change that will deliver benefits that have not before been realised.
Professor Pare Keiha from Auckland University of Technology, a founding member of the collaboration, says evidence of dramatic change is all around.
All these shifts and disruptions mean that we live in a time of great promise and great peril. We will need to draw on the work of our predecessors to retain our identity and footprint, while cultivating new ways of thinking, he said.
This programme will provide a platform for Maori and those who have an interest in accelerating the social, political and economic wealth of New Zealand. Tikanga Maori will underpin and drive teaching and learning, fostering an ability to do the things we dream of and to retell our way to self-determined success, he added.
Optimal flexibility
Associate Professor Manuka Henare of the University of Auckland said: Maori have always been early adopters. The online environment blended with a two-day wananga at the start of the programme will allow optimal flexibility for students who may be running a business or managing whnau, hap or iwi organisations.
The environment will give access to high value mtauranga (knowledge, wisdom, understanding) delivered by some of the best Maori and Indigenous academics in Aotearoa. This is unprecedented in the tertiary sector; we need to seize the moment.
Whaia e koe te iti kahurangi; ki te tuohu koe, me he maunga teitei.
Seek the treasure you value most dearly: if you bow down, let it be to a lofty mountain.
The programme starts in April 2018 and is now open for applications.
For more information, please visit www.maibus.ac.nz
Powhiritia te ako ki a koutou Let the learning come to you!
About Master of Maori and Indigenous Business
This programme is for anyone interested or involved in Maori and Indigenous business who is keen to turn their management experience into a postgraduate qualification. Students must have either a bachelors degree and three years management experience, or five years management experience if they do not have a degree.
A two-day wnanga (workshop) at the beginning of the academic year provides the opportunity for all students to meet and prepare for the programme. All subsequent classes will be delivered online, giving students the flexibility to study at a time and place that suits them. Students choose which university they enroll with, but the courses will be identical with the same lecturers, activities and assignments.
This programme takes two to five years to complete depending on each students prior management and study experience. Some scholarships are available.
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