Lofty goals

Excellence is inherent in the pursuits of the staff and students at the University of Auckland, but in our changing times, what does excellence actually look like?

It’s a question we ask ourselves as we live through a time of extreme change in our social, economic and environmental systems. These are changes that the tertiary education environment is not immune to.

It is, therefore, not surprising that expectations of what a university education should be and do are changing, and students, employers, professions, communities and academics require those expectations to be met. Digitisation of information has not only fundamentally altered its distribution, but also the depth of how it is analysed, understood and responded to. In addition, the long tail of Covid-19 continues to impact many of our students’ preparedness for study.

However, by building on both the University’s ambitions and our outstanding history of excellence and commitment to the development, dissemination and impact of knowledge, we can play a vital role in addressing the unprecedented challenges of our times.

This requires us to keep pace with the global rate of change, and the increasingly diverse needs of our communities here in Aotearoa. As a world-class, globally recognised research institution, we have an opportunity to respond to these conditions and what they mean for our students, researchers, academics and communities at large – whether in Auckland, the wider Pacific region, or globally.

It has been exciting to see how the University has adapted what it delivers in its teaching, as well as how it teaches, to help meet these challenges head on. Mainstream access to generative AI is creating exciting opportunities for workplaces, but is not without its challenges in the teaching environment. Despite this, we are seeing some excellent examples of how teaching staff are incorporating these tools into authentic assessment tasks.

There is already strong evidence of the excellence and quality of our teaching and research. The University ranked 65th in the world in the most recent QS World University Rankings – our highest-ever ranking and confirming our position as New Zealand’s highest-ranked university.

In addition, the University of Auckland ranked within the top 50 of the 2024 QS World University Subject Rankings for ten subjects. These achievements speak to the leadership, vision and dedication of our excellent staff.

The University’s position globally is also strengthened as a member of three leading international networks of research-led universities, providing a strong platform for collaborative, world-leading research.

In addition, our graduates tell us they feel well placed to succeed. In our most recent Graduate Destination Survey (2023), most respondents considered their programme of study had contributed to their personal development and was helping them make a positive contribution to society.

Overall, an impressive 96 percent of graduates were in part or full-time work or postgraduate study. Among those with a postgraduate degree, the proportion was higher again, at 98 percent – evidence of the ‘value-add’ of a University of Auckland education.

The University’s aspirations for the education and experience it provides its students are myriad: to provide accessible, equitable, lifelong higher-education opportunities and student-centric learning; and support co-curricular and extra-curricular cultures. It also aspires to offer education that is research-informed, transdisciplinary, relevant and with impact for the world; and produce graduates who make the world better tomorrow than it is today.

These are lofty goals, but ones that we are committed to delivering on in our drive to provide an excellent education experience for the students we have the privilege to teach.