Exciting start to 2015 for the University of Canterbury

Exciting start to 2015 for the University of Canterbury

February 19, 2015

The University of Canterbury has received one of the highest rankings for internationalism in Australasia from the United Kingdom rankings organisation Times Higher Education.

Canterbury is the most international of New Zealand’s eight universities, the third most international universi-ty in Australasia and the 22nd most international university in the world. The rankings are based on the num-ber of international students, staff and on the volume of collaborative international research.

Vice Chancellor Dr Rod Carr says rankings are important to the university because they reassure students of the quality of teaching and research.

“We’re also currently ranked among the top three percent of universities in the world overall by QS rankings and we’re ranked 19th in civil and structural engineering.”

Dr Carr says the recent international rankings announcement has got the University year off to a great start after it agreed to an earthquake insurance settlement offer of $550 million to remediate buildings on campus late last year.

“The settlement created certainty for the University. Insurers don’t hand out money freely so they gave us only as much as they were willing to in order to meet their obligations. From the university’s point of view we were able to resolve our insurance claim, get a known amount of money and take control of our own desti-ny.

“That money is going toward remediating buildings and the big project already under way this year is engi-neering. Over the next two years we are going to remediate and repurpose all of the 43,000 square metres of space which is the College of Engineering.

“It will be a bit disruptive to some students and staff as we move through the buildings but at the end of that works programme we will have completely upgraded and made fit for purpose all our engineering laborato-ries and staff and student spaces. We’re building a student hub in the core of engineering and in addition we’re building a brand new structural engineering laboratory and laboratories for chemical and process engi-neering.

“We’ve also got a cleared site ready to start work on the new 26,000 square metres building for laboratories for physics, chemistry, geology, geography and biology for undergraduate work. They will be brand new state of the art facilities, the best in Australasia, to support research and teaching in physical sciences as well as geography and other related disciplines.

“They are two big projects. The third project is the repurposing of the building formerly used to house the Commerce School. That building is going to be the new home for our College of Education and School of Health Sciences.”

“This is an exciting and vibrant chapter in the University’s 142 year history. When completed the campus will be one of the most modern and fit for purpose learning environments across campus in the Southern Hemi-sphere with outstanding science and engineering facilities.”

Since the earthquakes the University has graduated about 12,000 students and the university is currently enrolling new students for 2015. The final number of students will not be known until the middle of March. About 14,500 students studied at Canterbury last year.

“It looks like we have had a significant lift in new international students while our out of town students are in line with our plans. Christchurch enrolments may be a little weaker and that could be because of the change in the composition of Christchurch school leavers. But it is still a little early to know. We think we are likely to see a slight lift in domestic students and a large lift in international students.

“We’re also encouraging students with an overseas study award grant. Every new full time student starting here at Canterbury this year will get a free flight overseas in their second or subsequent year of study for a semester at any of our partner universities so long as they are of good academic standing.

“We are also engaging more with the community than ever before as it’s good for the university and good for our students. We are creating more internships.

“We have also announced a partnership with the Crusaders rugby team, we’re supporting Canterbury school rugby and we are partners with the Tactix netball team. We want to attach ourselves with successful sporting endeavours in Canterbury which is known for its sport.

“We’re also supporting the Kapa Haka Festival and we’ll also be providing other partnerships later on in the arts and music as well.”

View a video YouTube clip of Dr Carr previewing the 2015 academic year:http://youtu.be/3iRJuBuDzH4.

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