What do discoverers do during lockdown?

Lockdown hasn’t meant slowdown for our Environmental and Animal Sciences team Environmental and Animal Sciences Associate Professors Dan Blanchon and Peter de Lange are among our most prolific environmental scientists and discoverers. And lockdown certainly didn’t mean slowdown for these two. We asked them what they worked on during lockdown, what they missed most, and… Read more »

Your wellbeing: what have we learned and what’s next?

Making ‘sense’ of our COVID-19 experience: Sensemaking workshops What have you taken away from your experience in lockdown? Are there things you’ll keep doing, or plan to incorporate in your personal or professional life in future? Are you worried about the future for yourself and those around you? What would you like to see being… Read more »

Te Puna Kararehe welcomes two new taonga to the family

Te Puna Kararehe, our Animal Behaviour and Husbandry Centre is excited to announce the safe arrival of two of its newest whānau members, a baby bearded dragon and a young tortoise. The tiny critters will be nurtured and cared for by students across a range of Animal Health and Welfare programmes with the School of… Read more »

Performing and Screen Arts students master the principles behind the mask

  Delivering outstanding performances and mastering the persona of a character is nothing new to Pedro Ilgenfritz’s third year Bachelor of Performing and Screen Arts (Acting for Screen and Theatre) students in our School of Creative Industries. While being thrust into isolation during lockdown presented uncertainty, their innate ability to adapt led to the production… Read more »

‘Career switch’ leads graduate to our cybersecurity diploma

Commerce graduate Madeleine McCarthy has enrolled for Unitec’s New Zealand Diploma in Cybersecurity, beginning in July, after making the decision to switch her career path. Madeleine’s story was featured in the NZ Herald recently, as an example of how people are responding to the pressure the COVID-19 pandemic has placed on jobs and the economy.… Read more »

Samoa Language Week: An opportunity to build your cultural awareness

Join in – there’s phrases to learn and prizes to win! Talofa lava! This week we’re supporting Samoa Language Week, 25-29 May 2020, an opportunity to build our culutral understanding of another Pacific neighbour, and with Gagana Sāmoa, New Zealand’s third most spoken language! Get your language skills underway by heading to the Unitec Pacific… Read more »

Ako Tertiary Teaching Awards nominees – Part 1: Dr Kristie Cameron

Congratulations to Dr Kristie Cameron and Yo Heta-Lensen, who have been selected as our Unitec nominees for this year’s national Ako Tertiary Teaching Awards. Kristie and Yo were both winners at our Unitec Staff Excellence Awards 2019 and have reached an outstanding level of teaching. In the first of a two-part series we look into… Read more »

Plumbing lecturer enhances tech skills and supports local community thanks to lockdown

School of Trades and Services Plumbing lecturer, Craig Goodhue, found a positive way to manage the  challenges of lockdown and teaching from home by getting out into the community to do  ‘good’ as an essential worker. With the blessing of his manager, every second day for a few hours, Craig has been out and about … Read more »

A win-win friendship with Corrections

“It’s a progressive friendship… we feel like part of the family.” This is how Corrections Supervisor Matua Vic describes the five-year relationship between Unitec and the New Lynn branch of Ara Poutama Aotearoa – the Department of Corrections. Vic and his colleague, Ellen, bring a group of Corrections whānau to work on the Unitec marae… Read more »

Unitec lecturer contributes to ‘Stuff’ story on anxiety generated by the return to pre-COVID life

Experiencing a level of anxiety at the prospect of returning to pre-Coronavirus is OK, despite other people welcoming the return to level 2 after nearly seven weeks of lockdown. In this Stuff.co.nz article, Nigel Pizzini, School of Healthcare and Social Practice lecturer, provides some expert input on making that change to level 2 and why… Read more »