Sarah Young: Auckland University's Deputy Vice Chancellor of Education says enrolment numbers are surging

A surge in enrolments has Auckland University's campus buzzing.

Total semester one enrolments have topped 47,000, up 8% from the same time last year.

Undergraduate numbers are driving much of the growth rising 10%, which is nearly three thousand more students.

Deputy Vice Chancellor of Education Sarah Young told Mike Hosking that several factors are driving the increase.

She says more students go to university when unemployment is high, while they've put a lot of work into attracting international students.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
New data shows university is the place to be. New
year underway as of last week, of course, in the
University of Auckland has got forty seven thirty three students.
That's up eight point three percent on last year. Undergrads
are up eleven and a half percent. Internationals are up
ten percent. Sarah Young's Deputy Vice Chancellor Education at the
University of Auckland and is with us. Sarah, good morning
to you, Hi.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
How are you very well?

Speaker 1 (00:19):
Indeed you got the room and you got the people
we have.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Indeed, the campus is absolutely pumping at the moment. It's
great to see.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
Good. Did you see this coming or is this a
reflection of the economy to some degree?

Speaker 2 (00:32):
I think there's a number of different factors. I mean,
we certainly were planning for growth on the domestic front.
We know we've had a large school ever population that
hasn't peaked to New Zealand yet and so we've got
obviously enrollments from that. We know that when in New Zealand,
when unemployment is higher, we get more students accessing university
to increase their skill skills and obviously for international students

(00:54):
we put a lot of work into offshore partners and
new transnational agreements to attract students. So we compare very
well with other countries, and the government's immigration settings are
really helping too.

Speaker 1 (01:05):
I was going to ask about that. Is that a
smoother run in for the internationals? Now?

Speaker 2 (01:09):
It is so the country's student These are settings have
made New Zealand very attractive. University students can now work
twenty five hours per week, so up from twenty. The
supplies to exchange students too, and masters and PhD students
can stay here and work for up to three years,
which means that they can contribute their knowledge and expertise
to New Zealand companies.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
Good good for your bottom line as well. Is there
more where that came from? Do you think?

Speaker 2 (01:35):
Yes? Absolutely? But of course we're planning around what our size,
shape and composition should be and thinking about some of
the settings that we put in place, and so there's
a number of different factors at play there.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
And do these kids, the locals who want to go
because the market's tighten up? Skill? I mean, is everyone
doing a bee common they don't really know what they
want to do or most of them got an actual plan?

Speaker 2 (01:59):
I think range of you know, we've got we're the
size of a small city, so we've got you know,
as you said, forty seven thousand different students. They all
have different views. Some will know exactly what they want
to do and others will be still exploring what they
think they might want to do in the future. I mean,
the key thing is is that they leave the University
of Auckland with good transferable skills that make them employable,

(02:21):
and over ninety percent of our students gain employment.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
Encouraging to hear Sarah appreciate us. Sarah Young, Deputy Vice
Chancellor of the Education at the University of Auckland. For
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