This strategy maps out an agreed plan for learning and teaching at Massey University. Paerangi is also the mechanism through which we refresh and prioritise significant investment decisions, particularly with regard to ensuring that our teaching is contemporary and relevant and that we are optimising the flexibility of technological platforms. We know that student expectations of learning are changing. We also acknowledge that students expect and deserve superb learning experiences wherever and however they choose to study. We recognise, too, that blended learning increasingly plays a role in supporting personalised learning experiences and reducing the traditional barriers inherent in distance education.

At Massey University, we provide all students with an excellent and equivalent learning experience, irrespective of the location or study mode, where our teaching is digitally enabled and accessible to all students. Our teaching is research-led and we value the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) as a way to critically engage with teaching and learning practices. We believe that quality learning and teaching uses assessment information in a coherent way for continuous improvement at and through multiple and connected layers of the University.

‘Paerangi’ is the central concept of this strategy. The term refers to a person being at the height of their career, or in their prime, with a further meaning being to ‘raise up high’, or to reference a horizon. Used here in each of these contexts, ‘paerangi’ has authentic meaning for us as a community of students and staff; we work to support our students to realise their potential, to be who they aspire to be and reach their horizons. We share an ethos of continuous learning and support our students to choose learning pathways that enable them to be excited and to excel. Finally, we contribute to the communities we serve through teaching by building our students’ capacities to participate in and lead these communities, so that Massey graduates continue to ‘make a difference’.

PROFESSOR GISELLE BYRNES
Provost