25th birthday for Whitireia New Zealand

For immediate release; Tena koutou katoa!

Tuesday 15 March marks the official 25th birthday for Whitireia New Zealand.

It was 25 years ago this week that Parumoana Community College was officially opened by Governor General Sir Paul Reeves as a tertiary education institute. It was a significant launch of an initiative to change the social outcomes for the area. Photographs documenting the event show MPs, cultural and community leaders in a large Powhiri, on bare reclaimed ground, surrounded by building frames of classrooms being erected, trades people busy on the job.

The first year opened with 48 nursing students and 60 secretarial students studying on the Porirua Campus, on the edge of Parumoana harbour.

The vision was to provide academic qualifications and career pathways to students from the larger Porirua basin.

The first Principal was Turoa Royal. Deirdre Dale and Don Campbell followed as Chief Executives of Whitireia Community Polytechnic, which rebranded as Whitireia New Zealand in 2010. The polytechnic is well known for its culturally diverse student body and strong connections to cultural communities. The Whitireia Performing Arts group is in demand from international festivals year round. The diversity of the student body has grown since 2000 with an international focus. Whitireia is one of three New Zealand polytechnics who have a large role in this market.

The first permanent building (the administration building today) was built in 1989 - it took a year to build at a cost of $2.1m. While the polytechnic taught in prefabricated buildings since its opening in 1986, new buildings - such as the award winning library 'Te Kete Wananga' opened in 2005 - have been made possible through prudent financial management.

Today Whitireia has over 9000 students, over 400 full time staff, as well as new campuses, new buildings, new courses and a student success rate in the top quartile of New Zealand polytechnics. Whitireia offers nine degrees as well as postgraduate study. Nursing research and nursing degrees have become an area of national relevance. Industry qualifications include subjects from multi-media journalism, publishing, trades, tourism, hospitality, office administration, service industries, hairdressing and beauty, DJing, commercial music, management, computing, legal, creartive writing, photography, outdoor leadership, cookery, floristry, aviation, te reo, whakairo, weaving, waka ama, ESOL as well as degrees in nursing, paramedics, business, IT, arts and music, education, mental health, social work and Pacific and Maori nursing.

To mark our birthday, we are having cupcakes and a cuppa in the library cafe from 8.30am on Tuesday 15 March. Staff, students and interested members of the public are welcome - come and join us in this celebration and share any stories you have of your time at our polytechnic.

We have a number of other key events that are taking place this year as part of our 25 year anniversary celebrations. These events are as follows:

Launch of the Whitireia New Zealand Media Training Centre, Wellington - 12 May 2011
Launch of the Whitireia New Zealand Performance Centre, Wellington - 9 June 2011
25th Birthday staff event to be held at the Porirua Campus - 25 June 2011
Launch of the new Auckland Campus - July (exact date to be confirmed)
Launch of the new Kapiti Campus - August (exact date to be confirmed)

More details on these events will follow on our website and facebook page.

Thanks again for being part of our celebrations and to contributing to our success over the last 25 years.

Photographs are available.