Responding to the need for top-level business expertise and leadership within the burgeoning Māori economy - now worth over $42 billion and growing faster than the wider New Zealand economy - the Business Schools at the University of Auckland, Auckland University of Technology, Massey University, the University of Otago, Victoria University of Wellington and the University of Waikato are joining forces to offer a new, part-time online Master of Māori and Indigenous Business in 2018.
The programme arose out of a 2012 Māori Economic Development Task Force report that identified business education as the main driver for Māori economic growth.
Professor Greg Whittred, Deputy Chair of the Māori Economic Development Task Force and former Dean of the University of Auckland Business School, worked with his fellow deans and Māori thought-leaders to conceive an advanced business qualification for leaders and managers in the Māori and Indigenous economies. The six universities consulted widely with businesses and iwi in designing the programme.
This is the first time so many universities have collaborated on a degree programme. This collaboration signals a significant step change that will deliver benefits that have not before been realised.