School of Exercise, Sport and Rehabilitation Sciences is unveiled

Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland has unveiled a School of Exercise, Sport and Rehabilitation Sciences, marking a new chapter for a discipline that has grown steadily over three decades.

The school was formerly the Department of Exercise Sciences.

A function for staff, students, alumni and the school’s partners and supporters was held last week at the Newmarket campus, acknowledging those who shaped the school’s history.

“Our new name and status reflect who we are, our growth, and the breadth of our scholarship, from elite athletic performance to exercise as medicine,” said Professor Nick Gant, the acting head of school.

The school’s Māori name is Te Kura Whakatāiri Oranga Tinana.

Since 2019, student enrolments have doubled and additional courses have included a Master of Clinical Exercise Physiology and New Zealand’s first graduate-entry Master of Physiotherapy Practice.

The University’s state of the art $340m Hiwa Recreation Centre, opened in 2024, has added to capabilities for research into athletic performance.

“We have strengthened our collaboration with elite sporting groups such as High Performance Sport New Zealand,” said Professor Michael Kingsley, the acting dean of the Faculty of Science. “We aim to improve high-performance sport in Aotearoa New Zealand.”

In 2025, the University’s sports-related subjects were rated 24th in the world by the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings.

Sports science began at the University in 1994, with the Department of Sport and Exercise Science, led by Associate Professor Bob Marshall, established in 1997. Since 2018, the school has been based in Newmarket.

Kingsley, the most recent head of school, paid tribute to the department’s leaders down the decades.