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In this article, we sought a relation between orientation to higher education and curricular experiences, and elucidated the nature of transformative curricular experiences. Twenty-four graduates from humanities and science degrees in the year 2000 were interviewed approximately five years later to obtain their retrospective views on the purpose of higher education, as well as their undergraduate experiences of teaching and learning. Drawing on phenomenographic principles, four orientations to higher education were generated. Four participant cases are analyzed, representing each orientation to higher education. In the "gaining a qualification" orientation, graduates valued being told what to learn, as well as learning practical skills. For the "preparation for a job" orientation, graduates wanted lecturers who were good at conveying information, but they also valued project work, having some autonomy over learning and practical applications. In the "developing skills and learning how to think" orientation, graduates valued being challenged and learning in groups, but also wanted to learn professional skills. In the "growing as an individual" orientation, graduates valued being challenged, gaining different perspectives, developing critical thinking, learning about theory, interacting with lecturers, research, and study for its own sake. Some curricular experiences transformed thinking about the purpose of higher education, including learning through discussion in small groups, authentic learning tasks including inquiry-based assignments, exercises in developing critical thinking, opportunities to interact with teachers, opportunities to develop practical skills, experiencing different cultures and personal growth through lifestyle and social experiences. Our research has implications for advising students, as well as for teachers aiming to encourage a deep approach to learning.

Globally, universities show an outward strength partly built upon imported and exported commonalities that are measurable and therefore accountable, rankable and marketable. While there are advantages to this, it can create a barrier within each institution to acknowledging and valuing indigeneity, local flavour or special character. Such a barrier is present in Aotearoa, New Zealand, where it can be challenging to uphold obligations to the founding Treaty--Te Tiriti o Waitangi. This paper presents a case study that highlights our experience as academic developers in embedding a Maori value, manaaki, in the creation of a professional development programme and imported recognition scheme for university teachers. We were challenged to view the external visitors (the United Kingdom Professional Standards Framework (including the UKPSF)) as an opportunity for our land, to welcome them into our community using the protocols of the powhiri and to walk side by side with our colleagues, while aspiring to meet their needs. Embedding manaaki into a professional development programme has not been simply about being "kind". Manaaki is inseparable from a worldview that values and measures in a way that is fundamentally different to that of many modern European cultures. Within our University setting, manaaki as a measurement has sustained, nourished and uplifted both host (our team, our people, our University and our land) and visitor (the UKPSF and our participating colleagues) and it is continuing to challenge the existing view of measurement, cutting right through layers of institutional policy and practice. We are challenging the comfortable sameness, and the comfortably measurable sameness, in the global university. This case study aims to share the story behind the development of our programme, and will be of interest to those considering valuing indigeneity, local flavour or special character in a modern, measured university.

This article uses findings from a project on engagement with graduate outcomes across higher education institutions in New Zealand to produce a toolkit for implementing graduate attributes in geography curricula. Key facets include strong leadership; academic developers to facilitate conversations about graduate attributes and teaching towards them; ownership of the process by the teachers; the development of a contextualized set of graduate attributes for the geography degree; curriculum mapping to promote alignment between graduate attributes, learning outcomes and assessment tasks; incorporating high-impact educational experiences and signature pedagogies to foster graduate attributes; the use of evaluative data to inform continual enhancements; and allowing at least five years for curriculum renewal to occur.

This case study explores student perceptions and experiences of advising at a New Zealand university. It considers the implications arising from the students' responses and also investigates the influence of students' demographic characteristics on perceptions of advice. Both first- (n = 191) and final- (n = 171) year cohorts of students were surveyed to determine why they chose particular courses, what advice they received and how aware they were of various support services. Although students were happy overall with the advice received, many had little or no expectations of the type of advice they should be receiving. The main sources of advice were the University enrolment pack, family and University School's Liaison Officers. Academic advisers were less well used as a source of advice, even during later years of study. Advisers need to be educated about particular advising issues related to first-generation students, part-time students and international students. Many students had a career path in mind so it is important to provide holistic developmental academic advice that includes future career options. (Contains 3 tables, 3 figures and 1 note.)

How much do teachers in tertiary education know about the sustainability characteristics of their incoming students and, if this knowledge were to be available, how could their educational approaches be influenced by this knowledge? In New Zealand, Otago Polytechnic has committed itself to the goal that every graduate may think and act as a sustainable practitioner, and staff are changing their approach to teaching to achieve this. This research sought to benchmark the environmental worldview attributes of an incoming cohort of Otago Polytechnic students to support academic staff who need to know more about the sustainability interests and characteristics of their students, so that they may provide appropriate educational programmes. The research was also designed as the first stage of longer-term research to evaluate the impact of these institutional changes on how students transform during the period of their tertiary education experience. The data and analysis presented here suggest that even before students start to study in the institution different groups have substantially different sustainability values-sets. The authors anticipate that the research instruments and approaches used in the present study will contribute to a substantial national exploration of the sustainability value-sets of tertiary students. (Contains 6 tables.)

Geographical awareness and the imaginative impulse are sibling domains of human experience. We imagine the places we have yet to visit and allow ourselves to envisage differently those already familiar to us. This set of four essays extends presentations made at a Stout Research Centre ( Victoria University of Wellington) seminar in 2015, at which two geographers and two artists reflected on the connections between geography and imagination. Collectively they take forward a broader conversation between geography and the humanities, contributing to the emergent field of 'geohumanities'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How and if public hospital leaders in a national health system use an annual Serious and Sentinel Events (SSE) report, an aim of which is to stimulate improvements in health care quality and patient safety, is an important question that is underresearched. This exploratory qualitative study in New Zealand using semi-structured interviews was undertaken in response. Interviewees included 29 representatives in patient safety leadership roles from 20 hospital districts, each of whom were recommended by their Chief Executives. Four themes describing factors contributing to the use of the SSE report were identified: response to the report itself; perceived use of and value of the report as a quality improvement tool; collaboration amongst hospitals around the findings; and, the priority given to improving quality within respondents' healthcare organisations. This article provides examples of these themes and how they relate to the use of the SSE report as a quality improvement tool. The article concludes that an annual SSE report has the potential to be a very useful tool for health care leaders in addressing SSEs. However, it also suggests that the report is underutilised and consequently some of this potential is lost. This may be explained by hospital capacity to absorb information from, and respond to, the SSE report. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research has highlighted the various benefits of postgraduate peer support, including timely degree completion. This article describes and considers an initiative that sought to manufacture postgraduate peer-support groups and communities at a New Zealand university. It intends to further understanding of this area and, in particular, to discuss positive characteristics of postgraduate peer groups and the role of the institution in supporting them. Drawing on interviews with 12 postgraduate peer leaders, key findings include: the possibility of manufacturing peer-support groups, with a legitimising function coming from overt institutional support; that peer groups can be made up of students from across a wide range of postgraduate courses and disciplines; that, given an open mandate from the institution, peer leaders can contribute to the challenge of creating a positive research community; and that a collaborative institution-wide approach to postgraduate support provision is achievable. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A survey was developed to benchmark the affective sustainability characteristics of an incoming cohort of students in a Polytechnic in New Zealand, with the intention to monitor changes in these attributes as the students experience higher education over subsequent years. The survey contained a number of research instruments as we were interested in exploring how best to record these attributes. This article reports on the comparative efficacy of four of these instruments in describing the affective characteristics of the students. All the instruments depended on respondents' self-reporting in the absence of researchers or interviewers. The results do encourage us to have some confidence that students' sustainability characteristics may be researched using a variety of survey-based research instruments, and particular confidence in ongoing use of the Revised New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conceptualizes the desired skills and qualities of tourism employees and servers and provides insight into the student experience of tourism education and training related to the nurturing of such desired qualities. Discussion on the 'Spirit of Service'; Qualities and skills that make up the 'Spirit of Service'; Analysis of tourism education in New Zealand.