Leon Fourie new associate dean for Management School at University of Waikato

The new associate dean for the University of Waikato’s Management School has his sights set on growing student numbers at the institute’s Tauranga campus.

Dr Leon Fourie said finding ways to attract domestic and international students for graduate and postgraduate studies was a priority but there were some barriers to achieving those goals.

Tauranga had beautiful beaches and places to visit but the kinds of social activities students craved were not well-established yet, although the council was working hard to develop the CBD with a student hub or knowledge precinct, he said.

Dr. Leon Fourie has more than 30 years of leadership experience in tertiary education. Photo / Catherine Sylvester

Although these were challenges, what was of higher priority to the Woolf-Fisher scholar was the way the university positioned itself “in terms of what we offer.”

‘Flexi’ is a word Dr Fourie uses to describe potential solutions to student growth.

Whether learners were being sent by businesses, iwi or community groups, were still in employment, or were school-leavers, it was important that the university could offer them non-traditional ways to study, Fourie said.

“What we have at the university is a flexibility to meet specific and unique demands in a unique way because the world has been changing,” the former chief executive of Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology said.

“In understanding and connecting to those needs from our community we will be able to develop a solution.”

Ensuring the university’s postgraduate programmes, in particular, were accessible to a wider range of learners was of particular interest to Fourie, who believed that by considering the timing of classes offered and mode of delivery, whether online or blended learning, they could “be a place and a destination for a lot of people wanting to come and study here in Tauranga.

He said that by building on his relationships and engagement with community, business, iwi and hapū leaders, he aimed to connect with the people to highlight the opportunities the university could offer.

With a PhD from the University of Pretoria in South Africa and more than 30 years of leadership experience in tertiary education, the University of Waikato said Fourie offered a unique perspective on the key economic development priorities for the Bay of Plenty.”