First-year university students have grown up in a world in which the ozone hole has always been a worry and smoking has never been allowed on domestic flights.
The Massey University 2007 "mindset" list - a snapshot of the world in the year most of the students wereborn - shows 18 and 19-year-olds have always been able to send a letter from Auckland to Dunedin overnight using Fast Post.
For them, Bastion Pt has always belonged to Ngati Whatua, lighthouse keepers have been unemployed and cars imported from Japan have been cheap and plentiful.
Mindset List team leader Dennis Viehland said the list, the third of its type, helped academics understand the historical, social, economic and cultural mindset of their students.
The information systems associate professor said: "The principal purpose is to raise the awareness of fellow academics that students have grown up in a world different from our own."
The list reflected the international climate since 1988, such as the exit of Soviet troops from Afghanistan and the end of the Iran-Iraq war.
"Within the lifetimes of these students, we have gone from an Iran-Iraq war to the present conflict."
The average Auckland house had always cost more than $161,000 in the students' lifetimes.
"The house pricing actually dropped after the 1987 stockmarket crash - and news reports in 1988 reported they had risen," said Professor Viehland. "I would bet the average price of a house has not declined, at least significantly, since then."
