Ucol Whanganui: New chief executive Jasmine Groves backs campus as district diversifies

Jasmine Groves was Ucol's operations lead before taking the chief executive role.

Ucol’s new chief executive is “trusted, strategic and deeply committed” to its future.

Jasmine Groves was the Universal College of Learning’s operations lead and spent almost five years on its executive leadership team before being appointed to the new role.

She said four senior leaders were running the Whanganui campus “phenomenally well”, and a tertiary steering group had been formed with Whanganui District Council, Business Whanganui and others.

“We can start understanding what that skills need is and then we can offer courses to match.”

Groves said Ucol ran 25 programmes in Whanganui, ranging from beauty to business, automotive and early childhood education.

“We now have two warehouses at Hatrick St instead of one because our trades [programme] is growing exponentially.”

Ucol will return to autonomy on January 1 following the disestablishment of Te Pūkenga, an amalgamation of 16 tertiary institutions around the country.

Whanganui Mayor Andrew Tripe has been pushing to progress a new tertiary institution, the Whanganui School of Design and Technology.

In July, he said Ucol had been “very Palmerston North-centric” since it started and the new entity would be locally governed, with a greater focus on the district’s skill and capability needs.

Tripe told the Chronicle this week there was “a team on the ground at council” working with Ucol, iwi and hapū, and government agencies to pursue the proposal.

He said he had congratulated Groves on her appointment and looked forward to working constructively with her.

“Some of [Ucol’s] courses get pulled over to Palmy because that’s where the numbers are but I would rather it were the other way around,” he said.

Groves said Ucol offered five design programmes in Whanganui – “we’ve never stepped away from it”.

Ucol's Whanganui campus had 326 EFT students in 2025. Photo / Mike Tweed

“It certainly still has a place but Whanganui has diversified as well.

“You’ve got Māori tourism and advanced manufacturing, and we want to hear from those industries on how we can better support them.”

There were 326 equivalent full-time (EFT) students in Whanganui in 2025, up from 303 in 2023 and 310 in 2024.

Groves said giving Ucol Whanganui its own brand, whether it was the Whanganui School of Design or something else, could be explored.

“If we have research to show it would have an effect on international recruitment or something, we can certainly look at some sort of co-brand, or whether we use the Unesco [City of Design] hallmark.

“Or, calling the design school something different to the rest of Ucol.

“I think Massey [University] is a great example of that, with COCA [College of Creative Arts] in Wellington.”

Ucol council chairwoman Leanne Southey said Groves’ appointment reflected strong confidence in her capability and vision.

“Jasmine has demonstrated exceptional leadership throughout a period of unprecedented change.

“She is trusted, strategic and deeply committed to Ucol’s future.”

Groves said there had “been a bit of noise” in the community about Ucol’s Whanganui operations.

“It is disruptive to our mahi and it does put nervousness into future students.

“But we’ve always been for Whanganui, we’re going strong and we’ve got good numbers.

“We want to be able to give that community the assurance we’re here to stay and grow.”

Mike Tweed is a multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily Whanganui District Council.