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Send us a message or visit AskAuckland, where you find answers to frequently asked questions: https://uoa.custhelp.com The University of Auckland | Waipapa Taumata Rau is New Zealand’s largest and leading university. We celebrate our location in the beautiful harbour city of Auckland | Tamaki Makaurau, our unique position in Aotearoa New Zealand and our place within the Pacific.  

Our te reo Māor

i name was gifted by Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, the Indigenous peoples of the Auckland area, and symbolises that this is a place where diverse world views are shared and lifelong journeys of inquiry, learning and service begin. Read more at: https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/about-us/about-the-university/waipapa-taumata-rau-university-of-auckland.html

01/06/2026

Our May highlights 🙌

31/05/2026

A reminder that every storm passes. Take things one day at a time, and keep going.

29/05/2026

It’s World MS Day on Saturday 30 May, a chance to talk about the symptoms of the condition that often remain invisible to the outside world.

MS (Multiple Sclerosis) is a chronic neurological condition in which the immune system mistakenly attacks the brain and spinal cord.

It’s one of the most common neurological diseases affecting young adults, with most people diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 40, just as people are building careers, families, and futures.

The first signs of MS are often physical and can include vision problems, numbness or burning sensations in the hands and feet, balance difficulties, weakness, or trouble walking. These symptoms are usually what bring people into contact with the healthcare system.

But alongside these visible symptoms, there is a quieter set of effects that are less visible and often less responsive to treatment.

Around half of all people living with MS experience cognitive difficulties, including problems with memory, attention, information processing speed, or concentration at some point during the disease course. Fatigue, anxiety, and mood disorders are also common.

In my research I have focussed on these less visible symptoms since 2009. In many ways, that interest was inspired by my own mother, who lived with MS and experienced significant memory difficulties and “slowness”. As her daughter, I often felt powerless in understanding how best to support her. When someone struggles to walk, you know how to help. But cognitive problems were far less obvious, and the impact of them unfold quietly within everyday family life.

One of the most common cognitive changes in MS is slowed information processing speed. Because communication within the brain becomes less efficient, thinking, responding, multitasking, or keeping up with conversations can require far more time and energy than before.

People rarely die from MS but often live with it for many decades. That reality should push us to set the bar higher than disease control alone, and to help people live as fully as possible.

It means recognising and supporting the parts of MS that so often go unseen.

Because cognitive functioning is not just about memory or attention. It shapes personality, relationships, independence, participation, and identity itself. And that is worth protecting.

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Excerpt from an opinion piece originally published on Newsroom by Professor Hanneke Hulst, director of Centre of Brain Research, University of Auckland.

Read in full here: https://newsroom.co.nz/2026/05/29/the-ms-symptoms-that-get-far-less-attention/

28/05/2026

What if failure became something to celebrate?

A huge congratulations to Fine Arts doctoral student Brittany Walker Smith, the first recipient of the Collin Post Sculpture Award and Longveld Plinth Award. Her winning concept "One Foot in the Grave, the Other on a Banana Peel", will be transformed into a bold yellow steel sculpture and installed in the Elam gardens.

The award also includes a residency with UAP in Brisbane, where Brittany will develop her design alongside leading experts in public art and fabrication, before the final piece is brought to life by Longveld in Hamilton.

Combining humour, glamour and a nod to everyday mishaps, Brittany’s work celebrates the inevitability of failure and the creativity that comes with it.

With thanks to Longveld and UAP (Urban Art Projects) and ‘DMC Art’ for their partnership in supporting emerging artists.

Read more here: https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/news/2026/05/29/snazzy-steel-banana-peel.html

27/05/2026

The sounds of UoA ✨

26/05/2026

Child-safe composting system in development

Students at Papatoetoe East School will soon be able to compost their scraps into nutrient-rich soil, with a system that can process more than 50kg of waste a week.

Designed as a rotating drum that turns food scraps, garden waste and paper into fresh compost right on school grounds, the system is low-maintenance and easy for small hands to use.

It will take the kinds of things that usually end up in a school bin – banana peels, sandwich crusts, shredded classroom paper – and turn them into nutrient-rich soil for the school’s māra kai and gardens.

"This is not just a compost bin. We are designing a child-safe, engineered composting system that can work in a real school setting while also becoming part of how students learn about sustainability, materials, food systems and care for the environment," says Professor Saeid Baroutian, who is leading the project.

Existing compost systems aren't designed for the reality of a busy primary school environment.

Project co-lead Paul Dickson from Oke Charity recently visited a school, where tamariki are using a different system as part of their learning.

“The bin was essentially full within a week and the composting process can still take three to six months before usable compost is produced.

That's the real-world problem we're trying to solve through this project."

The results will help shape a replicable design and guidance for wider rollout across Auckland schools.

Read more here: https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/news/2026/05/06/child-safe-composting-system-in-development.html

25/05/2026

Josephine Davis is the first Māori to be Head of School for Nursing, marking a historic moment for nursing leadership. Davis (Ngāti Kopaki, Ngāti Manu, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei) was also one of the first Māori practitioners in the country.

“I learned early on just how important visible Māori leadership was for Māori health equity.”

Her career has spanned clinical practice, nursing leadership, education, workforce development and Māori health equity. For Davis, she says her new role is about care.

“It’s about caring for the staff, ensuring we are responsive to the changing needs of the sector, supporting students to be successful in achieving their aspirations, and working collaboratively across the faculty,” she says.

Davis says nurses remain one of the most important workforces in the country and need to be heard, valued and better supported.

“Nurses need to be acknowledged. They are our biggest health workforce, interacting every day at the bedside with our most vulnerable people. Nurses bring such a wealth of experience, expertise and lived knowledge into conversations at all levels.”

Read more here: https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/news/2026/05/25/first-maori-josephine-davis.html

21/05/2026

A dawn ceremony welcomed restored whakairo back to the James Henare Research Centre, reaffirming the centre’s place as a whare of mātauranga Māori.

The whakairo were originally created more than 30 years ago under the direction of tohunga whakairo Dr Pakāriki Harrison, then artist-in-residence at the University and the master carver who oversaw the construction of Tāne-nui-a-Rangi, the wharenui at Waipapa Marae.

For Ngati Porou carver Fred Harrison, restoring the whakairo has been both a return and a continuation. He first worked on the carvings as a teenager alongside his father. More than three decades later, he has restored them with the help of his daughter, Aniwa Harrison.

While traditional stone chisels were used for some of the original work, Fred has used modern hand and power tools for the restoration. The whakairo have also been coated with resins and acrylic paints to help them withstand the elements.

The whakairo speak to the role of the centre itself: a place where knowledge is gathered, protected, shared and carried forward.

Read more here: https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/news/2026/05/20/whakairo-jhrc-2026.html

Photos: Chris Loufte

20/05/2026

OPINION: Anyone reading this through a pair of $2 reading glasses isn’t alone in choosing cheap solutions to improve their vision.

As many as one in four Kiwi patients may be skipping or delaying specialist eye-care because of the cost. Our research project in the University’s School of Optometry and Vision Science suggests a modest investment from Vote Health could make a huge difference and prevent downstream health and societal costs.

Few things matter more to us than our eyesight. We fear losing it even more than some life-threatening conditions.

Yet for many New Zealanders, access to routine eye-care remains out of reach. This is despite the wide-ranging impacts of vision loss for both individuals and society.

It limits opportunities for work and study, raises the risks of traffic accidents and falls, and is linked with higher rates of depression and dementia.

What’s more, it is mostly avoidable. More than 90 percent of vision loss can be prevented or treated with simple, cost-effective care such as glasses or cataract surgery.

Routine eye examinations and spectacles are delivered almost exclusively by optometrists in private practice, with very little public funding to offset the costs.

This places New Zealand behind other countries, including Australia, the United Kingdom, Ireland and the United States, which fund routine eye care for some or all of their population.

If New Zealand seeks a fairer model for eye health, policymakers have only to look across the Tasman.

In Australia, all citizens and permanent residents are eligible for Medicare-funded, comprehensive eye examinations delivered by optometrists. Around one-third of its population uses these services every year.

If we matched Australia’s public funding policies for community eye-care, allocating just 1.2 percent of the health budget could fund 2.4 million eye examinations and 60,500 pairs of glasses. Current funding delivers eye-care services to 25,000 children for about 0.02 percent of the health budget.

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Lucy Goodman is a research fellow in the School of Optometry and Vision Science, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences.

Jacqueline Ramke is an associate professor in eye health equity, in the School of Optometry and Vision Science, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences.

Pushkar Silwal is a postdoctoral research fellow in the School of Optometry and Vision Science, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences.

This article was first published in The Conversation.

Read more: https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/news/2026/04/30/an-affordable-vision-for-nz-s-eye-health.html

19/05/2026

Children’s screen use is linked with later difficulties with skills such as attention, planning and self-control, according to a University of Auckland study pulling together research from around the world.

Of 58 studies, 81 percent showed at least one negative association between screen use and executive function over time, according to the paper published in the journal Developmental Review.

Executive function is relevant to children focusing in class, remembering instructions, controlling impulses, planning homework and managing emotions – abilities aiding life-long achievement, health and well-being.

“The potential for long-term harm to our kids’ development is concerning,” says Claire Reid, the School of Psychology PhD student who led the scoping study. “We need action at all levels – policy, schools and the family – to better protect our children.”

While the studies link screen use and difficulties in executive function, both Reid and the senior author of the paper, Professor Karen Waldie, caution that they do not prove causality. Sleep, physical activity, play, social interaction and family circumstances are among the many influences on the development of executive function.

Study participants ranged from babies and toddlers to 18 years of age. The research came from the School of Psychology and the School of Population Health at Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland.

Read more here: https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/news/2026/05/06/global-studies-show-negative-effects-of-kids--screen-use-.html

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