10 Dec 2010

Masters course to begin next year

6:25 pm on 10 December 2010

Waikato-Tainui's endowed college at Hopuhopu is to finally be used as intended for post-graduate study.

The $30 million college was the brainchild of the late Sir Robert Mahuta, but the tribe's financial problems and disputes over how best it could be used, means it has served more as a centre of administration and a venue for short term wananga.

Now Waikato Tainui College of Research and Development academic director Sarah Jane Tiakiwai says from next year, it will run a Masters of Business Administration course.

The two-year MBA course will be run jointly with the Centre for Corporate and Executive Education and Waikato University's management school.

Ms Tiakiwai says that fits with the tribe's long term Whakatupuranga 2050 strategy.

She says the course is designed to produce the Maori leaders of the future. It aims to start in April next year with 30 students.