A record number of PhD students are enrolled at the University of Canterbury.
The university says 886 students are undertaking PhD studies.
Last year new PhD students numbered 230, the biggest intake of new students in a single year.
Of those, 48% are New Zealanders or permanent residents and the rest represent 40 countries, with the largest groupings from India, Malaysia and China.
The new enrolments span 53 different disciplines at the colleges of education, business and law, arts, engineering and science.
So far this year 99 students have started PhD studies, six more than for the same period in 2012.
