The University of Auckland has announced a new scholarship for Māori and Pasifika students in the School of Architecture and Planning. Funded by Jasmax, the scheme will offer one student enrolling in the first year of a Bachelor of Architectural Studies $5000 per annum for up to five years to assist with their studies. 

The scholarship was set up to acknowledge the lack of Māori and Pacific Islanders in the architecture discipline and encourage more diversity within the programme. Head of the School of Architecture and Planning Deidre Brown – who is also the world’s first Māori Professor in the architecture field – says, “Auckland is the largest Polynesian city in the world,” and, “It is vital that practitioners in professions such as architecture are representative of the society in which they work and whose environments – personal and public – they shape.”

Multi-disciplinary design firm Jasmax has recently been taking steps to increase the bi-cultural nature of their practice and bring indigenous principles the forefront of their practice, including officially launching a new design direction. CEO Sjoerd Post says, “Offering this scholarship is a small contribution to get mana whenua and the Pasifika voice in [the architecture] conversation.” 

Brown notes that as Auckland becomes a more expensive city, “There is greater and greater need for financial assistance to help students from less economically privileged backgrounds to be able to attend the University of Auckland School of Architecture and Planning and achieve their dream of qualifying as an architect.”

Applications for the Jasmax Scholarship for Māori and Pacific Students close on 15 January 2020. Full scholarship guidelines and instructions on how to apply can be found at auckland.ac.nz.