Category Archives: Staff Success

Staff Success, UC News

UC Teaching Awards and Teaching Medal

Leave a comment

Do you know an excellent teacher or teaching team who deserve wider recognition?

Then take a moment to nominate them for a UC Teaching Award or the UC Teaching Medal.

Nominations for the 2019 Teaching Awards and UC Teaching Medal are open from now until 1 April, so kick start your year now.

Don’t forget that there is also an award available for implementing a single special teaching innovation, and that all teaching awards also bring with them a financial reward. The process is simple: complete a one-step form.

All awards recognise excellence in teaching (including thesis supervision) in both undergraduate and graduate programmes. The teaching medal is UC’s highest award for teaching and leadership.

Further information and nomination forms are available on the Teaching Awards or the Teaching Medal websites.

Staff Success, UC News

Happy New Year! Whiria te Taura Tangata #13

Happy New Year to you all!

I am pleased to advise that we now have a site dedicated to all the organisational development initiatives being led by HR. All the content about the organisational culture development programme has been moved across to the new Organisational Development site.

Another piece of great news is that UC is a finalist in the 2019 Human Resources Institute of New Zealand awards – in the Organisational Change & Development category. The awards will be announced next month.

We are in the midst of planning our Blue CLUES for this year so if you are in the target audience for those, watch out for your invitations. Suggestions for topics are welcome and if you’d like to host one, let me know.

Ngā manaakitanga (with best wishes), Karen

Karen Mather
Organisational Development Manager

Staff Success, UC News

UC awarded New Zealand Institute of Chemistry’s premiere prize

Professor Antony Fairbanks and his research group have been awarded the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry’s (NZIC) Maurice Wilkins Centre Prize for Chemical Research.  

Professor Fairbanks accepted the award from current NZIC President, Assistant Professor James Crowley, on behalf of his research group at the NZIC AGM, which took place on 6 December.

This is the premier prize of the NZIC and is awarded to a candidate based on the excellence and impact of their chemistry. This is only the second occasion in its history that the award has been made to a member of staff at UC.

Please join us in congratulating Professor Fairbanks and team.

Staff Success, UC News

Appointment to the Library and Information Advisory Commission

Te Paea Paringatai (Manager Customer Services, UC Puna o Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha – UC Library) has been appointed as a Commissioner on Ngā Kaiwhakamārama i ngā Kohikohinga Kōrero – Library and Information Advisory Commission (LIAC) for a three year term.  

This is a significant appointment on a body that reports to the Minister of Internal Affairs on matters relating to library and information services in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Te Paea is actively involved with international library networks, having served in the IFLA (the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions) Library Services to Multicultural Populations Section, as a Standing Committee member, and in her current role as Chair for the Indigenous Matters Section.  IFLA is the leading international body representing the interests of library and information services and their users’ and is the global voice of the library and information profession.

Te Paea is professionally registered and an Associate of LIANZA (the Library and Information Association of New Zealand). She is also the first and only person to have served as President of LIANZA 2016-2017, and before this as President of Te Rōpū Whakahau (National Māori Association for Libraries, Culture, Knowledge, Technology and Information) 2012-2016.  

In recognition of her leadership and influence, Te Paea was awarded the Te Rōpū Whakahau Meri Mygind Wahine Toa Award in 2016.

Te Paea’s strengths are in culturally responsive leadership and management experience, applied mātauranga Māori praxis, local government, and working knowledge of the library and information management sector.  She is passionate about the intergenerational transfer of wealth and knowledge, and sees the role of libraries as essential for empowering citizenship, evolving thought leadership, and community convergence.

Ra Steer
Team Leader, Customer Services| Poutoko Ratonga Kiritaki