You may wish to link to wider networks of Māori support and community throughout the University of Auckland.  If so, you can follow one of the links below.

Contact details - University-wide Māori networks

AUPISA is the Pacific Student Association at the University of Auckland.

The group pride themselves on their commitment to providing a supportive community on campus for our Pacific students.

Contact details

In the following 2 minute video Tina - a former postgraduate student in the School of Nursing - shares the importance of drawing on networks of support from work colleagues and community to support success in postgraduate study.

There are a wide range of support and advocacy services, resources and people here to help you

Start by getting to know the "A, B, C to Z" of support and advocacy services available to you as a University of Auckland student.

Visit the University of Auckland's Support Services page that lists from A to Z all of the groups and places that you may wish to know about and connect with.

For example, did you know you may be eligible for health, medical and counselling services through the University of Auckland?  You can visit the University Health and Counselling Service site to find out more.

On their site you can make a confidential appointment with a counsellor.  You can also find links to self-help resources available to you on their Self-help resources page.  

One of these resources links you to the "CALM" website - the "Computer Assisted Learning for the Mind" course free to all University of Auckland staff and students.  

The CALM website is a place you can go to increase your mental resilience, to learn how you can effectively manage stress, anxiety and depression as well as how you can maintain healthy relationships.

Thinking about time and commitments inside and outside of study

Māori and Pacific students comment that a big challenge in returning to post-graduate study relates to finding
creative ways to manage busy working lives while adding time for study on top. It can feel like a juggling act at times keeping childcare, family, extended whānau and community responsibilities and involvements on the go while studying.

You certainly can't stop being a parent or a caring family and community member while you study.

However, adding study "on top" means you need to think carefully before your first semester of study begins about how you might re-prioritise a few things.  Regular time each week for attending course lectures, carrying out coures readings and activities and getting involved with work on assignments is important.  It may take some creativity to organise your time.

Top Five Tips for Parents who Study and Work

Athabasca University (in Canada) has a few useful suggestions for busy, working parents who are starting into university study.  Their top five tips for parents involved in university study are:

1. Establish routines.

2. Organise your environment.

3. Lean on your social network.

4. Children first!

5. Plan for the unpredictable.

To read more detail about these five tips, follow the link "Studying in the Child Zone".

A further tip from a student at Athabasca University can be found at their link "Study Tips From Our Students".  Here a mother, and postgrad student, describes how she was able to get her weekly readings done while also making time to read to her children at night in a creative way!

Doing your postgrad study, you will find your own creative strategies that work for you ... so that you can still be the parent, whānau & community member and work colleague who you want to be, while also completing your study requirements.