Bay of Plenty Polytechnic

According to its website Bay of Plenty Polytechnic (Māori: Te Kuratini o Poike) offers the largest range of New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) approved programmes in Tauranga and the Western Bay of Plenty.

Bay of Plenty Polytechnic is an accredited provider of national certificate qualifications (Levels 1 to 4) and national diploma qualifications (Levels 5 to 7). It also offers degree programmes and pathways in partnership with other tertiary education providers.

The Polytechnic consists of four schools: Applied Science, Applied Technology, Business Studies and Design & Humanities.

The Bay of Plenty Polytechnic has not participated in the Performance Based Research Fund (PBRF) for research active educational institutions in New Zealand.

History

Bay of Plenty Polytechnic was established in 1982 as the local Community College at Windermere, providing training mainly in trades, horticulture, agriculture and business. Initially, the college tended to reflect the region, with one third of its student hours devoted to horticultural training.

Bay of Plenty

The Bay of Plenty, known in Māori as Te Moana-a-Toi, is a large indentation in the northern coast of New Zealand's North Island. It stretches from the Coromandel Peninsula in the west to Cape Runaway in the east, a wide stretch of some 259 km of open coastline. The Bay of Plenty Region is situated around this body of water, also incorporating several large islands in the bay.

History

The Māori name for the bay is Te Moana-a-Toi ("the sea of Toi"), a reference to the ancestral explorer Toi-te-huatahi, whose name was given to many prominent places in the region. Various waka arrived with settlers from eastern Polynesia around the thirteenth century: Mataatua, Nukutere, Tainui, Te Arawa and Takitimu.

The name "Bay of Plenty" originated with the English explorer James Cook during his 1769–70 exploration of New Zealand, who noted the abundant resources in the area. In the 1830s, Europeans began to settle in the area.

On 5 October 2011, the MV Rena ran aground on the Astrolabe Reef in the bay causing a large oil spill, described as New Zealand's worst ever environmental disaster.

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New Zealand

New Zealand (/njuːˈziːlənd/ new-ZEE-lənd, Māori: Aotearoa [aɔˈtɛaɾɔa]) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The country geographically comprises two main landmasses – that of the North Island, or Te Ika-a-Māui, and the South Island, or Te Waipounamu – and numerous smaller islands. New Zealand is situated some 1,500 kilometres (900 mi) east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and roughly 1,000 kilometres (600 mi) south of the Pacific island areas of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. Because of its remoteness, it was one of the last lands to be settled by humans. During its long isolation, New Zealand developed a distinctive biodiversity of animal, fungal and plant life. The country's varied topography and its sharp mountain peaks, such as the Southern Alps, owe much to the tectonic uplift of land and volcanic eruptions. New Zealand's capital city is Wellington, while its most populous city is Auckland.

Somewhere between 1250 and 1300 CE, Polynesians settled in the islands that were to become New Zealand, and developed a distinctive Māori culture. In 1642, Abel Tasman, a Dutch explorer, became the first European to sight New Zealand. In 1840, representatives of the British Crown and Māori Chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi, making New Zealand a British colony. Today, the majority of New Zealand's population of 4.5 million is of European descent; the indigenous Māori are the largest minority, followed by Asians and Pacific Islanders. Reflecting this, New Zealand's culture is mainly derived from Māori and early British settlers, with recent broadening arising from increased immigration. The official languages are English, Māori and New Zealand Sign Language, with English predominant.