EIT Hawke”s Bay will confer more than 439 diplomas, degrees and postgraduate qualifications at its institute-wide graduation ceremony on Friday, March 27.

The traditional ceremony follows the awarding of certificates to students in faculty ceremonies held in December last year. In total, 1560 qualifications will have been conferred to honour academic achievement in 2008.

A traditional and formal occasion, the graduation ceremony is to be held at the Napier Municipal Theatre.

It will be staged in two sessions because of the number of qualifications being awarded. One to start at 10.30 am for the graduates of Arts and Social Sciences, and Business and Computing in the other, at 2:30 pm, , graduands from Health and Sport Science, Science and Technology and Māori Studies/Te Manga Māori will be capped.

Karen Vickery, to be conferred with the Graduate Diploma in Professional Accounting, will speak on behalf of the graduating class in the morning. Karen was capped with her Bachelor of Business Studies at EIT in 2008. Fellow valedictorian Jan-Marie Buckeridge, graduating Bachelor of Nursing, has been selected to address the afternoon session.

Stephen Jacobi, executive director of the NZUS Council, is to be guest speaker at one of the ceremonies.  A former diplomat, policy adviser and CEO, Stephen is a well known media and public commentator on trade and industry issues in New Zealand. He currently leads both the NZ US Council and the NZ International Business Forum. He is a director of Fulbright NZ, the St John”s College Trust and Napier Girls” High School.

Chris Collins, chief executive at EIT said, “Graduation is a very special day for all of us! For our graduands, it”s a milestone that acknowledges hard work, commitment, sacrifice, ability and achievement. For family and friends, it”s an opportunity to celebrate the achievement of  someone you love and take some quiet satisfaction from the support and encouragement you”ve been able to provide.”
“For council and staff our annual graduations are a boost and a very tangible reminder of why we are here. For the wider community it”s an opportunity to say “thank you” to a group of people who have made an investment in the future and who we hope will develop into future leaders in our community and nation.”

“A special congratulations to our graduands – I know you will bring credit to yourselves, your families, EIT and the communities in which you live and work. Enjoy your day and bask in your success. We are proud of you.”

2008 Student Body Information:

• Average student age dropped three years to 33!
• This is due to the % of under 25s rising from 29% in 2007 to 35% in 2008 (our total student count was only 68 different so this equates to about an extra 350 under 25 years olds enrolling)
• This is also shown in the shift of first time tertiary students which went from 33% in 2007 to 38% in 2008
• Part-time students dropped from 65% in 2007 to 61% in 2008 (the “medium” studying time 0.3-0.8 EFTS load increased)
• In 2008 we had students from 50 different citizenships (excluding NZ and “other”). That is about 25% of the world”s countries represented. Even more multicultural than 2007.