The University of Auckland and Victoria University of Wellington have been successful in their bids to host new Centres of Asia-Pacific Excellence (CAPEs), Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Paul Goldsmith has announced today at an event at Victoria University.
The CAPEs will be cross-institutional centres of excellence specialising in the language, culture, politics and economics of countries or groups of countries within the Asia-Pacific region.
“They are an important and strategic investment in New Zealand’s future. So much of our trade, tourism and migration is focused on the Asia-Pacific region. It makes sense to deepen our understanding of it,” Mr Goldsmith says.
As well as teaching about and researching these countries, each CAPE will be mandated to help learners, exporters, and government agencies improve their understanding of the countries and their languages.
“The new CAPEs will provide initiatives and programmes of use to small and medium enterprises wanting to grow their understanding of the Asian and Latin American markets.”
“The centres will also help individuals better prepare to do business and connect with the Asia-Pacific region.”
CAPEs will further develop New Zealand’s Asia-Pacific rim knowledge and language skills, facilitating collaboration between tertiary education providers and stakeholders to enhance our partnerships with the Asia-Pacific region.
The CAPEs programme was allocated $34.5 million over 4 years in Budget 2016. It is part of the Government’s comprehensive Business Growth Agenda, and a major initiative in the internationalisation stream of the Tertiary Education Strategy.
Notes:
Three CAPEs will be set up in total, the first led by the University of Auckland in partnership with the University of Otago, the University of Waikato and the Victoria University of Wellington. This CAPE will specialise in North Asia.
Two more centres will be led by Victoria University of Wellington in partnership with the University of Otago, the University of Auckland and the University of Waikato. These two CAPEs will specialise in countries or groups of countries in South East Asia and Latin America.
The North Asia and South East Asia focused CAPEs will utilise the expertise of the Asia New Zealand Foundation as one of their key delivery partners.
| A Beehive release | March 09, 2017 ||
