Nau mai! Afio mai! We are an education organisation that prioritises opportunities for promoting Māori and Pacific student success in all our programmes.
On this page you’ll find information on our support team and initiatives, scholarships and funding, and pastoral care services. Please get in touch, we’d love to kōrero with you.
ManaakiFono is our main forum for academic and cultural support for our Māori and Pacific students. Manaaki meaning to care and support (one of our values as an organisation); Fono meaning to meet.
This takes shape in both a support group and an online drop-in Zoom session where Māori and Pacific students can pop in and kōrero with staff about ‘what’s on top’ for you with your learning. ManaakiFono is a safe space for you to get support and guidance for your programme like assessments, academic writing, reflection writing, anything at all to help you succeed. We also enable and enhance tuakana-teina relationships as you get to meet and talk with students from other cohorts as well.
ManaakiFono is guided by a Talanoa model, which can be referred to as a conversation, a talk, an exchange of ideas or thinking, whether formal or informal. ManaakiFono is an opportunity for students to build relationships, and understanding with both fellow candidates and the teaching/support team of The Mind Lab. Rather than being lecture type sessions or webinars, the purpose of these sessions is to ‘teu le vā’, close the gaps, strengthen the relationships, build connections and provide space for conversation and collaboration.
When you sign up to learn with us, your programme team will let you know when your weekly ManaakiFono sessions are.
Watch this video with English subtitles on YouTube
This scholarship is designed for learners who identify as Māori.
This scholarships covers 100% of the fees for one of our postgraduate programmes or micro-credentials and will be given on a first in first served basis to those who meet the criteria.
Programmes this scholarship can be used for:
You can apply for the scholarship as part of your enrolment for your chosen programme.
This scholarship is designed for those who identify as Pacific learners.
This scholarship is for Māori students who are a registered member of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei and would like to study towards their Postgraduate Certificate in Leading Change for Good.
We have partnered with Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei to offer two scholarships for each intake of our programme.
The scholarship covers the full fees for the entire programme. Learn more here.
You can apply for the scholarship by getting in touch with us, via email, once you have enrolled in the programme.
We fully support and encourage the use of te reo Māori throughout our organisation.
You are able to submit any of your work in te reo Māori, or in both English and Māori, for any of our programmes. When submitting your work through the portal, just check ‘Yes’ to ‘This assignment is in Te Reo’. If you need any assistance to do so, please email or send a message via Slack to Te Mihinga (you will be given access to Slack when you begin your programme).
If you’re interested in talking to one of our team about our Māori or Pacific support… or anything else relating to what we do at The Mind Lab, please get in touch.