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UC, two years on since the first big earthquake

Monday 3 September 2012, 5:46PM

By University of Canterbury

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CHRISTCHURCH

Two years on since the first big Christchurch earthquake of September 4 2010, the University of Canterbury (UC) has demonstrated that it has made great strides in re-establishing itself as a preferred tertiary institution.



UC has had the unique challenge and distinction of recovering from two significant earthquakes in two years. However, the University has responded rapidly and despite the disruptions, so much activity is progressing and developing on the campus.



The latest Metro magazine article on university options for prospective students presents a strong case to support UC.



``Think about Canterbury. It's a very good all-round university...it offers so many opportunities, in academic study and in personal lives, to make a major and intensely rewarding contribution to the community.



``Canterbury has worked hard this year to maintain its academic programme and reports that 'student engagement and academic performance have been above the norm'.''



Metro also said the rebuild of Christchurch offered so many opportunities for students through volunteer work and academic study.



``From civil engineering to psychology, geography to economics, the university is intimately involved in the rebuild.



``Many students may discover that being at Canterbury turns into one of the most formative and rewarding experiences of their lives,'' the magazine said.



UC Vice-Chancellor Dr Rod Carr said the recovery to this point had been remarkable.



``Today we have 13,000 students, 1900 staff and 600 courses for this semester and applications to our halls of residence for 2013 are clearly up on the last two years,'' Dr Carr said.

The University has launched new courses and programmes including a Bachelor of Health Sciences.



UC is leading post-earthquake research with 170 projects looking into a wide range of subjects.



Late last month the biggest gathering of experts, academics, local and central Government officials met to discuss implications of the recovery and the rebuild of Christchurch at the annual Australasian hazard management conference.



Last week UC-born company Invert Robotics won the supreme award at the ANZ Flying Start Plan while UC business student Pip Widdon has just been named the New Zealand winner of the Australasian Big Break business competition, a difficult Dragon's Den style tertiary business competition.

Dr Carr said despite the disruption of the past two years, it was business as usual on campus with a lot of learning activity, research and development, working with industry and the community.