Maori @ Te Piringa - Faculty of Law

Part of the Faculty's commitment to Māori and to biculturalism is to provide Māori students with a supportive environment conducive to a fulfilling learning experience.

Māori law students obtain their place at Waikato based on our assessment of their academic preparedness for the LLB programme. We do not have an admissions quota system. Yet, approximately thirty per cent of the students enrolled in the Faculty are Māori. This means that no Māori student need feel isolated in our Faculty. 

The LLB programme is demanding and Te Piringa Faculty of Law provides formal and informal support systems for all students, some of which are designed specifically to assist our Māori students. Te Piringa has been instrumental in encouraging students to use te reo Māori in assessment, paving the way for the University, and other law faculties to follow suit. The Faculty has also promoted te reo Māori mooting and alternative dispute resolution skills.

Our commitment to embracing tikanga Māori and understandings of Te Tiriti o Waitangi is demonstrated not only through the education of individual students, but also by the establishment of the Faculty as a resource for the community.

In her time, Te Arikinui, Dame Te Atairangikaahu, made a generous donation to the University’s Law Library to assist in the acquisition of a collection of books and materials on Māori and indigenous issues for the benefit of all staff and students. We have established a Māori and Indigenous Governance Centre that focuses on research issues concerning Māori and Indigenous Peoples’ governance, rights and responsibilities.

The Faculty's approach to Matauranga Māori and Tikanga Māori is driven by the founding commitment to biculturalism and is reflected in the way that we teach Legal Method, Jurisprudence, Public Law, Crimes, Corporate Entities, and Land Law, and the elective papers offered in the fields of Māori and Indigenous Governance.