Tuesday, January 25, 2005

Should the Wananga be called a university?

You may have seen this article in the NZ Herald:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?ObjectID=10007702

Or you may have seen something on TV about it.

Apparently, New Zealand's largest tertiary institution, Te Wananga o Aotearoa is to be getting a telling off for calling itself a university, and the universities around the country aren't happy with this.

The translation of "Te Wananga o Aotearoa" into English is "The University of New Zealand" - so what's the problem of translating the name of the institution into English so that most of the country can understand what it means?

By the way, universities use the term "wananga" in their names - for example "The University of Waikato - Te Whare Wananga o Waikato". If universitys can use "wananga" then The Wananga can use "university"!!!