Ara Institute - Canterbury’s newest tertiary institution

The official launch of the newly formed Ara Institute of Canterbury, a merger of Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology (CPIT) and Aoraki Polytechnic, took place today with events being held in Christchurch, Timaru, Oamaru and Ashburton to mark the occasion.

Associate Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Louise Upston joined staff and guests on campus for the dawn service where the new name was announced.

Ara can be translated to mean ‘pathway’ and to ‘arise’ and reflects the new organisation’s aspirations to be a responsive and inclusive provider of tertiary education.

“Ara Institute is well placed to provide better access to a greater number of programmes and support services in a larger number of centres than CPIT and Aoraki were able to as independent tertiary providers,” Ms Upston says.

“In the future Ara will be a platform for creating Centres of Excellence serving as hubs for engaging with industry.

“Congratulations to all involved for getting to where you are today, and finding an innovative solution to meet Canterbury’s future vocational education training needs.”