Richard Harvey, 30 July 2026
University Mathematics: Rising to the Challenge
This year, four of our students have taken on the challenge of studying university-level mathematics while still completing their high school studies.
Three of these students (Zakariya Rizwan, Joseph Uehara and Sunny Jiangare) enrolled through the University of Canterbury, with one (Kase Robertson) studying via the University of Auckland.
Accelerated through their math pathways due to their aptitude and dedication, all four are doing very well in their respective university programmes. As a highlight of the University of Canterbury’s MATH 198 course, two of our students, Zac and Joseph, were given the opportunity to travel to Christchurch, visit the UC campus, and experience student life firsthand.
Below, Zac shares his personal reflection on their trip to the University of Canterbury:
Over the holiday break, Joseph and I got the opportunity to go to Christchurch for a few days as part of the MATH 198 paper we are doing this year at the University of Canterbury. We stayed in Acland house, which was a few minutes drive away from the UC campus, where the majority of the activities during the day took place.
On the first day we got to listen to the Head of Maths at UC in one of the prestigious lecture rooms, where he told us some stuff about the assignment we would be working on for the next few days. During the day, we got to visit the UC recharge lounge, CAD labs, and afterwards, we took a short trip to go see the penguins at the Antarctic centre. To finish the day off, we had a celebration dinner at Te Kouka, where we were treated to special performances and guest speakers.
On the second day, we continued to work through our assignment in groups, with help from the tutors that were with us in the workshop. In the afternoon, we got to hear from various speakers explaining the different branches of engineering that you could follow at UC, as well as speeches from our tutors telling us how MATH 198 shaped their pathway. We finished the day off at Arcady hall, where we were given a tour of the hall and dinner.
On the final day, we were shown around some of the different halls of residence around the UC campus. These included: R&R, Tupanuku, and Tupuarangi. Before the day finished at 4pm, we also got to go to two different workshops of our choice, each relating to different specific branches of engineering you can study at UC.