Bursaries Top Scholars

28 February 2002

Top Scholars in the 2001 University Bursaries examinations were announced today by the Qualifications Authority. Awards are made to top overall candidates, male and female, the top Māori and Pacific Island scholars, and the top candidate in each Bursaries subject.

The male Top Scholar is Michael Oehley from St Paul's Collegiate School, Hamilton. The female Top Scholar is Abigail Fox from King's College, Auckland. These candidates scored the highest total marks from five Bursaries subjects.

The overall top students of Māori descent are Kate Hudson from St Oran's College, Lower Hutt, and Christopher Sweetman from Takapuna Grammar School, Auckland.

The overall top male and female candidates of Pacific Island descent are Stallone Vaiaoga-Ioasa from Auckland Grammar School, and Priya Prasad from Columba College, Dunedin.

Each overall Top Scholar receives $8,000. The overall Top Scholars and the top Māori candidates receive Government Commemorative Scholarships.

The Top Scholars in 29 Bursaries subjects have also been announced. See list of Top Scholars Awards. The top candidate in each Bursaries subject receives $5,000 (apart from Latin where there were fewer than 100 candidates so the top candidate gets $2,000). The awards for English and History are shared, as the top candidates could not be separated. There was no award this year in Indonesian as Top Scholar standard was not reached by any eligible candidates.

Features of this year's Top Scholar awards include:

19 of the 31 top subject scholars were female. Female candidates were top in almost all sciences.
Two Top Scholars are from Havelock North High School.
Three schools have three Top Scholars each: Diocesan School for Girls, Auckland, Westlake Girls' High School, Auckland, and St Andrews College, Christchurch.

To qualify for a Top Scholar award, candidates must be studying at least three Bursaries subjects and be a New Zealand citizen or permanent resident. In foreign languages, candidates identified by their schools as first language speakers are not eligible for Top Scholar awards.

All Top Scholars will receive their awards at a Government House ceremony on 5 April.

In addition to the Top Scholar awards, students who achieved scholarship results in five or six subjects will receive monetary awards. Those with scholarships in six subjects receive $3,000, while five scholarships earn $2,500. Scholarship results are awarded to the very high achievers in each subject, generally the top three to four percent of candidates. These prizes will be mailed to successful students in April, following the confirmation of final Bursaries results.

STATISTICS - Final results are available in April, after reviews have been completed.

List of Top Scholars Awards.