Update – September 2026
Toitū Te Whenua LINZ will not call for Tertiary GIS Scholarship applications for the 2027 academic year due to budget constraints. We will reassess in 2027 whether to call for scholarship applications for the 2028 academic year.
Interested in studying GIS?
GIS related-courses are of value to people from a wide variety of backgrounds - check out the Studying GIS page:
Studying GIS
You can also read about some previous recipients of Toitū Te Whenua tertiary GIS scholarships:
- Alistair Collow – Massey University
- Jordan Stewart – Unitec
- Kimberley D’Arcy – University of Auckland (see profile on page 6)
- Kiu Hei Chloe Yip – University of Auckland
- Ronny Rowe – University of Otago
- Samuel Wong – University of Canterbury
- Shalini Mukherjee – Auckland University of Technology
- Taipuni Ruakere - Massey University
Why we have offered previous scholarships
One of our five strategic intentions is:
New Zealand’s economy and resilience are strengthened by accurate and trusted location and property information
This means Toitū Te Whenua is working to ensure location and property information is used effectively to create value for New Zealand and New Zealanders. To deliver this value requires people with geospatial skills. A 2012 research report from Victoria University concluded that there was a geospatial skills shortage in New Zealand. A 2017 report from economics and strategy consultancy firm AlphaBeta showed that the geospatial industry is growing strongly both in New Zealand and around the world. By offering scholarships Toitū Te Whenua can encourage more tertiary students to take GIS-related courses as part of their studies and help ensure that there is a sufficient supply of skilled people to contribute to New Zealand’s growing geospatial industry.
The scholarships also align with the 2016 report: Graduate Pathways: Support for Young Geospatial Professionals in New Zealand. Through our scholarships we can help implement the recommendations of this report, support New Zealand tertiary GIS programmes and help geospatial students achieve their goals.