The original focus was to establish whether there was a relationship between ethnicty, gender and achievements in regards to Pasifika and Maori students that are in their senior years of studying. However, it became apparent that this combination created too many variables as Maori and Pasifika are two very different groups. Furthermore, with the addition of gender relations it means the project is succeptible to too many scenario cases.
The focus therefore now stands as an analysis of support systems that are set up for Pasifika students; the figures show that students are overrepresented in certain areas at tertiary institutions if they enter at all. The causes of concern here are that if there is no evidence to show that there is 1) wider range of fields that Pasifika students are entering and 2) Pasifika people are entering certain areas of study, retention rates are not increasing then it is vital to find out why. Why Pasifika students are overrepresented in particular areas intertiary institutions and why they do not stay.
The aim of this reserach is to look at how areas in both support services as well as policies can be made better as well as a bottom-top approach.