Active learning has a long heritage in Geography and allied subjects, and many claims are made about its benefits. This article attempts a long run assessment of these benefits, drawing on a survey of 180 respondents who graduated from a capstone Geography course over a 15-year period. The course focuses on community-based research and depends on the development and curation of an ecosystem of students, academic staff mentors, community partners and university managers. It is designed to enable students to make a difference, whilst gaining experience of working in groups, managing time and expectations, and workplace preparation. The paper assesses impacts on respondents in the long term, rather than the more usual results of course surveys conducted at the time. The context of the course is notable, as it began one year before the Canterbury earthquake sequence, which sharpened both community need and opportunity for such learning methods. The insights gained from developing and running the course over the period of time in question are outlined.
Christchurch City Councillors have this morning agreed to contribute an extra 15 million dollars to the rebuild of the Christ Church cathedral. The rebuild of the earthquake-damaged cathedral has been on hold since 2024 because of a funding shortfall of around 45 million dollars. The fate of the cathedral has divided opinion across the city and beyond for a long time, some believe it should be restored, saying it's an important part of the city's history, while others say it's a waste of money and resources. Joining Jesse with the latest is Mark Stewart, Director of the Christ Church Cathedral Reinstatement.
Greater Christchurch has been through a lot over the past 25 years, and its public transport is no exception. This paper aims to understand the broader factors that have influenced public transport patronage growth from 1999-2025. This is split into two periods, 1999-2010 and 2015-2025, before and after the 2010-2011 Canterbury Earthquake Sequence which fundamentally changed Greater Christchurch. Patronage grew from 9.7 to 17.2 million per year in this first period, unprecedented growth for this network, during a time of significant investment into the network. In contrast, 2015-2025 saw stagnation in growth, or even decreases, only growing after the COVID-19 pandemic. Patronage could not keep up with population growth after the earthquakes with growth mostly occurring in the outer areas of Christchurch and its satellite towns. People are less likely to bus from these areas due to long travel times into much of Christchurch, significantly longer than by car. Additionally, many businesses and employees moved outside of Central Christchurch, the main employment area for Greater Christchurch, after the earthquakes, into areas with relatively low bus routes. Significantly less people were willing to bus to work in these areas, apart from Riccarton and Papanui. However, businesses have been returning to Central Christchurch, with more people willing to bus to work there. These past determinants of growth are important to understand so that their effects can be individually researched more in-depth in future, to provide greater clarity on what have been successful factors for public transport growth in Greater Christchurch, and find out if they can be reimplemented or expanded to reignite some of the growth experienced in the 2000’s.
