Our Partners
Our partnerships help us provide exceptional student accommodation facilities.
Along with partnering with Wintec to provide exceptional student accommodation, we belong to a range of professional organisations in order to enhance the value and quality of students’ living experiences with Hatch.
Our Memberships
We are members of the following organisations, which assists us in delivering an exceptional experience for our students.
Becoming a partner of HSL
Ownership structure and operator details
The buildings of our Wintec | Te Pῡkenga accommodation facilities, Wintec Student Village and Wintec Apartments are owned by Te Pῡkenga.
Our registered charitable trust, Student Residence Trust Aotearoa, trading as Hatch Student Living (formerly Wintec Accommodation Services), owns the fit-out and furniture and has operated the purpose-built student accommodation for over four decades at Wintec (since 1983, formerly the Wintec Student Residence Trust).
Why providing quality student accommodation matters
Purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) is a key attractor to the associated tertiary institution. This is recognised globally, and is corroborated by our own research. Recent marketing survey results identified more than 75% of respondents said finding Wintec Accommodation helped or somewhat helped influence their decision to study at Wintec.
International students are major contributors to the Waikato economy, directly contributing approximately $24M annually. Welcome, secure housing can attract more Waikato students, who in turn enrich our culture, strengthen our community and future workforce, fuelling the local economy.
Tertiary student enrolment numbers are steadily increasing across both domestic and international students. Most students are aged between 18 and 24 and seek accommodation that is affordable, convenient and supportive of community living.
Student accommodation:
- Attracts learners to the institution
- Improves the tertiary institutions' student retention rates
- Improves success rates for residents compared with other students
- Improves outcomes for disadvantaged student groups
- Develops the whole person, leading to better employment prospects (this is especially so for the residents who take on the responsibilities of Residential Leaders and add it to their CVs)
There is plenty of research that illustrates why and how PBSA contributes to an overall more positive experience while a student is studying. A series of academic research papers from Melbourne’s Deakin University in 2021 (A1) spelt out the numerous and varied benefits and cited a great deal of research conducted over the past three decades.
A longitudinal academic study conducted by the University highlighted:
- Deakin residential students continued to achieve success and retention rates above their non-residential counterparts.
- Residents from low socio-economic backgrounds, and regional or remote home locations, particularly, perform well in comparison to their peers.
How are we different to commercial student accommodation providers?
As a proudly ‘for-purpose’ organisation, our focus is first and foremost on providing excellent care and building a strong community for students living within our accommodation facilities.While we operate so as to ensure we are financially sustainable, as a not-for-profit we don’t have a focus that is of necessity to make a profit for the investor/shareholders, and as a charity we do not have to pay income tax.
This enables us to offer the best quality of pastoral care for the most affordable student accommodation fees, when compared with commercial student accommodation.
Our practices are, importantly, commercially robust as illustrated by retiring the loan for the new facility (Apartments) and being named the winner of the Not-for-profit Award at the 2020 Waikato Business Awards. But they’re also very focused on ensuring that we meet the Pastoral Care Code (PCC). The Code, which came into effect on 1 January 2022, lays out our responsibilities to support the wellbeing of tertiary and international learners. The Trust had already operated in accordance with the voluntary New Zealand Code of Practice for Tertiary Student Accommodation since it was first introduced 2004.
In 2014 the Trust’s accommodation operation sought and attained accreditation as a Tertiary Residential Academic Community upon review by the New Zealand Association of Tertiary Accommodation Professionals (assessed by peers from three different NZATEAP institutional members). (NZATEAP has now merged with APSAA.)
More recently, the Trust had also voluntarily aligned with the more rigorous Asia-Pacific Student Accommodation Association (APSAA) Industry Guidelines established in 2019.
Interested in becoming a partner with Hatch?
We’re looking to partner with great people and organisations in the community to help further enhance our student accommodation offering to domestic and international students. Contact us below.
