Professor Chris Akroyd
“To me, what scholarships show students is that we value your current and future contributions,” says Professor Chris Akroyd, Head of UC’s Department of Accounting and Information Systems at UC Business School. “It’s a sense of belief and increases their motivation. And it increases their motivation to give back to others in the community.”
In 2021, when Professor Akroyd first joined UC, he set up the C E Akroyd Memorial Prize in honour of his father, a UC accounting student, for Māori and Pacific accounting students taking Accounting 102 and 103.
“When my dad passed away the year that I came here, I thought it would be really nice to set up a scholarship or prize – it’s a prize at the moment – in his name, because he got a lot of opportunities from being here, and that meant I got a lot of opportunities because of the opportunities he got.”
He was also motivated to set up a prize because his father was the first in his family to go to university. Professor Akroyd knew about the hurdles that is father went through to get his education and wanted to do something for students who were in a similar situation.
I know that little things at certain points in your life can just be huge gamechangers. It can really set you up for those new things and future possibilities.
Despite now having a PhD, two masters, and being head of department, Professor Akroyd says he was a ‘high school dropout’ and he still doesn’t consider himself to be a traditional academic.
It was a progression to get to where he is, and it started with his boss at the factory where he worked in Sydney. His boss wanted to promote him to assistant accountant because he’d already been helping with problem solving in the factory, but couldn’t because he didn’t have a degree.
“My boss talked to his friend at a university up at Lismore. Now it’s called Southern Cross University. I proceeded to fail half my classes in my first year. I started to do much better in my second year.”
He says a few key people enabled him to be where he is today, including his old boss, many great lecturers and the person who enabled him to get his first publication.
“I know that little things at certain points in your life can just be huge gamechangers,” he says. “It can really set you up for those new things and future possibilities.”
He has been giving out the prize for three years and the six students who have received it are, in turn, giving back to their communities by becoming mentors for current first year Māori and Pacific students.
“If someone’s willing to give to them, they’re willing to give back. That’s a really encouraging thing to see from the students; they want to help others who are coming and build a community.”
