No AU students studying abroad in New Zealand were harmed by Feb. 21’s 6.3-magnitude earthquake, according to AU Abroad adviser Brita Doyle.
Eleven students are studying at Victoria University of Wellington, located on the north island and two students are studying at the University of Otago in the city of Dunedin on the south island, according to Doyle.
Though the earthquake occurred in Christchurch, a south island city, both universities were unaffected.
AU Abroad contacted students to confirm that no one was in the devastated area.
One student was traveling near Christchurch, but left the area the morning before the earthquake.
“When we heard of the incident, we reached out to all students in New Zealand to ask them to contact us to let us know that they are okay, even though the earthquake was not in the locations where they are studying,” Doyle said in an e-mail.
Because of the universities’ distance from Christchurch, AU Abroad does not feel the need to evacuate its students or change plans for their study abroad programs, according to Doyle.
All orientation sessions, classes and activities are continuing as scheduled.
“We’ve been in touch with our university partners and we are all monitoring the situation by paying close attention to the news and to our partner university communications,” Doyle said.
At least 200 to 300 people are missing and 123 have been found dead, making the earthquake New Zealand’s deadliest natural disaster in 80 years.
rkaras@theeagleonline.com
