Meeting the needs of tertiary Muslim students in New Zealand for materials related to Islam

Abstract

The report addresses Muslim Students' preference to access the Muslim texts such as the Qur'an and other materials related to Islam, through a self administered survey of a certain population being national & International Muslim students who are in New Zealand undertaking study at The University of Auckland and Auckland University of Technology (AUT). The survey was carried out on a cluster sample of the Muslim students' population who are members of the Muslim Student Associations (217 members) at the two universities. The sample population of the survey was representative. However, the findings do not claim to be generalisable, as the survey return rate was only 42%. The research clearly found that there are few variations and a high level of consistency in opinion and behaviour of Muslim students at the University of Auckland and AUT. The report investigated the demographic data of the survey population, in addition to their religious obligations, information needs and preferences, and information format preferences (printed versus electronic). Given the sampling limitations, plus the lack of published research in this area, it is hoped that the findings in this study will be seen as a basis for further research rather than as definitive.