The Te Rau Puawai programme is an attempt to change the nature of the Maori mental health workforce. To do this, Maori with aspirations to work, or to continue to work in the mental health workforce, are supported, financially and academically, to complete a tertiary qualification relevant to the field. To evaluate the Te Rau Puawai programme, the Ministry of Health commissioned the Maori and Psychology Research Unit of the University of Waikato in July 2001. The overall aim of the evaluation was to provide the Ministry with a clearer understanding of the programme including: the perceived critical success factors, the barriers if any regarding Te Rau Puawai, the impact of the programme, the extent to which the programme may be transferable, gaps in the programme, and suggested improvements. The evaluation team set out to gather the experiences and perspectives of recipients of Te Rau Puawai services by asking all bursars to complete a questionnaire and volunteer for follow up interviews or focus groups. Sixty two bursars responded to our questionnaire, and we complete focus group or individual follow up interviews with 19 bursars.