Aotearoa New Zealand’s economic trajectory has long been characterised by its reliance on primary commodities, such as unprocessed forestry exports, where high volume and relatively low value are common.
Successive governments have recognised the need to shift towards a more knowledge-intensive economy – one that fosters innovation, higher productivity and greater value.
This transition is not only about economic growth. It also carries an implicit social contract promising improved living standards, better public services and support for vital societal outcomes.
But over the past two decades, New Zealand has fallen short when it comes to diversifying its national income and cultivating a high-value, high-knowledge workforce.
This is particularly the case when it comes to funding higher research degrees and doctoral graduates – the very individuals we need to drive our future high-tech industries.
But over the past two decades, New Zealand has fallen short when it comes to diversifying its national income and cultivating a high-value, high-knowledge workforce.
This is particularly the case when it comes to funding higher research degrees and doctoral graduates – the very individuals we need to drive our future high-tech industries.
Funding squeeze
Studying at a postgraduate level in New Zealand has been financially draining for many students.
In 2013, eligibility for student allowances was removed for students studying above the honours level. Students had to be financially independent, borrow or receive a stipend (an annual scholarship from a university for a period of study) for masters and doctoral-level research.
And while universities spent NZ$82 million on scholarship stipends for doctoral students in 2022, government funding per student across all levels of study has declined by 16%. At the same time, university costs have typically increased by around 1.4 times the consumer price index.
University funding for doctoral stipends has been largely static (and crucially declining in real terms) over the past eight years. In 2021, the average doctoral stipend was less than the minimum wage.
Funding for the Centres of Research Excellence (CoRE) and the Performance Based Research Fund (PBRF) – sources of financial support for researchers – has also been largely static since 2016 and 2018 respectively, with a consequential decrease of 19% in real dollar terms for both since 2019.
Last year, all of New Zealand’s universities increased the value of doctoral stipends. But the higher stipends are being drawn from the same static funding sources, making it more difficult to increase the number of doctoral students.
In fact, the number of doctoral students has declined since 2019 due to funding pressure. This 6.6% decline between 2019 and 2023 contrasts with the slight 1.3% increase in Australia between 2019 and 2022.
The economic value of higher education
The decline in doctoral students is a bellwether for the health of New Zealand universities. But, more importantly, it is diminishing and delaying the prospect of the country growing a “higher knowledge and value” economy.
There’s a strong correlation between a country’s per-capita gross domestic product and the number of doctoral graduates residing within its borders. According to research from Universities New Zealand, a 10% increase in higher education research spending would eventually increase GDP by 1.75% to 1.84%.
New Zealand is not investing anywhere near enough in higher research degrees and doctoral graduates, especially if we want them to be the core of a future high-tech workforce.
Building back better
All is not lost, however. The current government has commissioned two parallel reviews of the science system and university sector. Review recommendations will be released in the coming months.
If the reviews call for more money, the government will need to weigh these up against other investments, such as in health and infrastructure.
However, New Zealand’s university sector must not fall again into the trap of benign neglect and unintended consequences.
To secure the economic future, the government must prioritise funding for higher research degrees, incentivise doctoral studies, and nurture the next generation of experts and innovators. Only then can New Zealand move toward a high-value, high-knowledge economy – one that fulfils the promise of improved living standards and robust public services.
Ian Wright, Professor in Marine Geology, University of Canterbury This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article HERE.
13 comments:
Considering the holders of utterly useless PhDs infesting Parliament (Megan Woods anyone?) perhaps the lack of students is a good thing. Any Government funding should be directed towards the STEMs subjects in the hope that the country/long suffering taxpayer gains some benefit from the resulting study and research.
Maybe people have better things to do than get a corrupted, woke, wonkey CRT infested socioethnic eugenisised academic PhD from a corrupted, woke, wonkey CRT infested academic institution in NZ....
Look at how we now treat Science and Engineering like somehow myth, legend and affectations can reflect upon them and strengthen their legitamicy?
I'd suggest that most genuine scientists and engineers both here and overseas laugh out loud at the pompous absurdity of this ethno 'ways of seeing' narrative infesting realities like 'Physics'.....
PS when did the countrys name change to Aotearoa New Zealand? Maybe that is a key marker right there.
When an if the citizens in their entirety get to choose the name then and only then should it change.
Using the affectational name as a professional speaks about said professionalism.
I totally support the above contributors' statement. The lack of free speech has reinforced my belief our educational institutions are dangerous and unwholesome places of woke indoctrination.
I come from a family that has produced graduates for three generations. I now look around for alternatives in higher learning for my grandchildren. Working on the garbage truck would seem more worthwhile than learning how to spread Marxist activism into society, which is what many courses now seem to be hellbent on producing.
When is someone going to create alternative tertiary education promoting real traditional education ?
Prof Wright the name of this country is New Zealand NOT aotearoa New Zealand.
Erica, send your grandkids to polytech and/or get them into apprenticeships. They'll likely get good job offers even before they graduate. In some Western European countries the pendulum has swung right away from varsity back to 'technical' education and little wonder - shorter courses, less debt, and far better job prospects!
Sorry Professor Wright, but I share the scepticism of the above about the current wholesomeness of NZ universities - some admittedly, worse than others. I think there are whole departments getting on with intelligent, thoughtful research, but the woke ninnies are the ones grabbing the headlines.
Surely it's not the numbers of candidates doing Phd's, it's the numbers doing theses that add to the knowledge pool on matters that are of a tangible benefit to humanity and, hopefully, our country? Far too many are spending their time and our money on totally worthless endeavours and, if you require some examples, just have a look at what the TPU recently identified relative to the Health Research Council and the NZRS Marsden Fund. Quite simply they're a waste of time and money.
Come on everyone, let's be fair to Prof Wright - his position would be in jeopardy if he didn't refer to Aotearoa, encourage others to waste years of their lives, build up huge debt chasing a diploma that probably never serve the community well.
How much PhD time is wasted here in NZ on compulsory Maori culture, doctrination, and matauranga "science" ?
Isn't it great that research has proven that Maori gods create earthquakes in NZ - but only NZ ?
Maybe true in the past but not today.
With Unis offering a plethora of worthless degrees, which lead on to valueless PhDs, there is little or no connection to knowledge or the economy.
Sorry, Prof. You and yours only have yourselves to blame.
Given the trash which has been successfully submitted for PhDs in the recent past, a fall in numbers might actually be a good thing.
i wish the author did a study of thesis submitted in the last few years across all NZ universities. that might provide an insight into whether most phd students are researching anything of relevance to NZ directly or indirectly. there's quite a bit of research that's based on another country to an extent that one would doubt if the student should have pursued their phd in another country to begin with. i'm sure there's some amazing research being done here, but i think the value of that contribution is highly over-rated.
The Green party are in the dilly dally process of getting nothing done to get rid of Darleen Tana so they can bring up to the trough one Benjamin Doyle. He has a master in something and the following is the abstarct of that thesis.....
Read and weep:
'Here is a Master’s thesis crafted with, by, and for Rangatahi Takatāpui. It represents a labour of love for the community to which I belong, and seeks to generate understanding about the factors that enable LGBTQI+ Māori youth to embody and enact Tino Rangatiratanga. Principles of Kaupapa Māori Theory provide a paradigm through which this research is conducted, with particular attention paid to the Indigenous Research Agenda. Importantly, this rangahau seeks to offer an alternative to the conventions of hegemonic empirical academia by centering the voices and lived experiences of those who have historically been subjected to the dehumanising objectification of Western research practices. Through the methodological approach of wānanga, and within a Tikanga Māori framework of Āta, or cultural safety, twelve Rangatahi Takatāpui participated in a two day workshop at Te Kohinga Mārama Marae. Over the course of both days, co-researchers shared personal testimonies about their experiences navigating the world as Queer Indigenous peoples, as well as the dreams and aspirations they have for collective self-determination. These accounts ultimately inform the narrative storying employed to convey the key findings of this research, which are described as Mana Tuakiri (identity), Mana Hapori (belonging), Mana Moemoeā (vision), and Mana Wero (challenges). To make sense of the findings presented in this rangahau, a model is developed which takes inspiration from Te Takarangi, the double spiral motif common in both Toi Māori (art) and Te Tai Ao (the natural world). Utilising the cyclical and intersecting patterns of Te Takarangi, the four main themes of this research are explored through a progressive layering of personal, interpersonal, and societal relationships in order to provide insight into how best Rangatahi Takatāpui can be supported to enact Tino Rangatiratanga. Ultimately, this research present nine key factors to be addressed and implemented in order to achieve this aspiration, including a call for conscientisation (both the self and the collective), resourcing and support, the removal of barriers to access, community intersectional reflexivity, space for collective Indigenous dreaming, and an ongoing commitment to Te Tiriti justice.'
If this doesn't answer everything we need to know about the state of NZ and our Universities then we literally deserve all that is coming.
I did laugh at the idea of 'space for collective Indigenous dreaming' because in my world that space is at night in bed or at school bored shirtless....
Sad to see how many commenters are ignoring the main theme of the post - that we have fewer people deeply exploring PhD topics in science, engineering and health that could support our economy and social environment to have a little whine about "wokeness".
As to comments about "useless" degrees without degrees in health, science, engineering and agriculture (to name just a few) you would have even more difficulty seeing a health professional and the New Zealand economy would be more of a disaster than it is.
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