Tag Archives: Funding

Stuart McCutcheon on Education Funding

Posted on by Brad Heap

The Vice-Chancellor of Auckland University has an interesting article in the Herald today about education funding:

Over the last thirty years, our educational institutions have created a $2.3 billion per annum export education industry – now the fifth largest export earner in the country. We can surely do it again with research.

So what would I do to bring about this change?

I would invest in education, valuing our teachers – from pre-school to professors – as the professionals they truly are. I would focus on supporting our most able students to continue on to postgraduate study and research careers, rather than terminating the very scholarships that keep our best doctoral students in New Zealand, as the government has recently done.

The removal of the highest value scholarships for PhD students by the incoming National government was an incredibly silly thing to do.

Look at the number and value of scholarships available to Australians and New Zealanders provided by the Australian Government. Look at the way they are offering massive incentives to our young doctors to move to the lucky country. It is little wonder we have such a big brain drain when our smartest are being snatched by our neighbour. And it will require more than a rugby team and national pride to keep them here.

Sadly New Zealand has been reducing its investment in the tertiary education of each student for 20 years, choosing instead to directly support students, most recently with interest free loans. This must inevitably compromise the quality of education and research at a time when other countries are investing heavily in these areas.

Interest free student loans are a good thing for supporting students and giving them opportunities they would have been unable to otherwise afford. However, as I blogged a few days ago there needs to be much tighter controls on who is allowed at university to reduce wasteful spending on those who are never going to complete their degree.

I would concentrate our research investment on “blue skies” projects, the kind that will create radical innovation, and with it undreamt-of opportunities.

After all, the single most important technology in New Zealand’s history, refrigeration, came out not because of attempts to preserve dairy and meat products so they could be exported – though that was what it achieved – but rather from fundamental university research on the thermodynamics of expanding gases.

At the moment a lot of new products come out of private enterprise in New Zealand. Most of these products are not mainstream consumer products either but rather for specialised industry. However, little of these products are information sciences based, instead they are physical products. Investing in information sciences based research at university and CRI level makes sense. If we want to succeed in the knowledge economy we must first join it (by getting into the top half and higher of the OECD averages) then we must actively lead the way in new ventures in the economy and not just follow what others are doing. How about getting past web 2.0 and start thinking about cloud 3.0?

NZ Education Cuts Start To Hurt

Posted on by Brad Heap

From: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10589738

He believes that if the Government does not lift its cap on student numbers, universities could be forced to turn away school leavers with University Entrance for the first time in living memory.

Again the question must be asked, what happened to the knowledge economy and life long learning?

However, universities have been stripped of doctoral scholarship funding and $37 million in small funding, including cuts to adult community education that have caused widespread outcry.

This will only make the brain drain larger not smaller.

Professor McCormack, who is also deputy chairman of the New Zealand Vice Chancellors Committee, said what was most worrying was the fact universities had not been given any money to cope with students queuing at their gates.

This year, AUT got 14,000 applications from new students – up from 11,000 to 12,000 in each of the previous five years – and rolls had risen to 5.5 per cent above funding levels.

AUT has a roll of about 20,000 this year.

But despite soaring demand, Education Minister Anne Tolley has told the university it will be penalised if its student numbers top 3 per cent of its cap.

Professor McCormack said the university sector was not asking for a lot of money – just tens of millions from a billion-dollar Budget – to help address the high number of students wanting to get in.

Ms Tolley said yesterday that she was watching the situation carefully and working with the Vice Chancellors’ Committee.

Watching the situation will not make things better, action is required to improve it.

The University of Auckland’s vice chancellor, Professor Stuart McCutcheon, shared Professor McCormack’s concerns, particularly on the loss of doctoral scholarships.

He said his university decided this year not to increase its roll numbers and was now selecting students with “high ability” for all its courses, with the aim of encouraging them through a graduate programme.

The prospect of qualifying school-leavers been turned away from universities has worried student leaders.

Jordan King, a co-president of the New Zealand Union of Students Associations, said he would be “highly concerned at any situation where school-leavers who have the appropriate qualifications at the end of high school are unable to access tertiary education”.