NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather forecasts

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
    • The Great NZ Road Trip
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
    • Cooking the Books
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • What the Actual
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Business / Economy / Employment

Our degrees don't repay their cost

Herald on Sunday
29 Sep, 2012 05:30 PM5 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Melissa Osgood and Richard Green. Photo / Getty Images

Melissa Osgood and Richard Green. Photo / Getty Images

New international report shows uni study has little effect on salaries.

New Zealand university degrees are the most worthless in the developed world, an international report reveals.

The value of spending years at university has been severely dented by an OECD report that reveals tertiary study adds little to our earning power.

New Zealand is at the bottom of the global league tables. The net value of a man's tertiary education is just $63,000 over his working life, compared with $395,000 in the US. For a Kiwi woman, it's $38,000 over her working life.

The Government says it has already cut the number of poor-quality courses by at least 15 per cent, and wants to reduce or eliminate fees for lower-level qualifications - because students who complete them don't make any money out of their qualification.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

One expert says much of what passes for school or even university education would be better suited to after-school activities. Professor Jacqueline Rowarth of Waikato University's management school said New Zealanders weren't paid well for tertiary qualifications and thousands of students were enrolling in expensive creative arts courses that won't help them get jobs.

The OECD annual report on the state of global education, published this month, reveals that New Zealand tertiary fees were seventh-highest among developed nations.

Rowarth said too many people were going to university. About half dropped out and still more were left with tens of thousands of dollars worth of debt and no job. "They're sold a crock by people telling them to follow their passion. We fund an awful lot of peculiar courses."

That was because people enrolled in courses they would enjoy, she said, so universities got funding for them and put more time into seeing how many more enjoyable subjects they could build up.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Tertiary education minister Steven Joyce, who has a zoology degree, said Government figures showing how much people earned four years after study were more positive. By that measure, those with a bachelor's degree earned 46 per cent more than those with a level-three school qualification.

Joyce said the Government kept an eye on under-performance at the lower levels of tertiary study. There was no improvement in pay for people who had done NZQA level-three and level-four certificates and diplomas. It was not until they reached a level five or six, or a level-seven degree, that earnings increased.

The Government wanted lower-level qualifications to have low or no fees, Joyce said, because there was no earning premium to pay back a loan.

Sir Peter Leitch, who sold his nationwide Mad Butcher business four years ago, said he had wondered what life would be like if he had gone to university. "My life might have been a bit better with an education but then I may not have been so pig-headed and determined."

Discover more

Opinion

Editorial: Unis' low returns

29 Sep 05:30 PM
New Zealand|education

Wanted: inquiring minds

29 Sep 05:30 PM
New Zealand|education

NZ schools get a tick from Brit star Nesbitt

29 Sep 04:30 PM
Opinion

Peter Whitmore: Phonetic spellings would help learners of English

30 Sep 04:30 PM

When he was recruiting, Leitch did not set any store by qualifications. "I used to look people in the eye," he said. "There are two different types of education, academic and street smarts, which I have. I still don't know my alphabet or times tables."

Labour MP Louisa Wall, a vocal supporter of education as a way out of poverty, said the OECD findings were a concern. "The concern I have is the reality of people who get an MA or a PhD going overseas where they are remunerated and valued better."

Employers and Manufacturers Association boss Kim Campbell agreed. People at the top in business weren't paid anything near what counterparts overseas were getting because we didn't have the big companies that paid top dollar.

A top-level executive in New Zealand would be lucky to get 10 times the entry-level pay rate, he said. In the US, it was not uncommon to get 200 times that level.

Campbell said people needed to think about what they wanted to achieve with their qualifications. The Government should consider reinstating interest payments on some student loans. "The loan scheme needs to be adjusted so it's for skills that are essential."

But Auckland University of Technology Vice-Chancellor Derek McCormack said a degree was becoming vital to finding work.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"Any work that isn't human service, [such as] cafe work, anything that can be reduced to an algorithm, automated or sent offshore, will be. The jobs for people with no qualifications won't be there."

Professor Stuart McCutcheon, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Auckland, said his graduate's salaries increased rapidly as they moved to positions of responsibility. "However, wages are lower across the board and if Australia's economy continues to expand at a higher rate than New Zealand's, we will continue to face the brain drain of our most talented graduates," he said.

Qualified successes

One sibling has a master's degree and 18 years' experience in the health sector. The other has a diploma and has been working since school.

Now one is "on the breadline" and the other has an above-average salary but if you think it's the super-qualified Melissa Osgood who has the healthier income, you're wrong.

Osgood changed careers at her brother Richard Green's urging after almost 20 years. After returning from overseas she found it hard to get mental health work.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Green said she'd be a good film producer so she studied film and began working her way up the career ladder again.

"It was a massive pay cut. I've now been poor for three years."

Green ignored expectations he'd go to university and worked overseas before doing a film diploma and setting up the Ugly Shakespeare theatre company, the longest-running theatre education company in New Zealand.

Green said people needed to start at the bottom and work hard.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Employment

Premium
Economy|inflation

Upbeat outlook: Westpac economists see recovery gathering steam

12 May 05:00 PM
Employment

'Like having our throats cut': Couple called into meeting, both told their jobs were gone

11 May 02:32 AM
Premium
Opinion

Liam Dann: In a world of grim news, here are five economic bright spots

10 May 05:00 PM

One tiny baby’s fight to survive

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Employment

Premium
Upbeat outlook: Westpac economists see recovery gathering steam

Upbeat outlook: Westpac economists see recovery gathering steam

12 May 05:00 PM

Strong export prices are helping to drive the economic recovery.

'Like having our throats cut': Couple called into meeting, both told their jobs were gone

'Like having our throats cut': Couple called into meeting, both told their jobs were gone

11 May 02:32 AM
Premium
Liam Dann: In a world of grim news, here are five economic bright spots

Liam Dann: In a world of grim news, here are five economic bright spots

10 May 05:00 PM
Premium
Jobless rate better than expected, part-time worker increase credited

Jobless rate better than expected, part-time worker increase credited

07 May 03:30 AM
Connected workers are safer workers 
sponsored

Connected workers are safer workers 

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • What the Actual
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven CarGuide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP