Students shun continuing study

By DITA DE BONI

New Zealand universities yield a "below average" number of doctoral students despite the country having one of the world's best-attended higher education systems.

A Ministry of Education briefing paper says New Zealand produces below the OECD average of graduates from advanced research programmes.

Almost 400,000 students will enrol in tertiary education this year - one of the highest rates in the world. And New Zealand is one of the few countries where tertiary education spending has kept pace with growth. But that has not meant significantly more students take their studies to the highest levels.

A lack of highly qualified researchers - especially in science - could harm the country's global competitiveness, says the research paper, which was released last week.

The number of PhD graduates peaked at 476 in 1999. However, in 2000 it fell to 363. Most doctorates were in humanities, followed by biological sciences and then social and behavioral sciences.

Alistair Shaw, spokesman for a new national body of postgraduate students, provisionally called "Level 7", said the cost of studies was prohibitive and there was not enough support, recognition or funding.

"For one thing, there is a five-year limit on student allowances, and so after you've done your undergraduate degree and maybe an honours component, you've basically exhausted that possibility. We have asked the Government to allow PhD students to come under a different [student allowance] category to encourage them, but it refused."

Ken Milne, chairman of the doctoral research committee at Massey University, said that there were not enough doctoral students to meet the country's needs in the next 10-15 years.

"We are not as supportive as Australia in terms of the number of scholarships offered for study at doctoral level or access to money for supporting research.

"There have been efforts by the Government to provide a greater pool of competitive funding for research, but it's still not enough."

Postgraduate students pay, on average, $27,000 a year for a science-based qualification. But many do not stay in New Zealand because the pay is not good enough.

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