A report published by the Productivity Commission on tertiary education last week has highlighted that the current funding model incentivises research over teaching.
It claims that both the Performance-Based Research Fund (PBRF) and international rankings systems encourage tertiary education providers to focus on specific fields of research, and to invest in research to the detriment of education.
The report, which was commissioned by the New Zealand Government, has been met with criticism by University of Otago Vice Chancellor Harlene Hayne.
It also recommends that the government reviews the current PBRF scheme to mend the apparent “imbalance in tertiary education institutions incentives to prioritise research as opposed to teaching.”
Vice-Chancellor Harlene Hayne has criticised the idea that teaching and research are independent - “it’s a case of maximising the synergies between the two … research and teaching are synergetic.”
Hayne told the Otago Daily Times that, “Given that our teaching revenue stream is 2.3 times greater than our research review stream, the financial incentive is to prioritise teaching.”
Additionally, Hayne further disagreed with the financial incentives referenced in the report. Last year Otago, while surpassing most universities with $170 million in research funding.
Hayne points out that “Otago clearly excels at teaching as indicated by winning the Prime Minister’s Supreme Award for teaching for the past 5 consecutive years and by the excellent performance of our students in the national TEC indicators.”
“The reality that great researchers typically make great teachers – and that research and teaching are synergetic - is regularly demonstrated by the success of many of Otago’s top researchers in the national tertiary teaching awards.”