Prime Minister honours top policy researchers

10 October 2006

Prime Minister honours top policy researchers

The top scholars in Victoria University’s public policy, public management and strategic studies programmes will receive their prizes from Prime Minister, the Rt Hon Helen Clark, at the School of Government’s fourth anniversary celebrations tonight.

The School of Government was launched by Miss Clark in 2002 and is the home of the University’s public policy, public administration and strategic studies programmes.

The anniversary celebrations will be held in Lecture Theatre 1, Rutherford House, Pipitea Campus, starting at 5.30pm tonight.

Vice-Chancellor, Professor Pat Walsh, said the University appreciated Miss Clark’s ongoing support for the School and its programmes and students.

“In four years, the School has established itself as a leader in public policy analysis and research and New Zealand’s pre-eminent centre for the education of public sector leaders, building on Victoria’s long-standing reputation in this field. The University is proud to be a founding partner, with the New Zealand Government, in the Australia & New Zealand School of Government and to have established a strategic partnership with the States Services Commission to enhance the capability of the New Zealand public sector.”

Miss Clark will present five prizes. The three Prime Minister’s Prizes are for the best all-round academic performance in public policy, public management and strategic studies. The Bernard Galvin Prize is awarded annually to a student in the School who has demonstrated the best application of economic analysis to public policy or public management while the Holmes Prize is awarded for the best research paper or thesis in the Master of Public Policy, Public Management or Strategic Studies programmes.

The winners of the Prizes are:

- Grace Campbell-Macdonald, Senior Policy Analyst in the Ministry of Education, will receive the Prime Minister’s Prize for Public Policy for her research on developing an analytical framework to assess the challenges to achieving a fair resource allocation process in tertiary education following the 2002 tertiary education reforms;

- Anna Mills, an Advisor with Child Youth & Family Services, will receive the Prime Minister’s Prize in Public Management for research which involved a literature review to assess whether child protection services had made use of the error literature to analyse child deaths or injury;

- Rebecca Lineham, a Policy Officer with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade, will receive the inaugural Prime Minister’s Prize in Strategic Studies and the Holmes Prize for her research which examined the democratic accountability of the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI); and

- Squadron Leader Carol Abraham, who is serving at Headquarters, Joint Forces New Zealand, will receive the Bernard Galvin Prize for research that applied economic literature to an examination of international influences on the historical development of New Zealand’s air transport industry.

ENDS

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