Govt responsible for varsity ranking slide

Govt responsible for varsity ranking slide

The latest QS World University Rankings show a continuing trend of New Zealand universities sliding down the rankings ladder.

“With more universities, and particularly more East Asian universities, spending large amounts of money to increase their research, quality and reputation it is no easy task for New Zealand universities to hold their place, ” says TEU vice-president Sandra Grey. “But that task is made near impossible by a government that has cut hundreds of millions of dollars out of tertiary education in the last five years.”

A significant component of the criteria QS uses to rank universities is their staff: student ratio. In New Zealand staff: student ratios have risen from 17.5 students per academic in 2007 to 19 students per academic in 2012.

“We are moving in the wrong direction,” says Sandra Grey. “New Zealand academics are highly regarded, and are involved in world class research and teaching. But falling government funding means they face larger lectures and tutorials, more administrative workload that takes time away from research and teaching, and stagnant pay.”

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