Determined effort to move forward at UC, says Treasury Chief Economist

August 28, 2012

University of Canterbury (UC), as a consequence of the earthquakes, is demonstrating a strong determined attitude to move forward, the Treasury Chief Economist Dr Girol Karacaoglu said today.

Dr Karacaoglu visited the UC campus yesterday to encourage university staff and students to collaborate with the public sector at large in policy supporting research.

He said UC was resolute in its efforts to make sure its reputation as a centre of excellence in teaching and research was maintained and indeed enhanced.

``There is a huge and concerted effort going on, very strategic one, supported by a great deal of creative thinking, to increase the inflow of high-quality students and academic staff, from within and outside of New Zealand to UC.

``UC Vice-Chancellor Dr Rod Carr is very determined and optimistic. He is surrounded by some very able and driven senior people supporting him with both the day-to-day challenges they face, but more importantly the strategic issues around protecting the university’s academic credentials and ratings, and thinking of all sorts of strategies to increase the inflow of quality students and faculty to UC.

``It is an extremely impressive effort overall. It was very heartening to observe the absolute focus on academic excellence, and strategies supporting it, throughout our three hour conversations with Rod and colleagues.’’

Dr Karacaoglu said he received a warm reception to the idea of working collaboratively to improve the quality of policy supporting research, to the benefit of all concerned, from the economics and finance staff and students he met.

Under the Government Economics Network (GEN) umbrella, which represents economists of all public sector agencies, a website is being set up that is intended to link up the academic community and the wider public sector towards enhancing the quality of policy supporting research.

He also discussed opportunities to hold some of GEN-organised public debates on key economic-policy issues in Christchurch.

``I am very keen to pursue this in my capacity as the head of GEN. We also had an opportunity to meet with a few PhD students and also encouraged them to link up to and contribute to the GEN research website.

``The UC’s Economics and Finance departments were very engaged with the discussions we had on collaborative economics research ideas. We heard about their research and teaching areas. The lasting impression I had was that they were looking forward not backward – and were very focused on getting on with their teaching and research duties.’’
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