Testament To University Research Quality

4 May 2007

Evaluation Testament To University Research Quality

The outcome of the latest Performance-Based Research Fund quality evaluation is further confirmation of the university sector’s vital contribution to the national research effort, according to the NZ Vice-Chancellors’ Committee, the representative body for the country’s eight universities.

NZVCC chair Professor Roy Sharp says it is pleasing to note the increase in quality in the three years since the last PBRF quality evaluation as evidenced by the 24 per cent increase in the average university score, as opposed to the overall average increase of 14 per cent.

A further positive is the significant growth in the number of university researchers assessed as world leading. Nearly 10 per cent of university researchers fell into this category, and in all more than 80 per cent of university staff were identified as active researchers, a 20 per cent increase on the 2003 evaluation. A further six per cent of university researchers were identified as emerging researchers for the future.

Universities supported the PBRF as the prime vehicle for university research funding and advocated increasing the fund beyond the $250 million target set for 2010. As a quality-based exercise, the PBRF had rewarded research excellence and made the link between research funding and quality far more explicit.

“The fund has encouraged university academic staff to concentrate more on research, as reflected by the significant increase in quality scores by all eight universities,” Professor Sharp says.

ENDS

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