MEDIA RELEASE

Degrees in Picking up Rubbish

22 AUGUST 2014
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Responding to the Fairfax media report of a University of Otago survey of Wellington’s street-connected walkways, Taxpayers’ Union Executive Director Jordan Williams says:

“Ten years after it was revealed that high school students were getting NCEA credits for picking up rubbish, our universities are doing academic studies into the graffiti and litter in walkways.”

“We are amazed that a taxpayer funded institution that is supposed to be promoting real science, is putting its name to this. A toddler could alert you that an alleyway is dirty, but at Otago it appears to count as academic study.”

"Otago's bi-line 'Your place in the world' should be more aspirational than counting graffiti and rubbish."

“Taxpayers pay for Otago University to produce real science, and for the Wellington City Council to maintain its walkways. Our advice to both is to stick to their knitting, rather than be lead by spin and ’surveys’ that are self-evident.”

ENDS

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