Postgrad students suffer stipend squeeze, universities say

Jenny Sinclair 29 April 2023

A parliamentary committee in New Zealand has heard that stagnating public funding for university stipends is skewing the profile of the early career research workforce and reducing the number who can be supported, writes Jenny Sinclair for Research Professional News.

In a briefing session conducted by the Education and Workforce Committee on 5 April, Universities New Zealand chief executive Chris Whelan said that “New Zealand’s postgraduate workforce no longer looks like the rest of New Zealand”, partly because of inadequate stipends.

“Huge numbers of students are only able to study because they can pay their [own] way through university,” he said. Universities “can’t get sufficient support to be able to grow the number of students able to get those qualifications”.
Full report on the Research Professional News site

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