How do we develop tomorrow’s leaders and thinkers today?

by Professor Harlene Hayne - Chair of Universities New Zealand, and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Otago.

The greatest challenge facing New Zealand’s universities is to act as incubators, brain trusts, social critics, businesses and buskers while delivering high quality, internationally competitive education to develop tomorrow’s leaders and thinkers.

Next March, over 20,000 young New Zealanders will attend their first university lecture.  They will arrive with varied preparedness, engagement and ambitions.  Many will be taking the next step in an already successful academic career.  Some will lack fundamental skills in Maths, Science and English.

Some will be away from home for the very first time.  All will be excited.  Most will be nervous.

What do these students want?  They want to study toward an exciting degree at an excellent university that gives them outstanding future job prospects and pay.  They want to learn, be challenged, make friends, and to reach their full potential.  They want to be taught by people who are experts in their fields, engaging and care about their students as people.  This generation is also altruistic - they want to make a difference.  And they want all this at a price they can afford.

What does New Zealand want or need?  While a few sectors - like engineering or medicine - require work-ready graduates, most employers tell us they want graduates with a wide range of soft skills.  These include strong analytical and problem-solving skills as well as good communication skills.  They want team players with a “can do” attitude, and sound academic achievement.

What about the Government?  Not only do they need a skilled workforce, they also need a stream of capable citizens, agile thinkers and future leaders to contribute to our economic growth and our social well-being.  They also need folks with sufficient maturity and self-control to be good parents, neighbours, and members of the communities in which they live.

Against this backdrop of collective needs and aspirations, we know that among that these first year students will be the future leaders, thinkers, innovators, artists and humanitarians of New Zealand.  Based on prior experience, we know that many of them will go on to make important contributions not only to this country, but to the world at large.

These students will go on to conduct ground-breaking research and translate it into useful technology and knowledge.  They will help to cure debilitating diseases, create start-ups that generate new jobs, lead our political, business and social sectors, and teach and influence the generation that follows behind them.  They will also be more likely to vote, earn a higher salary, pay more taxes, and stay healthier relative to their counterparts who did not attend university.

So how can New Zealand’s eight universities successfully deliver on these expectations – given the highly competitive international environment and current constraints on funding?

The education pipeline needs to be joined up and work well, with schools delivering university-ready students with appropriate numeracy, literacy, and personal and social skills.

Quality career information along the pipeline will ensure that students have the right foundation to pursue their preferred study choices.  But the best advice they can receive is to stick to the basics and keep their options open.  Development is about change - including changing your mind about what you want to study once you get to university.

Universities will continue to work with employers to ensure our programmes are relevant and valued, but for the most part, employers have already told us what skills they want.  Nurturing these skills will continue to be an integral part of university education, irrespective of a student’s specific field of study.

As universities, we must be able to attract and retain top international academic staff who deliver quality teaching, based on quality research.  We can do this by ensuring that we have adequate funding streams for research, reasonable staff/student ratios, and continued professional development. We can also attract high calibre academic staff by increasing our universities’ rankings and reputations.

In turn, increased rankings and reputation will also lead to increased numbers of international students who enrich our university environment, help globalise our education offering, and augment our income.  Note that International students currently contribute $900M a year to our GDP.

For a small island nation at the bottom of the world, we do pretty well when it comes to university education, but we can do better.  Our sector knowledge, aspiration, and energy levels are high.

We are committed to working with Government to make our university system the best that it can possibly be.  Collectively, we need to find new ways to unlock funding and increase opportunity.

It is critical that universities continue to nurture and deliver our future thinkers and leaders.  If we succeed, New Zealand succeeds as well.

Adapted from:  Prof Harlene Hayne, 'Sector Voices: challenges currently facing New Zealand education', New Zealand Education Review, December 2014.