re
:
think
Winter 2013
10
What’s it like going home?
EVERY year overseas students come to New Zealand
on NZ Aid development scholarships, study here,
then return home hoping to contribute meaningfully
to society. At the University of Waikato, Tongan
student Nautalus Tuituiovai Kaho is in the second
year of her masters degree – studying educational
leadership and writing her thesis on the reintegration
of scholars when they return home.
Nautalus earned her first degree at the University
of Hawai’i and taught secondary school science
for four years in Tonga before deciding to come to
New Zealand to study again.
“It was a hard decision to make, because I’ll have
no position to go back to when I get home, and
because of my broken service, I’ll lose the status I had
before I left.”
The New Zealand government funds the
scholarships to postgraduate students who are
expected to return home and contribute to their
home country in government, civil society or the
private sector.
Nautalus says in Tonga, and probably elsewhere
too, returning scholars are not always used to best
effect. “They are sometimes appointed to jobs that
do not match their qualifications, and often find
it hard to be accepted despite their newfound
knowledge and education.”
For her research, Nautalus will return to Tonga
later this year to talk to former students about
reintegration, what they anticipated following their
study in New Zealand, what actually transpired,
and what obstacles they may have faced. She’s not
convinced students are seen as a good investment by
employers back home. Students go home to fulfil
their scholarship obligations, but once they’ve done
that, Nautalus says they’re likely to leave again to take
up positions they feel more suited to.
“So I hope my research will provide information
that will help students to be recognised as a good
resource and that their skills are matched to their jobs.
From a leadership perspective, it’s about formulating
ways to develop relationships of trust and good
working relationships so that everybody gains.”
Dr Margaret Franken, Chair of Arts and Language
Education at the University of Waikato’s Faculty of
Education, is part of a research programme focused
on recording NZ Aid students’ academic life histories,
which she hopes, like Nautalus’ research, will result
in better outcomes for NZ Aid students.
“I’ve always felt we could do better in our
understanding of what brings international students
to New Zealand, what their backgrounds are, what
drives them, and what their expectations are in
New Zealand and when they return home to work.
NAUTALUS
TUITUIOVAI
KAHO: Ensuring
NZ Aid students
make a significant
contribution when
they return home.
“I know some go home and feel alienated –
strangers in their own place.”
So she and Professor Chris Branson have started
interviewing overseas students when they arrive at
university to gain a rich picture of their experience,
expertise and expectations. “And that may result
in changes to the way the university supports their
academic development.”
Already, Dr Franken works with NZ Aid students
to prepare their research proposals. “All students
find it a bit of a jump from studying taught papers
to working on a research-based thesis, so working
with the overseas students and finding out how to fit
a research paper into their own motivations means
they can plan ahead, get started quickly on their
data collection and complete their degree in the 15
months allocated by the scholarship. Working this
way has certainly resulted in better completions.”
franken@waikato.ac.nz
DR Lars Brabyn, a senior lecturer in geography, and Glen Stichbury,
a spatial analyst for the Environmental Research Institute at the
University of Waikato, are working with the Waikato Regional
Council on a project to map indigenous vegetation and wetlands
throughout the region.
They are aiming to pioneer the use of image analysis software
to do the mapping from high resolution aerial photographs, rather
than the painstaking process of a person mapping each image
individually. Pictured is the Port Waikato area.
Dr Brabyn’s work will be featured at the National Agricultural
Fieldays in June at which the University of Waikato is a strategic
partner. This year’s theme for the four-day event is
Getting Down
to Business in the Global Economy
and will showcase a wide range
of innovative research being undertaken at the university that is
having international impact, focusing on five topics – land, water,
climate, people, and technology.
larsb@waikato.ac.nz
waikato.ac.nz/go/fieldays
New image analysis software for aerial pics
Research tackles
reproductive
technology policy
IF Rebecca Bollard has
her way, government
policy around the use
of assisted reproductive
technologies will be a
whole lot better in
the future.
The University of
Waikato PhD student
has received a $25,000
Auckland Medical Aid
Trust Scholarship to
complete her research into deliberative decision
making and how it could be used to create policy
around assisted reproductive technology.
She says the research could lead to better
policies and when you have better policy, “it is more
accepted and you don’t have to change it so often”.
Rebecca’s PhD is looking at assisted reproductive
technology (ART), such as in-vitro fertilisation,
surrogacy, egg and sperm donation, pre-implantation
genetic diagnosis, and other new technology that is
changing the process of human reproduction.
She argues that such technology brings with
it a gamut of moral, ethical, cultural and religious
objections that current consultation-based policy
making fails to properly represent.
Her research looks at the role deliberative
democracy – a process where citizens get together
and talk to one another to develop policy –
could play and how it could be used to form policy
around ART.
“Policy around reproductive technology is a
difficult topic for governments to tackle because
it’s hard to make policy about something that is so
culturally, religiously, and morally divisive,” she says.
“With ART there is such a diverse range of
stakeholders, so it’s important that any policy is
developed through a deliberative process. This
idea is of particular importance in New Zealand
because our country is unique and diverse, and our
politicians don’t necessarily represent that.”
She has interviewed key people involved in the
field and also held several citizen jury panels.
The citizen juries, she says, involved giving
participants a scenario and asking questions such as:
What do you think about this situation? What would
you do?What do you think should happen to policy?
“It’s what we call sustainable citizenship, it
broadens the ideas. If you get people to talk about
what they think, it’s a good start. People often agree
more than they think they do. If people talk to one
another, it’s harder to dismiss them and you can
build up more specific policy from it,” she says.
“Construction of policy is quite important and
where you put the policy power is important.”
She is also sending out a survey to politicians,
doctors and others with an interest in ART to get
their perspective on the issue. “There are about
50 people in the survey and that will give a more
specific perspective from the field,” she says.
“Things are changing rapidly in ART and if the
issue of a clear and concise policy isn’t discussed,
or the law doesn’t adapt properly, we will have all
this technology with no regulation and there will be
potential for the technology to be abused.”
The $25,000 Auckland Medical Aid Trust
Scholarship provides funds for individuals to
undertake research towards a doctoral degree at a
New Zealand university.
rebecca.bollard@gmail.com
REBECCA BOLLARD