Tagged: PhDs

40% of our post-doctoral fellowships gone? Who’s to blame? - A Measure of Science

Shaun Hendy • May 27, 2012 •

’Are we failing our scientists?’ asks Nikki MacDonald in last Saturday’s Dominion Post. MacDonald posed this question after obtaining figures from the Ministry of Science and Innovation showing that the number of post-doctoral positions funded by the Ministry fell from 386 in 2007/8 to 323 in 2009/10.  And this decline occurred before the government had axed the New Zealand Science … Read More

Key speech highlights high-tech manufacturing - A Measure of Science

Shaun Hendy • Feb 12, 2010 •

In his speech to Parliament earlier this week, John Key signalled that supporting high-tech manufacturing would be a priority for his Government.  As my colleague Richard Blaikie, Director of the MacDiarmid Institute, pointed out in his newsletter last week to MacDiarmid Institute researchers, New Zealand is becoming increasingly reliant on high-tech industry for our export receipts: New Zealand’s high-tech … Read More

What is a karonkka? - A Measure of Science

Shaun Hendy • Nov 05, 2009 •

I’m on my way to Helsinki at the moment to examine a Finnish PhD thesis. The University of Helsinki PhD exam is quite different from its New Zealand counterpart. To start with the thesis itself is a merciful 40 pages, although it is accompanied by 6 refereed journal articles. Overall the body of work is roughly comparable to a good … Read More