Dialogue: Quality education surest way out of poverty trap

By DAME ANNE SALMOND*

Herald columnist Brian Rudman recently asked how an economically challenged country of 3 million people spread over a land the size of Britain and tucked away at the bottom of the world could dream about having internationally reputable universities.

He labelled himself an old cynic and proposed a stark choice: either we spent our money on health research in such institutions or we spent it on fixing the appalling health problems of tuberculosis, meningitis, infant deaths, glue ear and the like that bedevil low-income communities.

It all depends on what kind of future you see for New Zealand. I want to live in a country where concerted efforts are made in medical schools and elsewhere to find lasting solutions to these problems.

Part of the answer will be highly trained specialists and medical practitioners, and around the world they are taught in universities. Another is health research (also conducted in universities), helping to find better ways of treating and preventing such diseases.

The fundamental factor, though, is that of national wealth and prosperity. How can we ensure that fewer New Zealanders will live in households where illness and low incomes go hand in hand, and where there is little work or hope of a better future?

Tuberculosis, glue ear and the like are diseases associated with poverty. We can continually treat the symptoms at ever-rising rates and in ever-increasing proportions of the population. Or those of us who are neither cynical nor defeated might look for better, more positive outcomes.

We could find smart ways of adding value to local goods and commodities. We might use new technologies to cancel the disadvantages of remoteness and distance. We could seek to ensure that our children, including those from Maori, Pacific Island and low-income families, have skills which prepare them for interesting, challenging work, and which yield social and economic prosperity for themselves and the country.

Ironically, it seems that in modern economies the surest way out of poverty traps and towards positive goals, is education. Across the developed world, earnings and time in employment are enhanced by educational qualifications.

As knowledge becomes a key source of wealth in the global economy, highly educated workers are in demand, particularly those taught in universities. According to the OECD publication Education at a Glance, university graduates across those countries typically earn 30 to 60 per cent more than other tertiary graduates by mid-career (in New Zealand it is 62 per cent).

Yet New Zealand has a relatively low level of university-level qualifications in its population, in particular among Maori, Pacific Island and low-income families. Not a promising recipe for generating a high-income economy or a just society.

Internationally competitive universities, with their capacity to produce highly skilled graduates and generate new knowledge with spin-off enterprises, are important to building a good longer-term future.

Most developed countries are investing strongly in their universities, and trying to ensure that gifted people from all sectors of society have the opportunity to participate and succeed in their programmes.

Basic research is valued as a key contributor to social and economic prosperity in the global knowledge economy, and attracts high levels of support in most countries.

For these reasons I was surprised and dismayed that Rudman chose to decry Professor Peter Gluckman's efforts at the University of Auckland to develop world-leading research teams and spin-off enterprises in biomedical science for this country.

Wielding the scythe that is so often directed at tall poppies in New Zealand, Rudman suggested that Professor Gluckman's work is in direct conflict with the demands posed by the health needs of many Maori and Pacific Islands families. Yet as Dean of the Medical School at the University of Auckland, Professor Gluckman has strongly supported the development of research and teaching on Maori and Pacific Islands health, and (with Professor Colin Mantell) provided visionary leadership to programmes to ensure that many more Maori and Pacific Islands people achieve medical and health science qualifications.

Rudman's comments about the University of Auckland's efforts to deliver internationally excellent teaching and research to this country were equally unfair, and depressing.

Cynicism and defeatism are part of the problem in New Zealand, undermining hope and driving many of our brightest and best out of the country. New Zealand can be prosperous again, and provide exciting and rewarding opportunities for its young people.

But it will only happen if good people and ideas are supported, not knocked, and positive new futures are crafted. Closing the Gaps will be a cruel hoax unless New Zealanders from all walks of life (including Maori and Pacific Islanders and those from low-income families) can acquire internationally competitive skills, and develop their potential to its fullest.

High-quality education, including that offered by research universities, is crucial to such a future. As most developed countries in the global economy have long realised, social and economic prosperity cannot be achieved without it.

* Professor Dame Anne Salmond is Pro Vice-Chancellor (Equal Opportunity) at the University of Auckland.