26 January 2007 Lincoln qualifications respected worldwide

Overseas demand for Kiwi qualified accountants, doctors, nurses and teachers is well known and degrees in these fields are international passports to employment. Less widely known is the strong impression New Zealand agricultural science graduates make on overseas employers.

Lincoln University's agricultural science degree and associated postgraduate qualifications are very highly regarded internationally, says Associate Professor Derrick Moot, who year after year sees many of his students successfully land good professional positions overseas.

"Naturally we don't want to lose these people from New Zealand, but in the long term it's good for the country that they should travel overseas and broaden their experience and establish networks and contacts internationally," he says.

"After all, New Zealand agriculture is an export industry and exists in a global context. Those working in agriculture either at the production end as farmers or on the research side as scientists have to know what the world wants and how the world works.

"Eventually most of those who travel overseas return home and take up positions on the land, in scientific organisations or in other situations in New Zealand."

Among Associate Professor Moot's former students whose Lincoln qualifications have taken them overseas is BAgrSc (Honours) and PhD graduate Dr Hamish Brown.

Originally from a sheep and beef farm in Cromwell, Central Otago, Hamish was a top student at Lincoln winning a Bright Future Top Achievers Doctoral Scholarship for his PhD study.

"As with most of our agricultural students they are 'head hunted' by employers and lined up with jobs before they graduate,” says Associate Professor Moot.

In Hamish's case he had job offers in Australia and Palmerston North and also considered a position in Germany, but turned them down in favour of a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Institute of Crop Science in Japan, at Tsukuba near Tokyo. His work there was investigating late moisture stress on rice crops.

Now back in New Zealand, Hamish is a crop physiologist with Crop and Food Research Ltd in Lincoln, working in the Crop Physiology and Agronomy Group.

At the close of 2006 Associate Professor Moot farewelled another crop of agricultural science students who had completed their studies.

"The majority went straight into jobs," he says. "Others were going on to postgraduate work, and others were setting off on their OE's. Whatever path our current graduates take, they've all got a very 'in demand ' qualification and the employment market for them is buoyant."

Ian Collins, Communications Group, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand