1 February 2001 Agricultural science figures and graduates response to statement by Dr Warren Parker of Ruakura

Response by Professor Tony Bywater, Director of the Animal and Food Sciences Division at Lincoln University and former Professor of Farm Management:

"Dr Parker raises some good points and we have been making some of them ourselves in recent times.

"As far as enrolment numbers in agriculture are concerned, it has to be said that school-leavers and other potential students have not recognised the huge range of employment opportunities offered by the sector. So the agricultural degree enrolment position since 1995 has been generally stable and not characterised by growth.

"This is in contrast to the period 1990-1995 when there was a 45 percent increase in agricultural degree enrolments.

"This levelling off of enrolment growth has therefore, through the EFTS or 'bums on seats' system of funding universities, impacted on financial resourcing. And it has to be pointed out that agricultural education is an expensive area and the funding system doesn't recognise the real costs involved such as land and flocks and herds of production animals.

"Lincoln would however refute absolutely Dr Parker's implied point that a youthful staff necessarily equates with quality education. Lincoln has a very experienced group of academic staff in the agricultural area. Perhaps we would like to see the balance tilt to the younger end of the scale but we would defend absolutely the quality of the material delivered. Indeed Assistant Professor Hamish Gow of the University of Illinois, a Lincoln graduate and experienced international academic, says Lincoln University probably has 'the best farm management teaching programme in the world – 20 years advanced on anyone else.'"

Adding to this comment, Professor Bywater points out that the leadership and experience of his longer serving staff members has seen research groups in his Animal and Food sciences Division achieve international acclaim for their work in areas as diverse as the neuro-degenerative disorder Batten Disease, foot rot in sheep, meat tenderisation and colouration, parasitism and mineral metabolism.

"Indeed, it is to the credit of the academic staff who have remained in agriculture that with increasing workloads, diminishing resources and a generally challenging tertiary environment they have maintained the quality of their work and preserved the reputation of Lincoln. They in fact deserve accolades for doing so."

Over the past two years the total number graduating from Lincoln University in the areas of agriculture, horticulture, forestry, viticulture and oenology, combined as one single primary sector grouping, has remained fairly stable.

At the 1999 graduation, 20% of those receiving degrees and diplomas came from that combined group. At the 2000 graduation the figure was 19%.

That's the overall picture, but breaking it down to the individual areas and the figures for those graduating within each, the numbers are a bit more variable –

1999

Agriculture: 106

Horticulture: 26

Forestry: 3

Viticulture & Oenology: 19

2000

Agriculture: 90

Horticulture: 19

Forestry: 21

Viticulture & Oenology: 33

Of course the rawness of these figures masks a whole lot of explanatory detail starting with the fact that someone graduating in 2000 with a four-year Agricultural Science degree, for example, would have had to enter the course back at the start of 1996 or earlier, and made the decision to do so in 1995 or earlier. You have to ask yourself therefore, what was going on in farming back then? Was it a time when it was/wasn't seen as an attractive career?

That's where explanations for these sort of figures have to start – back when the students made the decision to enter a particular course.

The growth in numbers receiving the viticulture & oenology qualifications is easy to trace to the on-going positiveness of the grape-growing and wine making industries. Unlike farming, which has always been prone to ups and downs, the grape/wine industry has enjoyed a steady buoyancy in its relatively short life. The three-year degree people would have made their decisions to enter in 1996.

Forestry too has enjoyed a positive image in recent years and the figures for the year 2000 no doubt reflect this. Note that the forestry degree offered by Lincoln University is the Bachelor of Commerce (Forestry) which prepares people for management positions within the industry.

Ian Collins, Journalist, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand.