11 April 2013 Lincoln University's specialist land-based focus confirmed through research excellence assessment

Today’s release of the Tertiary Education Commission’s Performance-based Research Fund evaluation results confirms Lincoln University’s position as New Zealand’s specialist land-based university.  
 
The Performance-based Research Fund (PBRF) allocates funding to research institutions on the basis of research performance. The 2012* evaluation results released today measure the quality of the researchers – which in turn determines the level of funding New Zealand’s universities will receive for the coming six years.  
 
“The PBRF results are very important to the University and to the individual researchers. The results affect our funding - but they also give a clear indication of the quality of the researchers and research at Lincoln University as measured against benchmarking criteria” says Vice-Chancellor Dr Andrew West. “These results support our position as New Zealand’s specialist land-based university, demonstrating excellence in the core land-based disciplines of agriculture, environmental management and biological sciences with solid support for their application to real world problems through social science, economic and management disciplines. 
 
“Our role as a university focuses on both the productive capacity of land and the longer-term stewardship of resources that enable sustainable communities and settlements. This is demonstrated in both our teaching and our research. The PBRF results confirm that Lincoln University has the country’s highest quality of research per student – ensuring our teaching is research-informed.

“Lincoln University also has the highest amount of external funding for research (measured as income/staff member), demonstrating close links with industry and relevance of the University’s research. The previous PBRF evaluation carried out in 2006 saw over 200 researchers eligible for evaluation. The University’s 2012 figures are similar, and show a positive shift in the results as the quality of the research outputs have increased – including a 70 percent increase in the number of researchers in the highest category. 

“The last few years have been challenging for the University, but the Academic Audit results of 2012, now coupled with the PBRF results, show that not only has Lincoln University shown remarkable resilience through the earthquake and post-earthquake period, but the University has also demonstrated continuous improvements building on quality.  Such independent quality assessments illustrate that Lincoln University is very well placed to continue to support the land-based sectors with relevant qualifications and related research”.

*Data was collated in 2012 for evaluation and results release in 2013.