Farmers Weekly has thrown up some disturbing statistics.

It reports that just 1.4% of the 10,205 tertiary students in New Zealand undertaking doctoral studies in 2023 had agriculture, environmental and related studies as their predominant field of study.

Neal Wallace wrote:

Despite the primary sector’s economic importance, the number studying in this area of research is declining.

In total just 190 doctoral students undertook agriculture, environmental and related studies, a category that includes subjects in the fields of agriculture, horticulture and viticulture, forestry, fisheries and environmental studies.

Katrina Sutich, the group policy manager at the Ministry of Education, threw some troubling figures into Mr Wallace’s article.

She said the number of students undertaking doctorate studies in agriculture, environmental and related studies in 2023 fell below the 1.5% average for the 2014 to 2023 period.

As a percentage of all doctoral studies over that period, the range was between 1.2% and 1.8%.

“Study in other fields may also contribute to New Zealand’s primary sectors, for example, in biological and chemical sciences, and in veterinary studies,” she said.

“Studies in other fields such as in engineering and related technologies may also benefit the primary sectors by contributing to development of technologies used for food processing for export purposes.”

Of the 2023 students, 80 were domestic and 110 were international and they were enrolled in a least one course that was classified within the agriculture, environmental and related studies domain.

There were 110 studying agriculture, five viticulture and horticulture, 15 forestry, none in fisheries and 55 in environmental studies.

This equates to 185 students, not 190, but the Ministry of Education rounds the numbers hence the difference. Also, a PhD student completes their study over multiple years, therefore, there is an overlap of students ending and starting their courses.

Neal Wallace notes that from 2014 to 2020 there were between 210 and 235 doctoral students studying agriculture, environmental and related studies, but from 2021 numbers fell below 200.

The most common subject for doctoral studies at NZ universities were social and culture at 2115 students, which includes subjects such as political science, human society, law, justice, language, religious studies and sport and recreation.

Natural and physical sciences, which includes mathematics, physics, astronomy, chemical, earth and biological sciences, attracted 2090 students.

There were 1555 health doctoral students, 1535 in engineering and related industries, 825 in management and commerce, 540 in information and technology and 470 in creative arts.

Creative arts included 150 doctoral students in the performing arts and 185 in communication and media studies.

Of the 10,205 doctoral students in 2023, 5775 were domestic students, and 4430 were international.

Source: Farmers Weekly