The NZ university system

Universities are a vital part of modern society and are important not just for teaching but also for research and the development of society as a whole.  As centres of research excellence they play an important role in economic transformation and development.

Universities help society by increasing the skills and knowledge base and in the acquisition of the skills necessary for the professions such as medicine, law,teaching, accounting and engineering.

Universities in New Zealand are autonomous, publicly funded institutions.

As institutions of higher learning, universities are involved not only in the basic skills needed in the profession but also in what can be called basic life skills – analysis, flexible thinking, communication, adaptation and innovation.

That is, universities don’t just train, they educate. Universities also enhance society through their contribution to our understanding of social issues and our achievement of social, economic and physical well-being.

New Zealand is a research and teaching hub with eight Universities across the country, providing a diverse range of opportunities for academics, researchers and teachers looking for both career development and a rich work life balance in one of the most beautiful countries in the world.

Click on one of the universities below to find out more information
  

Research

The universities play a prominent part in the New Zealand research environment. The research and teaching functions of the universities are required to be closely interdependent and they are expected to meet international standards of research.

The biennial Research and Development Survey, conducted in 2016 by Statistics New Zealand NZ jointly with the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), showed that the universities are responsible for one-third of New Zealand’s expenditure on research and development. The universities conduct the majority of the fundamental research that is integral to innovation and the development of new products and processes.
In addition, the universities are home to the majority (65%) of the country’s researchers, as the following figures from the 2016 survey show.

All of the universities have established commercialisation entities to capitalise on the fast-growing research outputs of the universities. Today the results of our eight universities’ efforts to commercialise their research outputs amount to a business worth over $500 million a year.