High quality agricultural education is needed to grow the rural economy into the future. In my opinion Lincoln University lost its way over the last 20 years focusing on "buying students" in many areas of education, just to survive, rather than focus on agriculture.
Lincoln always has been a small campus and needs to specialise in areas of expertise, and when they rebranded "NZ's specialist land based University" it was felt they were back on track. It was also very disapointing that the AgResearch/Lincoln partnership failed, as it would have focused this university solely on agriculture.
However it appears change may be in name only, as resources to handle the growing agricultural student intake are not expanding with it. It was reported to me that one of the respected leaders of Lincoln Prof Jim Stewart believed his job in Farm management should be one third teaching, one third research and one third extension.
Due to limited resources this has been lost in agriculture at Lincoln, with now most of the time spent lecturing. Once that strong link with practical farmers is weakened by less research and extension, so will the quality of the education delivered.
I have just learnt that the University is to disband its Professional Development Group - the organisers of iconic events such as the Kellog Farm Leadership programme, the South Island field days, and South Island Dairy Event, resulting in a loss of key experienced staff. These programmes were reported to be profitable, and added largely to Lincolns agricultural profile, and it's not clear if the university has any plan to continue its involvement with these events.
The directors are blaming Government funding caps for difficulty in finding money for increased staff resources, but they need to look harder at non agricultural courses at Lincoln that are not supported by enough students and over resourced by staff.
Field trips by students to farms to learn "at the coal face", have always been Lincolns point of difference in developing graduates with all round skills, who quickly integrated into the work force. This is more expensive to achieve, and policy makers and directors at Lincoln should remind the Agricultural Minister to remember the value in that.
Share with us your views on the direction of agricultural education. Will NZ have the skills in agricultural in the future, to grow more food for the world and are we investing enough resources into it?
3 Comments
Lincoln University is in a position to strenthen itself as an agricultural specialist and has some very talented people with good skills that they are going to let go. The disbanding of the proffesional development unit is such a shame and waste of excellent resources. I was involved in the Kellogs program 6 years ago and in the intervening years have had contact and mentoring from this group and think it such a backward step the university is taking. It is a short term step and the university should be looking more at the big picture.
The probems at Lincoln are considerable. But one key issue is that funding for many of the agricultural courses is hopelessly inadequate. The Government funds courses in farm management and agribusiness at the same generic rate as commerce subjects. This means that we are trying to run field trips, field tours and farm case studies with the same funding per student as is provided for commerce courses which can be taught to big classes wholly in the lecture room or online.
At Lincoln we still do our best to teach high quality farm management and agribusiness courses. I am proud of what we achieve with very limited resources. We still persist with field trips and case studies, as we believe these are fundamental to teaching the principles of farm and agribusiness management. And we are very grateful for the assistance we get from many farmers and agribusiness people whom we visit, and who come into our lecture rooms. But at times we tear our hair out in frustration. Trying to run field trips with up to 140 students, with only one lecturer, is extremely challenging. Even with small clasess, case study teaching is much more demanding than teaching from a textbook.
A long time ago when I studied farm management at Lincoln under Sir James Stewart, he and his colleagues taught us in a group of about 30. The learning and discussions that could be acheived in that situation were of high order. As you point out, Jim also had the time to be doing relevant research and spending time with rural industry. By today's standards, the teaching commitments were very modest. All of this had an impact on the quality of the education we received..
Most agricultural faculties in the world now teach their farm management solely from the classroom. As a consequence, farm management has largely died as a university level subject. However, at Lincoln we still persist with taking large groups out onto farms. Perhaps that is why students keep enrolling in our courses. But at times I despair about the choices we have to make. It would be wonderful if staff had the time the teach their courses, undertake research to underpin that teaching, and also spend time working with rural industry. In the ten years I have been back at Lincoln, no farm management staff member has taken a study leave. We could not afford to lose anyone for a semester.
We are unable to change things working from within. If the rural community thinks that tertiary education in farm management, farming systems, and agribusinessat Lincoln University is important, then the community needs to start lobbying on our behalf.
Keith Woodford
Professor of Farm Management and Agribusiness
Lincoln University
It’s wonderful to see the ongoing interest in Lincoln University and the desire to see it retain its strengths in agricultural education. When we rebranded the University as New Zealand’s specialist land-based University, we were sincere in doing so.
For that reason, I think it’s important to ensure that you and your readers realise that the recent review of the Professional Development Group did not dismantle Lincoln University’s commitment to iconic events such as the Kellog Farm Leadership programme, the South Island Field Days or the South Island Dairy Event. These remain firmly within the traditions and future of Lincoln University, bearing in mind that Lincoln University is involved as a partner in many of these events, not as an ‘owner’.
What we have undertaken through the review is to consider how best to manage the various activities currently undertaken by the Professional Development Group. Given the challenges of funding, and the need to remain a prudent public institution, we have had to consider how we can ensure high quality delivery alongside optimised financial stewardship. To this end we have decided to reallocate the activities to other parts of the University that are already well aligned with, or undertaking similar, activities.
There are still some final steps to take, so I cannot comment further in detail just now. I can, and do, however invite you and your readers to contact me about your passion regarding agricultural education and how we can best ensure that Lincoln University’s long held traditions and leadership continue in the 21st century.
Stefanie Rixecker, Assistant Vice-Chancellor (Research and Development).
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