In comments relating to the recent Marsden cuts, the Science Minister questions the economic benefit of Humanities and Social Science research for New Zealand. Implied in these comments is a particular conception of how research funding works. The Minister assumes that Marsden funding works like seed funding for a business, which, if successful, pays in-kind dividends to the investor. How does funding projects on some small aspect of history or global studies pay off for the average Kiwi?
Seed funding is the wrong analogy. Research funding works more like high-performance sports funding than venture capital money. When Marsden funds a project, they are supporting outstanding research with the idea that the money will increase the abilities and reputation of the research team and the university itself. The money goes to creating high-performance academic work: original, ground-breaking scholarship that will appear in high-impact outlets, including top-tier international journals and academic presses.
Like sports funding, these things pay off in different ways. Marsden funding helps develop and retain world-class researchers whose reputations and publications lift the international rankings of our universities. Higher-ranking institutions attract more international students, bringing global talent to our tertiary sector while also subsidising domestic education.
Collectively, New Zealand universities have 12 academic subjects that rank in the top 50 worldwide and draw commensurate international attention. Six of those fall within the Humanities and Social Sciences. This sector of the economy - international education - contributed $3.7 billion to New Zealand in 2019, with benefits flowing everywhere from small businesses to homestay families.
Before the pandemic, international education was our fourth- or fifth-largest export earner. In the coming years, these numbers are projected to increase even further. High-ranking universities also attract international conferences and other events that bring millions of dollars into local economies through accommodation, travel, food and tourism. These economic benefits are in addition to the many other societal and human benefits that come from a deeper awareness of politics, culture, history and society.
Public comments also miss something else about the nature of Marsden funding: it funds our universities as much as individual researchers. In a typical Marsden project, more than half of the allocated funds go to institutional overheads and partial teaching relief so that the researcher has time to complete the proposed work. If PhDs or postdocs are involved, this percentage increases much further.
In a $600,000 multi-year project, it is likely that more than $450,000 will go directly to supporting university infrastructure. This includes things like teaching, student services and facilities upkeep. Much of the rest will likely go to conferences and workshops that bring visitors and visibility to our universities and towns. What looks like one-off money for individual projects is more akin to performance funding for institutions.
Education is not only about the money. The Humanities and Social Sciences enrich our understanding and experience of life in ways too many to name here. Yet, if one chooses to view things strictly in dollar terms, it pays to have the right analogy and the full picture.
- Professor Benjamin Schonthal is head of the University of Otago’s religion programme, where he also co-directs the Otago Centre for Law and Society
