GIGO

Post-Graduate Science

I got a CV in the post recently -- nothing too special about that, we get regular submissions from people looking for work in science publishing. But this one was a little different. It came from a post-graduate student looking for support to take up a specialist Masterate course at the University of Edinburgh.

Arnja, like so many others, is looking to extend her science training by embarking overseas on the long post-graduate trail. I have a contemporary who, 15 years since leaving Canterbury, is still eeking out a living on fellowships and scholarships, in the hopes of gaining tenure somewhere one day. And eeking is the right word. Arnja is at the beginning of the whole process. She's managed to work her way through a BSc, combining studies with part-time work. Now she has the daunting task of trying to raise $70,000 to live and study in Edinburgh.

Some may say, "So what? Her choice." But, when you start to look at specialist areas of knowledge, there can sometimes be very little choice in what you do or where you go to gain that knowledge. Arnja's chosen area is in animal welfare, looking at how the scientific assessment of welfare can be used in animal research, management, inspection, assessment and the preparation of legislation.

It's knowledge which this country needs. We've only just gotten around to taking another look at our decades-old animal welfare legislation. And only yesterday Food and Fibre Minister John Luxton noted that there would be beneficial trade spin-offs in promoting New Zealand as a safe place for animals. This was bracketed with comments from a local animal welfare organisation which said that any attempt by us to trade on that would be "ironic and insulting", given current practices.

We do need our students to go forth and gain greater understanding, not only of their chosen area, but also of the wider world. In doing so, they enrich our society in more ways than one. In the early days of colonial New Zealand, it was only the wealthy who could afford to give their offspring that chance. Plus ça changes....

If you'd like to help Arnja, please contact us.

Vicki Hyde is the editor of New Zealand Science Monthly.