Faculty of Science PG Marketing Meeting notes

• People tend to apply for Masters
• They use the other quals as exit qualifications
• Grad Dip is part of staircasing / transitioning

Exception

• PG Clinical Psychology or PG Clinical Research - these are standalone, block taught for employed professionals (I am not sure my notes are quite right on this)

• Variety of entry points
• Students who have done Honours 
• Students who have done part of a Masters at another institution (Otago, Auckland etc)

• Most Science Postgrads are studying, not current professionals
• The courses mean they are required to be on campus and they may be required to do fieldwork - because of this the programmes wouldn't work well for professionals
• Taught Masters - can be a combination of the University and an outside research organisation - Clinical Immunology (180 points) there is a research component which is in conjunction with Malaghan.
• PhD's cost international students less than doing a Masters
• There are very few 180pt Masters with single research project (90 points or more), some only have 30 points. This means they aren't a direct pathway to PhD. 180 point is a good solution for overseas students as they can do it in a year.
• Named doesn't mean much / not so different from doing a Masters of Science
• Student information needs
  • Why would you do Postgrad - interest, could help them progress in their career?
  • What are the disciplines research strengths - at the moment our lists of strengths tends to be a laundry list of everything rather than truly representing the strengths.

• From next year government have increased their financial support of STEM programmes
• What are the rates of employment like
  • Biomedical / Chemistry / Marine Biology - low
  • GIS / Clinical - very high
  • Don't know about international employability
  • More research funding = more employment, including at the University - this tends to be contractor type work as the levels of funding are always in flux.
• Wellington is a good place to be a scientists - many research organisations are here.
• What could be improved - better roads to funding
  • MacDiarmid Intitute have 10 Scholarships. 
  • There is often low uptake of scholarships - partly because of disjointed systems between Faculties and FGR.
  • There are work opportunities at the University
  • Scholarships - info comes from FGR not from Programme Director.

• Specific to programmes
  • Biotech - sought after by Internationals but they can't keep up with demand as it is very resource intensive. They wouldn't use this language but it is basically seen as a loss leader because it is cost neutral. They will attempt to redirect students into other programmes.
  • Clinical Psychology - there is a lot of demand to do this course. They are currently concentrating on attracting more Maori and Pasifika students.
  • Conservation Biology - having a reboot
  • Forsensic Psychology - 240 point Masters.
  • Cross-cultural Psychology - feeder programme for PhD
• Looking to attract numbers to come qualifications but raise quality of applicants to others.
• They are looking now to market more widely rather than marketing specific named Masters. As part of this they are developing Postgraduate brochure(s) covering each of the disciplines.
• Marketing initiatives
  • Third year student meetings for internal students - it would be good to be able to replicate these virtually for external students
  • Handbook - this year doing PG only Science handbook
  • International - agent education
  • Facebook
  • https://www.findaphd.com/ - costs $100/ listing so students can see projects or the University could invest in banner advertisements.