Waikato Medical School gets approved

The Herald reports:

The Government has agreed to build a new medical school, costing more than $230 million, at the University of Waikato.

The New Zealand Graduate School of Medicine will offer a four-year graduate programme for students who have completed a three-year undergraduate degree. …

“With $82.85 million in Government funding and over $150 million from the University, supported by philanthropic investment, this is a substantial commitment to education and regional development in the Waikato.

I’m pleased the taxpayer contribution has been scaled back to around $80 million.

The main driver of this has been Waikato University, who have been pushing this since 2016. The main reason, in my opinion, is prestige.

For quite a long period of time, Waikato University was not seen in the same league as the older universities. Otago, Auckland, Canterbury and VUW were all established in the 1800s. Massey followed in 1927 and then Waikato in 1964.

The law school especially was not seen as particularly good. I knew quite a few lawyers who said they would never hire a Waikato Law School graduate as it was seen as more political than legal. Today that is not the case, and instead I suspect AUT Law School is the one that struggles to find jobs for graduates.

Today Waikato is held in higher esteem (partly thanks to their VC, who I do rate highly (NB: He was my monetary economics lecturer at VUW, but I doubt he even remembers me). They are ranked not so bad in global rankings, but still a bit below the five older universities. A medical school would add considerably to their prestige. They are sort of the crown jewels of the university system.

So from Waikato’s point of view, they really want a medical school.

So is it a good idea from a health system point of view? Well I’m not an expert, but my initial position tends to be more choice and competition is good. A third medical school is better than a duopoly. Also Waikato has proposed a far stronger focus on rural health, which is badly needed. Their structure of a four year post graduate degree is different to the current double bachelors MBChB.

Just increasing places in the two current medical schools is certainly an option, and one that is probably cheaper. However considering the massive barriers they place in front of aspiring medical students who don’t fit into one of their quotas (they need a 95% grade average vs 70% for those who are a preferential demographic), I’m not convinced one should put all your eggs in that basket.

The Government has funded increased places at Otago and Auckland, and a new medical school at Waikato. Considering they have significantly reduced the taxpayer contribution from $280 million to $80 million, it looks like a good outcome. As I said, choice and competition is a good thing.