The Joint Graduate School in Dairy Research and Innovation will set out to attract the brightest and best students, both from within New Zealand globally, giving research and innovation in dairy a major boost.
An agreement to set up the school was signed last week between The University of Auckland, DairyNZ, LIC (Livestock Improvement Corporation) and AgResearch. A joint management committee will meet before Christmas and will select the school’s director.
The school will span disciplines that contribute to sustainable productivity on-farm – such as genetics, agricultural technology and environmental science – through to those that add value beyond the farmgate such as food science and business.
“We have a number of students already enrolled in the university who will be immediate starters for the school,” says Guilford. “They are doing various PhD and masters programmes in the different faculties like the science faculty, engineering, medicine and business.
“The recruitment of new students will go on into the new year. We are expecting a minimum of 50 students but we want to get up to 100 students as quickly as we can. We will also attract students from other universities either in New Zealand or internationally.
“We are trying to attract the best possible talent from around the world into the New Zealand dairy industry. We’ve got the chance to do that on a big urban campus like Auckland, with this university’s very strong international reputation.”
With a shortage of agricultural science graduates, in the last two decades the dairy industry’s scientists have tended to come from the chemistry, physics or mathematics disciplines and have found themselves in the dairy industry without originally intending to be there.
“So they didn’t come off a farm and they didn’t enrol in an agricultural degree and go through what we might consider the normal path,” says Guilford. “So we are now still reaching out to the top students in all those science and engineering disciplines – and also in business and the health professions – but we will ensure an interest in the dairy industry is stimulated.
“We will pack around their programme a range of short courses on the dairy industry, and a range of experience so they get to know their industry and hopefully can see a role in it. And the parties will also get a chance to interact with them and spot talent they can hire into their own organisations.”
Students can apply for a large number of scholarships already offered at Auckland. “We also anticipate the students will be written into the research proposals of AgResearch, the University of Auckland, LIC and DairyNZ and in that way support large numbers of students. The university will also use its skills in attracting philanthropic donations to help support the scholarship programme.”
Guilford says the school will stretch right across the value chain. Pre farm gate students may study such things as robotics and dairy sheds, water quality or animal genetics.
Post farmgate it will link into the university’s food and health programme which has about 150 academics involved in food science, food process engineering and the business of food. This will include areas such as business expansion, exports, logisitics, nutrition, medical, dairy farm welfare and psychology.
