Massey www.massey.ac.nz News from Massey University I Issue 29 I February 2016 Turning heads on the global stage: Student athletes aim Massey students go the distance high for Rio distance Massey students go the • Jobs and the age of robots • Commercial music degree creates different kind of buzz THE ENGINE Plus OF THE NEW • Comfort out of adversity – learning from the Canterbury NEW ZEALAND earthquakes | Massey University | February 2016 | definingnz | 1 MAKE THE NEW NEW ZEALAND YOUR LEGACY New Zealand is building a new future and Massey University’s ground-breaking research and teaching programmes are at the forefront. Leaving a gift in your Will to Massey University will make a lasting contribution for generations to come. TO FIND OUT MORE CALL +64 6 350 5159 OR VISIT FOUNDATION.MASSEY.AC.NZ TRACTA40696 2 | definingnz | February 2016 | Massey University definingnz | February 2016 8 10 15 24 Cover story Features 6 Dancing by degrees 8 Health and safety in the House A trio of ballet dancers balance their performance Cabinet minister Judith Collins used a period on art with studying from a distance. the backbench to study for a Graduate Diploma in Occupational Safety and Health ahead of Distance learning changes to legislation in the sector. 21 It’s a Bachelor of Arts – but not as you This issue of DefiningNZ is themed on distance know it learning, including the experiences of some household names who have made any-time, The BA has had a make-over with core papers anywhere education work for them. in the degree producing a new generation of creative and critical thinkers. 3-4 Student athletes aim high for Rio 24 Commercial music degree blasts on to Tennis star Marina Erakovich, world champion kayaker Lisa Carrington and hockey player stage Gemma Flynn all have their games faces on for Programmes at Massey’s new School of Music some Olympian performances. and Creative Media Production encourage graduates fluent in the production, promotion 5 Talent pool and distribution of music media and live events. Paralympian swimmers Georgia Gray and Mary Fisher are set to make a splash at Rio 2016. 26 Accentuating the positive from earthquake adversity 15 Our man in Paris Staff from the Joint Centre for Disaster Research Contents New Zealand’s first military attaché in Paris, have interviewed nurses working with the Captain Shaun Fogarty, has fitted study for a recovery effort from the Canterbury earthquakes Master of Logistics and Supply Chain Management who have experienced a phenomenon called around time serving in many of the world’s hot post-traumatic growth. spots and now representing the country at World War I commemorations in Europe. Opinion 10 Jobs and the age of robots Pro Vice-Chancellor and Dean of the Massey THE ENGINE Business School, Professor Ted Zorn, assesses job OF THE NEW security in the age of automation. NEW ZEALAND 18 Smart farming and climate change Professor Ralph Sims is confident that farmers Website: www.massey.ac.nz can not only adapt to the challenge of climate Editor: Kate Drury change but help prevent it too. Contributors: Sidah Russell, Paul Mulrooney, Jenna Ward, Diana Dekker, Ted Zorn, Mirjam Guesgsen, Jennifer Little, David Wiltshire Campus wide Designer: Grant Bunyan Proofreading: Foolproof 28 A round-up of news from Massey’s three campuses and further afield. | Massey University | February 2016 | definingnz | 1 First word Vice-Chancellor Steve Maharey writes. may be, as many the more flexible, outward-facing have predicted, model of the future. Buildings will be that we are about remodelled, organisational charts will to see the end of be rewritten and the very essence of traditional higher what it means to be a university will education. By be up for discussion. ITtraditional I mean, attend university Higher education, notoriously slow A new Student Management System full-time, sit in lecture halls, listen to to change, is entering the age of being developed will allow students lectures, go to the library, write essays experimentation. Where this will take to enrol from anywhere online. Massey and sit exams. is us is not yet able to be defined but was the first New Zealand university Change in university education has it is clear that by the end of this century to offer MOOCs (Massive Open Online been in the wind for more than 30 the traditional model will have all but Courses). Lectures are now recorded years without coming to much. Curricula disappeared. so that students can watch them in have been updated, new technologies Massey University aims to be one their own time. More courses are being adopted, classrooms reshaped, and of the universities that defines the taught online whether the students semesters introduced, and internal future. Founded in 1926 as an are on campus or somewhere else in assessment has lessened the import- agricultural college and granted full the world. Highly innovative staff ance of exams – but none of this has university status in 1964, Massey has are offering additional background fundamentally changed the way long been seen as an innovator. In material, as is commonly found in university education is offered. 1963 it began providing education the entertainment industry. The internet is changing all that. “extramurally” for teachers who were It is this spirit of innovation that Already other sectors have been seeking to lift their qualifications has led to Massey offering its food disrupted and transformed. Look at while remaining in their schools. The technology programme in Singapore, media, travel agencies, personal University became a “dual mode” its Master of Business Administration communication and retailing - all institution offering campus-based to pilots and engineers in Qatar, its have been turned on their heads by and distance education. postgraduate Diploma in Arts (Defence the internet. In the past five decades Massey and Strategic Studies) in Brunei and This is going to happen to higher University has led the way in teaching its One Health programme, funded by education. Learning will become innovations by adopting new tech- the European Union through the World separate from the classroom. Courses nologies as they have been developed Bank, throughout East Asia. will be created as they are needed and and constantly updating what is taught, This May, Massey’s Oiled Wildlife shaped around on-demand, any-time, how it is taught and how it is assessed. Response Team will be collaborating any-place delivery models. Academics These changes have allowed Massey with the University of California Davis will become independent and offer to provide education to New Zealanders to provide online learning for their expertise to many institutions. wherever they might be in the world. corporations such as BP and Shell. Textbooks, the ink-on-paper versions Today, some 200,000 students have Throughout the year, as sportspeople we use today, will disappear. gained part or all of their university prepare for the Olympics, they will be Even the granting of qualifications education through Massey’s distance thanking Massey for enabling them to will begin to fade away as students are programmes. train and study. confronted with a wide array of faster, But the possibilities offered by new But this really is just the beginning cheaper options that can quality assure technology alongside the changing of the massive changes about to take what they have been learning. expectations of students, the rising place. A new world of learning is Campuses, built over many decades cost of education, the demand for taking shape and as this edition of and centuries, will begin a difficult lifelong learning and Government DefiningNZ shows, Massey University transformation as they move from the policy have encouraged the University is leading the way. We hope you will “industrial” model of yesterday to meet to move in new and exciting directions. come with us. 2 | definingnz | February 2016 | Massey University Distance learning Court side and online with Marina Erakovich By Jenna Ward. knee injury may have plagued tennis champion Marina Erakovich last year, but the court’s loss is the textbooks’ gain. AThe 27-year-old tennis superstar is studying a Bachelor of Business Studies via distance at Massey University, and says it brings a nice balance to her life. “You will laugh but a lot of my study is done on the plane. I travel a lot and it is a great time to get out my book and get through some chapters on a long flight.” But business wasn’t Erakovich’s first choice. The tennis pro, who started playing As for life after tennis, Erakovich is things is great as well. I can be in touch with when she was just six, originally wanted a undecided, but says studying and finishing the paper coordinator from anywhere in the career in medicine, but her commitment to her degree is a definite. world.” the court meant a sacrifice. She says the greatest benefit of learning 2016 is a big year for Erakovich. Not only “I just couldn’t make it fit into my lifestyle. via distance is being able to go at her own will she stage a comeback after suffering an Ideally I would have moved into sports pace. injury to her right knee last year, it’s also an medicine but business has been very “I can organise my own schedule and Olympic year. interesting. It covers a very broad area, one make it fit into my training and competition “My studies will continue as normal, but that many people can relate to in anything needs. It does go very slowly, but little by Rio is definitely a goal this year and I will they do.” little I am getting there.