1. Introduction
A survey of IT and closely related courses taught in New Zealand universities in 1999 was conducted between December 1999 and February 2000 by the Ministry of Economic Development (formerly, the Ministry of Commerce). (The current results have been updated through to early May 2000 as additional late responses have been received.)
This study was initiated as a result of concern about the low number of graduates of information technology-related courses from our universities. The issue received national attention when the major US-based IT company Motorola Inc expressed interest in establishing a design and research plant in New Zealand. The Motorola project would establish a potential need for 300 highly qualified people in just one enterprise, however according to the only information available (from the New Zealand Vice Chancellors' Committee) in 1999, there are only around 1000 graduates per annum in relevant disciplines. Given that Motorola's reputed preference would be to interview ten candidates for each placement, there appears to be a small population of graduates compared with the numbers required to support such an enterprise.
At the same time, it is apparent that many graduates in other areas, such as commerce, law and other areas of science or engineering are studying IT relevant courses as part of their degrees. The survey therefore has been undertaken in order to attempt to gain a better picture of the numbers taking IT relevant courses at university level than is possible from just looking at the major subjects in a few degree programmes.
The principle criterion for inclusion of courses in the survey was the degree of relevance of the material being taught to a potential employer such as Motorola. This has necessarily lead to some degree of arbitrary judgement over the relevance of a particular course, which has been based on information drawn from the university Calendar. A conservative approach has been taken. For example, some mathematics, logic and engineering courses have been excluded although skills and knowledge gained from these studies would be just as applicable to IT areas as they are to many others.
This survey therefore gives a very conservative picture of tertiary training in IT in New Zealand. In addition, the new Auckland University of Technology has not been included and polytechnic courses were not surveyed despite many such institutions offering very relevant opportunities for study at degree level. It is hoped that these deficiencies may be overcome in future surveys. By themselves these findings may not be as useful as longer term trend analysis made on the basis of repeated surveys.
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