Summary

In 2003, the government began the phase-in of a new system of funding research in the tertiary education sector – the Performance-Based Research Fund (PBRF). Over the last four years, the Ministry of Education has published several analytical studies examining the research performance of the sector and how it has responded to the introduction of the PBRF.¹These studies can be sorted into six broad themes:

• Analysis of PBRF funding allocations
• Analysis of PBRF results and of factors influencing PBRF performance
• Analysis of the impact of weightings in the PBRF Quality Evaluation
• Analysis of PBRF funding incentives
• Establishing baseline data to monitor the effect of the PBRF on research impact
• Analysis of the impact of the PBRF on retention of doctoral students and on research in the social sciences/humanities

This report seeks to synthesise the key findings of these analytical studies and provide a summary of this portfolio of work.²

The structure of this report is as follows. In section 2, we present a short introduction to the workings of the PBRF. Sections 3 and 4 provide background to the analyses that follow. In section 3, there is an overview of the results of the 2006 Quality Evaluation and a comment on shifts between the first two Quality Evaluations while section 4 presents an analysis of the 2007 PBRF funding allocations and reports on the extent to which funding shifts have accompanied the introduction of the new system.  In section 5, the findings of analyses of the factors that influenced research quality are presented.³ In section 6, the results from an analysis into the impact of weightings that are used in assigning quality categories to staff in the PBRF are presented. This is followed by the presentation of key findings from an analysis of the funding incentives created by the PBRF in section 7. In section 8, the findings from an analysis of bibliometric data that can be used as a baseline to monitor the impact of the PBRF is presented. Finally the findings from two analytical studies examining the impact of the PBRF on research performance are presented in section 9.

This research includes analysis of the research performance of New Zealand's tertiary education sector and the impact of the Performance-Based Research Fund (PBRF) and how it has altered research funding allocations.

Footnotes

1. A full listing of these studies is presented at the end of the synthesis in the attached full report.
2. Please note that where studies have been updated with more recent data the latest analysis is presented.
3. An analysis of the 2006 PBRF Quality Evaluation results is planned for 2008.