The Performance Based Research Fund is a New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 tertiary education

Tertiary education

Tertiary education, also referred to as third stage, third level, and post-secondary education, is the educational level following the completion of a school providing a secondary education, such as a high school, secondary school, university-preparatory school...

 funding process, assessing the research performance of tertiary education organisations (TEOs) and then funding them on the basis of their performance.

Between 2004 and 2007 the PBRF is progressively replacing the current EFTS (equivalent full-time student) 'top-up' funding for research. The PBRF model has three elements to:

• reward and encourage the quality of researchers—60 percent of the fund
• reflect research degree
  Academic degree
  An academic degree is a position and title within a college or university that is usually awarded in recognition of the recipient having either satisfactorily completed a prescribed course of study or having conducted a scholarly endeavour deemed worthy of his or her admission to the degree...
  
   completions—25 percent of the fund
• reflect external research income—15 percent of fund

Quality evaluation

The major element, the Quality Evaluation, is held periodically. The first was held in 2003 and the second, a partial round (not all staff are required to submit portfolios), was held in 2006. The next full round is scheduled for 2012. However, experience with the 2003 round, and developments in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 and the United Kingdom

Research Assessment Exercise

The Research Assessment Exercise is an exercise undertaken approximately every 5 years on behalf of the four UK higher education funding councils to evaluate the quality of research undertaken by British higher education institutions...

 suggest that the 2012 round may, in the event, not occur. (Note however that as of October 2011, the 2012 round is going ahead as scheduled).

Each Quality Evaluation assesses the quality of research conducted at TEOs, and funding is allocated accordingly. Quality is determined by an assessment of research degree completion numbers, the amount of external research funding an institution achieves, and an evaluation of the individual research performance of all academic staff teaching on degrees or employed to conduct research.

Each academic staff member is required (with some exceptions) to submit an Evidence Portfolio which records their research outputs, contribution to research environment, and peer esteem. They are then assessed as A, B, C or R category. The A indicates international standing, B national, C local and R research inactive or active at a lower level.

From 2006 two new categories, C(NE) and R(NE) were introduced, for new and emerging researchers who have not yet had the benefit of a full six year census

Census

A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...

 period. Each staff member is assigned a numerical grade (in 2006 5 for an A, 3 for a B, 1 for a C or C (NE), and 0 for R and R (NE)). This is used to calculate an overall score. Since the numerical scores assigned for the 2003 assessment and that for the 2006 assessment differed, the results of the two assessments are not entirely comparable, despite the 2006 assessment being designed to be a partial round.

In assessing individuals rather than groups, PBRF differs from the otherwise similar Research Assessment Exercise

Research Assessment Exercise

The Research Assessment Exercise is an exercise undertaken approximately every 5 years on behalf of the four UK higher education funding councils to evaluate the quality of research undertaken by British higher education institutions...

 (RAE) in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

.

New Zealand universities

PBRF rankings of New Zealand universities, as of 2006:

EWLINE Rank University No. of staff 2006 Quality score 2003 Quality score 1 Otago University of Otago The University of Otago in Dunedin is New Zealand's oldest university with over 22,000 students enrolled during 2010.The university has New Zealand's highest average research quality and in New Zealand is second only to the University of Auckland in the number of A rated academic researchers it... 1145 4.23 3.23 2 Auckland University of Auckland The University of Auckland is a university located in Auckland, New Zealand. It is the largest university in the country and the highest ranked in the 2011 QS World University Rankings, having been ranked worldwide... 1483 4.19 3.96 3 Canterbury University of Canterbury The University of Canterbury , New Zealand's second-oldest university, operates its main campus in the suburb of Ilam in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand... 622 4.10 3.83 4 Victoria Victoria University of Wellington Victoria University of Wellington was established in 1897 by Act of Parliament, and was a former constituent college of the University of New Zealand. It is particularly well known for its programmes in law, the humanities, and some scientific disciplines, but offers a broad range of other courses... 708 3.83 3.39 5 Waikato University of Waikato The University of Waikato is located in Hamilton and Tauranga, New Zealand, and was established in 1964. It has strengths across a broad range of subject areas, particularly its degrees in Computer Science and in Management... 502 3.73 2.98 6 Massey Massey University Massey University is one of New Zealand's largest universities with approximately 36,000 students, 20,000 of whom are extramural students.The University has campuses in Palmerston North , Wellington and Auckland . Massey offers most of its degrees extramurally within New Zealand and internationally... 1113 3.05 2.11 7 Lincoln Lincoln University, New Zealand Lincoln University is a New Zealand university that was formed in 1990 when Lincoln College, Canterbury was made independent of the University of Canterbury... 215 2.97 2.56 8 AUT Auckland University of Technology The Auckland University of Technology is a university in New Zealand. It was formed on 1 January 2000 when the Auckland Institute of Technology was granted university status. Its primary campus is on Wellesley Street in Auckland's Central business district... 382 1.86 0.77 National average 2.96 2.59

• Note: the number of staff and the quality score are weighted for full-time equivalents.
• The national average includes non-university TEOs.

External links

• Performance Based Research Fund