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Download AudioMāori academics have forced the chief executive of Universities New Zealand to back down on his inference that Māori produced lower quality research than their peers.
Chris Whelan has walked back comments in a radio interview that increasing the weighting for Māori and Pacific research would dilute the effectiveness of the Performance Based Research Fund.
Sarah Jane Tiakiwai, the deputy vice chancellor Māori at the University of Waikato, says the recommended changes are a way to recognise the importance of Māori and Pacific researchers and the contribution mātauranga makes.
"So it's not just the knowledge system that exists here in Aotearoa New Zealand but it's part of a wider ecosystem of knowledge that exists across the world," she says.
Dr Tiakiwai says Mr Whelan was trying to say Māori and Pacific research should have its own funding stream, but he did so in a way that inferred that research was of poorer quality.
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