Is a Waikato Medical School Sensible?

Today’s Otago Daily Times reports that the government was advised of serious concerns about Waikato University’s ability to fund its contribution to the new medical school and with the assumptions used in the cost-benefit analysis that had been prepared. This advice, from the Tertiary Education Commission and the Ministry of Education, came two months before the government decided to progress the project to a detailed business case.

Taxpayers’ Union Policy and Public Affairs Manager, James Ross, stated that “it is concerning that the government may be progressing a substantial investment without a cost-benefit analysis based on sound assumptions and fully considered viable alternatives such as expanding the capacity of the two existing medical schools.”

“We share the reported concerns of Green MP Francisco Hernandez that the government may be cherry-picking evidence to predetermine the outcome it wants rather than being informed through an evidence-based process. There is no substitute for a robust cost-benefit analysis, and it appears this may not have been done.”

“It is our view that the government should pause the development of the detailed business case until it has completed a much more thorough cost-benefit analysis. The business case should only proceed if the Waikato option is realistically expected to be superior to expanding either or both of the existing medical schools. Anything less risks wasting taxpayers’ dollars.”