Nine To Noon for Wednesday 18 May 2022

 

09:05 Fewer domestic students and a trickle of internationals: where to for our universities?

The door is reopening to international students but not in the way it was pre-pandemic. The Government is allowing 5-thousand new international students into the country from the middle of the year, and last week announced that Immigration New Zealand will begin processing other study visas at that time - brought forward from October.There are currently 12 thousand foreign students in the country - compared with 86 thousand in a normal year pre-pandemic - across all parts of the education sector - and worth five billion dollars to the economy.The university sector alone used to have around 20,000 foreign students - worth $1.2 billion dollars. The government has warned it is does not intend to go back to a "bums on seats" model, and international students coming here will face tighter post-study work rules and tougher financial resources requirements. All this while fewer New Zealand students enrolled in all universities in the first trimester of this year. Kathryn speaks with Chris Whelan,  Executive director of Universities New Zealand.

09:20 NZ's "Disinformation Dozen" Facebook impact on parliament protests

New research into the protests at parliament earlier in the year has explored how social media inflamed tensions, and finds a dozen local Facebook accounts spreading disinformation were at the heart of it.  The Disinformation Project studied data from tens of millions of online posts, tweets and comments, alongside hundreds of hours of live-streamed footage from the protest. Kathryn speaks with Director of the project, Kate Hannah.
 

09:30 Evening snacking influenced by smells and taste.

In a first ever study of day-long influences, a University of Otago experiment has found what we smell and taste can trigger food choices hours later, possibly causing overeating and exascerbating health issues.  Co-author Dr Mei Peng, of the Department of Food Science tells Kathryn Ryan the research considers how we can change our eating habits by supressing or increasing appetite for certain foods.

09:45 Australia correspondent Karen Middleton

With the Australian election looming this Saturday, the polls still have the Labor Opposition ahead but are narrowing to suggest it could be a tight result. Karen Middleton is on the Scott Morrison/Anthony Albanese campaign trail.

10:05 "This is my vocation" : 80 year old school principal

Manurewa community icon Shirley Maihi is the country's oldest school principal. At 80, she leads decile one Finlayson Park School, championing bi-lingual education and social wellbeing initiatives, including being an early adopter of offering free breakfasts and lunches. She has been with the school for 35 years, and began teaching 55 years ago. Her devotion to education has previously been recognised with a Queens Service Medal.  Shirley Maihi tells Kathryn that she has taught the grandparents of some current pupils.

 

 

10:35 Book review: The Palace Papers by Tina Brown

Leah McFall reviews The Palace Papers by Tina Brown, published by Penguin Random House NZ

Magazine titan Tina Brown leaves no teaspoon unturned in this 500-page biography of the British Royals, from 1997-2022.

10:45 The Reading

Helen Jones reads the second instalment of  'Milk'  - a four-part story by Susy Pointon.

11:05 How classical music influences other genres

Music commentator Kirsten Zemke joins Kathryn to look at the influence classical music has had on other genres - from disco to rock and even rap. She'll look at the classical backgrounds of some of the artists - and play a track from a multi-million dollar-earning album from the 80s that was both lauded - and loathed!

Kirsten Zemke is an ethnomusicologist at the University of Auckland's School of Social Sciences

 

11:30 Hokianga-London: Mahanga Mitchell taking Te Reo to the Globe

Kathryn speaks with an 18 year old from Hokianga, who translated Shakespeare into Te Reo and is now representing Aotearoa at the Globe. Mahanga Mitchell hadn't performed theatre, let alone Shakespeare, before about a year ago. But his Whangarei Boy's High kaiako persuaded him to give it a go. It turns out he has quite the talent. Mahanga won hearts and minds after translating Henry IV's Welsh character Owen Glendower's lines into Māori, and also by playing Banquo's ghost in Macbeth. Mahanga is now a member of  Shakespeare Globe Centre New Zealand, one of the young Kiwis selected to appear at the Globe in London in July. The former Whangarei Boys deputy head boy is fundraising for the trip.

 

11:45 Science with Dr Siouxsie Wiles

Siouxie talks to Kathryn about a new study which finds a potential biomarker for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome present at birth. What's incredible about this study is that the blood samples they analysed were all taken at birth as part of the newborn screening program. In Australia, New Zealand and many other countries, babies have a small amount of blood taken from pricking their heel when they are about 2 days old. This is then screened to look for more than 20 rare conditions that can make babies really sick so treatment can be started straight away. Ongoing research is being crowd funded. Siouxsie also looks at the use of sniffer dogs to detect Covid infection and researchers have just reported their results trying to grow plants in soil from the moon.

 

 

Associate Professor Dr Siouxsie Wiles is the head of Bioluminescent Superbugs Lab at the University of Auckland.