Friday 23 August 2019 1:28pm
The finalists of the 3MT NZ Inter-University Master’s competition, with winner Livvy Mitchell (AUT) and people’s choice winner Jonah Belk (Otago).
Auckland University of Technology (AUT) master’s student Livvy Mitchell is this year’s 3MT NZ Inter-University Master’s champion.
Eight master’s research students spent just three minutes explaining their thesis topics to an audience of lay people at the Three Minute Thesis (3MT) national finals on Thursday night.
The competition, held at Otago’s Marama Hall, highlighted the fantastic research the students have been doing at universities throughout the country.
The judging panel included Science Engagement Manager at Otago Museum Nathalie Wierdak, Deputy Chief Executive Māori Development at Otago Polytechnic Janine Kapa, and Marketing Manager at the Otago Peninsula Trust Sophie Barker.
AUT master’s student Livvy Mitchell won the competition.
Miss Mitchell, who is doing her Master of Business (Economics), presented her topic Home Detention: Couch surging or job preserving? and won the favour of the judges.
Her study looked into whether there was a change in the re-offending or labour market earnings for those incarcerated compared to those on home detention. She told the audience that taxpayers pay $250 a person, per day for those incarcerated, while the number reduced to $60 for those on home detention.
Her results show no evidence that a home detention sentence reduces re-offending one, two or five years from the date of sentencing, nor did it show an impact on average employment rates, wage and salary earnings or average benefit receipt, she told the crowd.
“But so what? Criminal justice is something all jurisdictions aim to get right. As technology develops and home detention becomes a cheaper, more popular alternative to short-term imprisonment it is crucial that policy makers understand all implications of the sentence.
“We already knew home detention reduces prison populations and presents fiscal cost savings. We now know home detention has no impact on re-offending or labour market earnings so if you were a policy maker what would you do?”
The judges complimented Miss Mitchell on her use of the cost to taxpayers to make her presentation accessible to the audience.
Miss Mitchell received a research award of $1,000 from the Graduate Research School.
Meanwhile, Otago Zoology master’s student Jonah Belk was selected by the audience as the People’s Choice winner. He received a $500 research award from the Graduate Research School.
Otago master’s student Jonah Belk was the people’s choice winner.