New Zealand universities should accelerate their overseas expansion, tertiary education minister Steven Joyce said this morning.
Local universities were lagging behind their Australian counterparts when it came to establishing a presence abroad, Mr Joyce told TV One's Q&A programme.
"If you go to Singapore, all the Australian universities and research institutions are present in Singapore. New Zealand it's literally Massey are the only ones there doing food technology."
He said establishing links to Southeast Asia was critical for New Zealand's economic well-being.
Mr Joyce also encouraged universities to do more to attract foreign students. He said doing so would boost university revenues, in turn allowing local institutions to attract better lecturers and researchers.
"...Look at some of these big Australian universities, quite significant proportions of their income are in the international sphere, and that means they can afford the higher priced academics," he told Q&A.
