Kiwi professor awarded rare international honour

A leading New Zealand figure in educational leadership and policy has been recognised on the world stage with a rare honorary doctorate.

Professor Martin Thrupp’s significant research contributions to multinational and international school and educational reforms have led to the presentation of the international accolade this week. His most recent research focuses on global education business and privatisation developments in education in Finland, Sweden and New Zealand, and his honorary doctorate has been bestowed by a Scandanavian university.  

Recognition and praise for Prof Thrupp’s achievements were offered by recently named New Zealand Principals’ Federation President, Cherie Taylor-Patel.

“We congratulate Professor Martin Thrupp, School of Educational Leadership and Policy, at Waikato University, who has been awarded a very rare Honorary Doctorate from the University of Turku, Finland.

“He has been praised for his insights by Finnish academics and his outstanding contributions to research on Finnish comprehensive schooling,” she said. 

Professor Thrupp is well known to school principals in New Zealand as the author of ‘The Search for Better Educational Standards – A cautionary Tale’, a critique of the national standards policy, and his many other publications and research articles for which he has won awards, including receiving the prestigious McKenzie Award of the New Zealand Association of Research Excellence in 2016. He has previously undertaken research in England and across several other European countries as well as in Aotearoa New Zealand.

“As a profession, we could not be more proud that Professor Thrupp has been singled out as a leading international light in the field of educational policy research and that his work has been acclaimed with this extremely rare Honorary Doctorate from the University of Turku,” Taylor-Patel added.