Māori and Pacific academics make up less than 4% and 1% respectively of New Zealand professors. We investigated ethnic inequities in promotions and earnings in New Zealand universities. Using New Zealand’s Performance-Based Research Fund (PBRF) data (2003, 2012, 2018) we found that Māori and Pacific men and also women academics, compared with non-Māori non-Pacific men academics, had significantly lower odds of being an associate professor or professor (professoriate) or of being promoted, and had lower earnings. These inequities were not explained by research performance (measured by PBRF scores), age or field, and remained over time, particularly for women.

This article provides insights into the ethnicity of academics employed by Aotearoa New Zealand’s eight universities, with a particular focus on Māori academics. We show that, despite values espoused by universities in terms of diversity and within their equity policies regarding Māori staff, there has been no progress in increasing the Māori academic workforce. Māori academics were severely under-represented at universities between 2012 and 2017, comprising approximately 5% of the total academic workforce.

This paper examines the ethnicity of academic scholars employed by New Zealand’s eight universities, with a particular focus on Pasifika academics. The paper discusses how, despite national and university policies to see education serve Pasifika peoples better, there has been no change in the numbers of Pasifika academics employed by the universities between 2012 and 2017, and notes that Pasifika who are in the academy are continually employed in the lower, less secure levels of the academy.