Against the odds: twenty-five years in pursuit of health and safety research
Robyn Levinge first considered undertaking a Master's degree in health and safety twenty-five years ago—but life, it would seem, had other ideas.
“Early on in my career, while I was working in the United Kingdom, I completed a Diploma in Occupational Health and Safety with the intention of continuing to the Master’s degree.
“Before I could start that my personal circumstances changed, I had to fly home and spent all my money doing so, so I had to park that goal for a while.”
A while turned into several years while Robyn had her daughter and focused on being a mother. When she decided she was ready to tackle her degree again she found there were no options to do a health and safety focused Master’s degree in New Zealand, so she had to look overseas.
“A whole group of practitioners got ourselves ready to do a Master's degree in Australia, but just as we were about to embark on that the University changed the rules around admission and we could no longer take that programme from New Zealand.”
Once again, study was placed on the back burner as Robyn instead focused on her consultancy business, Optime Limited.
Another chance at achieving her goal came in 2019, when Victoria University of Wellington launched the Workplace Health and Safety programme as part of the Master of Health.
Robyn jumped at the opportunity to pick up study again and quickly completed the Postgraduate Certificate and Postgraduate Diploma courses. She was poised to continue on to the Master’s portion of the degree when she came up against the biggest hurdle of all—a global pandemic and a cancer diagnosis.
“I kept thinking the universe is really not wanting me to do this, but it only made me more determined to finish it.”
The Master’s degree went back on ice while Robyn underwent chemotherapy and radiotherapy, with the pandemic meaning her business was also on hold.
Robyn made use of the quieter time to start reading and preparing for her Master’s degree, a goal that she says had become a personal challenge, rather than just a career milestone.
It was also a chance to role model resilience and determination for her daughter.
“I’m a single mother and I wanted to show my daughter that it doesn’t matter what you go through, you can carry on and not let anything get in the way.”
Once she was well enough Robyn was straight back to studying, embarking on a thesis exploring the use and effectiveness of dust lamps in the workplace in New Zealand, a topic that combined Robyn’s career interests in applied health and safety practice and pathology and medicine.
Research like this is hugely important for health and safety practitioners in New Zealand, says Robyn.
“Historically, health and safety practitioners would use their own evidence or their own experience to guide them and come up with solutions and recommendations for clients—I think we need to be more evidence based.
“We need to start referring to a broader platform of evidence, so that we can better recommend solutions to businesses and people in New Zealand.
“Research gives you a far more pragmatic understanding of what we are trying to do in health and safety.”
Robyn crosses the stage with her Master of Health in Workplace Health and Safety this May, and with a twenty-five year ambition finally realised, is a PhD on the cards? Robyn thinks she might not tempt fate just yet.