COMPASS hosts students for PhD theses, Honours and Masters dissertations, and Summer Scholarships. Our expertise has enabled students to undertake projects using census and administrative health data, survey data from the International Social Survey Programme, and more recently the broad range of data available in the Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI).
PhD Candidates
Current
Alexia Searchfield (Paediatrics), supervised by Professor John Thompson and Professor Barry Milne. Educational outcomes for young adults born small for gestational age.
Ditta Mae Siena-De Guzman (Public Policy), supervised by Dr Stephanie D’Souza. A comparative study on the digital maturity of governments in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region and New Zealand, and their transition to human resource policies.
Francesca Anns (Psychology), supervised by Dr Stephanie D’Souza, Professor Barry Milne, and Professor Lynette Tippett. Neurodegenerative disease and mental health outcomes of high‑level New Zealand rugby players.
Marianna Pekar (Health Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington), supervised by Professor Colin Simpson (Victoria University of Wellington) and Professor Barry Milne. Detecting and mitigating bias in AI systems for healthcare decision support.
Mohammad Shahbaz (Liggins Institute), supervised by Professor Dame Jane Harding, Professor Barry Milne, and Associate Professor Greg Gamble. Quality of linked data to assess the long-term outcomes of a neonatal trial.
Paula Araya-Herrera (Psychology), supervised by Professor Karen Waldie and Dr Lisa Underwood. Beyond movement: The influence of gross motor skills on early autism development.
Sylvia Zhang (Psychology), supervised by Professor Karen Waldie and Dr Lisa Underwood. Trajectories of peer victimisation among New Zealand tamariki.
Tori Diamond (Statistics), supervised by Dr Matt Edwards, Professor Barry Milne, and Andrew Sporle. Novel methods for making Māori data relevant to local decision-making.
Completed
2021‑2025
Dr Luna Zhao, PhD (Politics), completed 2025, supervised by Professor Jennifer Lees-Marshment and Dr Stephanie D’Souza. Targeting ethnic minority voters: How National and Labour use political marketing to target Chinese New Zealanders.
Dr Eileen Li, PhD (Statistics), completed 2025, supervised by Associate Professor Barry Milne, Dr Yong Wang, and Professor Thomas Lumley. Investigating linkage bias in the Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI) using census and education data.
Dr Alex Wang, PhD (Mathematics & Statistics, Victoria University of Wellington), completed 2024, supervised by Professor Colin Simpson and Associate Professor Barry Milne. Data‑Centric AI: Tabular data synthesis with deep generative models.
Dr Natalia Boven, PhD (Statistics), completed 2024, supervised by Dr Nichola Shackleton, Associate Professor Barry Milne, and Professor Thomas Lumley. Constructing measures of family socioeconomic position: Testing commonplace assumptions and alternative approaches.
Dr Liza Bolton, PhD (Statistics), completed 2023, supervised by Associate Professor Barry Milne and Professor Alan Lee. Life‑course predictors of mortality inequalities across ethnic groups in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Dr Nick Bowden, PhD (Health Sciences, University of Otago), completed 2023, supervised by Professor Barry Taylor, Dr Sheree Gibb, Dr Richard Audas, and Associate Professor Barry Milne. Autism/ takiwātanga in Aotearoa New Zealand: Medication prescribing, educational outcomes, and criminal justice system interactions: Investigations using linked whole population administrative data.
Dr Yun Joo So, PhD (Economics), completed 2023, supervised by Associate Professor Ryan Greenaway‑McGrevy and Associate Professor Barry Milne. Three essays on the geography of economic opportunity.
2020 & earlier
Dr Charon Lessing, PhD (Pharmacy), completed 2015, supervised by Professor Toni Ashton and Professor Peter Davis. Evaluating the impact of Pharmac’s reference pricing policy on choice and health status.
Dr Jo Broad, PhD (Community Health), completed 2015, supervised by Professor Toni Ashton and Professor Peter Davis. Estimating the accommodation and care needs of older New Zealanders in the later life‑course.
Dr Tom Robinson, PhD (Population Health), completed 2015, supervised by Professor Peter Davis and Associate Professor Roger Marshall. Applying quasi-experimental methods to assess the impact of health service interventions in New Zealand.
Dr Babak Mahdavi Ardestani, PhD (Geography), completed 2013, supervised by Associate Professor David O’Sullivan and Professor Peter Davis. Using a hybrid model for investigating residential segregation: An empirical and simulation‑based study.
Dr Lyndon Walker, PhD (Statistics), completed 2010, supervised by Professor Alan Lee and Professor Peter Davis. Modelling inter‑ethnic partnerships in New Zealand 1981‑2006: A census-based approach.
Masters and Honours Students
Current
Chaya Ranasinghe (Public Policy), supervised by Dr Lisa Underwood. Young carers in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Feifei (Chase) Wu (Data Science), supervised by Dr Lisa Underwood. Developing the R Shiny dashboard for visualising New Zealand census data on unpaid activities.
Ruby Pankhurst (Statistics), supervised by Dr Matt Edwards and Professor Barry Milne. Disclosure risk processes for Pacific populations.
Completed
2021‑2025
Kayla van Tonder, MA (Psychology), completed 2025, supervised by Dr Stephanie D’Souza. Mental health symptoms and service use in Asian New Zealanders.
Antonia Hannah, MPP (Public Policy), completed 2024, supervised by Dr Stephanie D’Souza. Social cooperatives to enhance individualised funding for disability support in Aotearoa: Drawing lessons from the UK.
Chenchen Ning, MSc (Data Science), completed 2024, supervised by Associate Professor Barry Milne. Achieving health equity in Aotearoa: An ethnicity-focused analysis of patient experience data at Te Toka Tumai, Auckland.
Dianne Long, MPP (Public Policy), completed 2024, supervised by Dr Stephanie D’Souza. Framing the issue: Civil societies’ use of public consultation to influence policy outcomes.
Eileen Kennedy, MPP (Public Policy), completed 2024, supervised by Dr Stephanie D’Souza. Inequities in mental health service access for Māori: A critical Te Tiriti analysis of the He Ara Āwhina framework.
Hannah Pickard, MPP (Public Policy), completed 2024, supervised by Dr Stephanie D’Souza. Do New Zealand’s mental health policies adequately incorporate climate change?
Isabel Avery, MPP (Public Policy), completed 2024, supervised by Dr Stephanie D’Souza. Addressing workforce shortages in New Zealand’s aviation sector.
Jeriel Sajan, MPP (Public Policy), completed 2024, supervised Dr Stephanie D’Souza. Applying sustainable development lessons from Sweden to Aotearoa New Zealand.
Jiaqi Yang, MSc (Data Science), completed 2024, supervised by Associate Professor Barry Milne and Professor James Curran. Web application for tracking performance of high school students.
Kimmeng Hong, MPP (Public Policy), completed 2024, supervised by Dr Stephanie D’Souza. Enhancing elderly care in Cambodia: Learning from Japan’s community‑based integrated care system.
Mattie Smith, MPP (Public Policy), completed 2024, supervised by Dr Stephanie D’Souza. Partnership and mainstreaming: A multiple streams analysis of the role of ideas in the language revitalisation policies of Aotearoa New Zealand and Wales.
Simon Thrupp, MPP (Public Policy), completed 2024, supervised by Dr Stephanie D’Souza. Politics and rhetoric: Assessing the inclusion of 17-year-olds in Aotearoa’s youth justice system.
Thant Kyaw Oo, MPP (Public Policy), completed 2024, supervised by Dr Stephanie D’Souza. An assessment of Myanmar conscription law and its human rights impacts.
Thomas Reid, MPP (Public Policy), completed 2024, supervised by Dr Stephanie D’Souza. On the right track? Comparing Auckland’s and Wellington’s public transport networks.
Edward Matthews, MPP (Public Policy), completed 2023, supervised by Dr Stephanie D’Souza. The fallacy of legacy: A study of outcomes for host cities and countries after sporting mega‑events.
Nicole Preston, MPP (Public Policy), completed 2023, supervised by Dr Stephanie D’Souza and Associate Professor Lara Greaves. Will New Zealanders pay more to protect the environment? Regulating industry emissions as Aotearoa responds to climate change.
Pengju Zheng, MSc (Data Science), completed 2023, supervised by Associate Professor Barry Milne. Evaluating healthcare equity through inpatient incidents: A case study of Te Toka Tumai, Auckland.
Alison Harper, MPP (Public Policy), completed 2022, supervised by Dr Stephanie D’Souza and Dr Mohammad Salimifar. Protecting Aotearoa’s youth from the harms of vaping: Global lessons in policy and regulation.
Anika Terry, MSc (Statistics), completed 2022, supervised by Associate Professor Barry Milne and Associate Professor Alice Mills. “Going Straight Home?” Project searching for the effect of stable housing on recidivism by ex‑prisoners.
Emily Hamilton, MPP (Public Policy), completed 2022, supervised by Dr Stephanie D’Souza. Does public policy in Aotearoa address the health needs of older persons with a learning disability?
Emma Brodie, MPP (Public Policy), completed 2022, supervised by Dr Stephanie D’Souza. The case for a Ministry for Animal Welfare in New Zealand.
Sarah Tickelpenny, MPP (Public Policy), completed 2022, supervised by Dr Stephanie D’Souza. A holistic, multifaceted, and community‑based approach: Could the Harlem Children’s Zone model of schooling work in a New Zealand context and help mitigate the effects of child poverty and improve educational outcomes for children.
Sophie McIntosh, MPP (Public Policy), completed 2022, supervised by Dr Stephanie D’Souza. COVID‑19 vaccine hesitancy and disparity in minority ethnic communities: Lessons for future vaccine programmes.
Yikun (Yvonne) Wang, MPP (Public Policy), completed 2022, supervised by Dr Stephanie D’Souza and Dr Mohammad Salimifar. Searching for The Forgotten Poor: A new approach to measuring child poverty in New Zealand.
Francesca Anns, BA Honours (Psychology), completed 2021, supervised by Dr Stephanie D’Souza. Is childhood behaviour associated with exposure to unmedicated and medicated depression in utero?
2016‑2020
Eileen Li, MSc (Statistics), completed 2020, supervised by Associate Professor Barry Milne. Investigating associations between delivery mode and later educational outcomes.
Shu Wang, BSc Honours (Statistics), completed 2020, supervised by Dr Stephanie D’Souza and Dr Nichola Shackleton. Psychometric properties and measurement invariance of the UCLA three-item loneliness scale.
Shaun Roberts, MSc (Statistics), completed 2019, supervised by Dr Barry Milne. Re‑identification risk of online data repositories.
Simon Swinton, BSc Honours (Statistics), completed 2019, supervised by Dr Barry Milne. Exploring the academic outcomes of migrant students in Aotearoa.
Lucas Chen, BSc Honours (Statistics), completed 2018, supervised by Associate Professor Daniel Exeter, Dr Nichola Shackleton, Dr Jinfeng Zhao, and Dr Barry Milne. Who lives in deprived places? The extent of mismatch between personal socioeconomic position and area-level measures of deprivation.
Natalia Boven, MPP (Public Policy), completed 2018, supervised by Dr Nichola Shackleton, Dr Barry Milne, and Professor Thomas Lumley. Exploring different methods of measuring ethnicity for estimating ethnic inequalities in health, and the policy implications.
Oliver Mills, BSc Honours (Statistics), completed 2018, supervised by Dr Nichola Shackleton and Associate Professor Daniel Exeter. Exploring the scale effect: The impact scale has on homogeneity and suppression.
Olivia Healey, MPH (Public Health), completed 2018, supervised by Associate Professor Daniel Exeter and Dr Nichola Shackleton. The forgotten generation: Creating a census-based measure of socioeconomic position (SEP) for the ≥65 population.
Shaan Badenhorst, BCom Honours (Economics), completed 2018, supervised by Associate Professor Asha Sundaram and Dr Barry Milne. Success at the cost of pimples? An empirical study of the effects of adolescent acne on education outcomes in New Zealand.
Justin Gunter, MSc (Statistics), completed 2016, supervised by Dr Barry Milne and Professor Alan Lee. The effect of urban living on mortality risk in New Zealand.
2015 & earlier
Fui Swen Kuh, BSc Honours (Statistics), completed 2015, supervised by Dr Barry Milne and Professor Alan Lee. Socioeconomic position and mortality risks: A sibling approach.
Justin Gunter, BSc Honours (Statistics), completed 2015, supervised by Dr Barry Milne and Professor Alan Lee. The effect of longitudinal unemployment on mortality risk in New Zealand.
Shahirah Ayob, BSc Honours (Statistics), completed 2015, supervised by Professor Alastair Scott and Roy Lay‑Yee. The relationship between infant mortality and income inequality in New Zealand and other OECD countries, 1960s‑2000s.
Liza Bolton, BSc Honours (Statistics), completed 2014, supervised by Dr Barry Milne and Professor Alan Lee. Factors explaining the low income return for education among Asian New Zealanders.
Lorraine Lee, BCom Honours (Economics), completed 2014, supervised by Dr Erwann Sbai and Dr Barry Milne. Understanding the childhood trajectory and its effects and consequences
Mughda Manda, BSc Honours (Statistics), completed 2013, supervised by Dr Barry Milne and Professor Alan Lee. Creating synthetic data sets using multiple imputation and stochastically-assigned synthetic individuals.
Stephanie Farrow, MSc (Statistics), completed 2013, supervised by Professor Alastair Scott and Professor Peter Davis. The New Zealand Election Study: A study in nonsampling error.
Emma Gullery, MSc (Statistics), completed 2012, supervised by Professor Alastair Scott, Professor Peter Davis, and Dr Barry Milne. Methods of analysing length of stay.
Furong (Lindy) Guo, MSc (Statistics), completed 2012, supervised by Professor Alan Lee and Professor Peter Davis. Data management for combining data sets.
Hind Behayaa, MSc (Statistics), completed 2012, supervised by Professor Alastair Scott and Roy Lay‑Yee. Does follow-up to outpatient clinics prevent adverse patient outcomes? The cases of bowel resection and hip replacement procedures.
Samuel Passmore, BSc Honours (Statistics), completed 2012, supervised by Professor Thomas Lumley and Dr Barry Milne. BART vs. logistic regression: Propensity score estimation.
Chia Wern (Carmen) Lim, MSc (Statistics), completed 2011, supervised by Professor Alastair Scott and Dr Barry Milne. Applying propensity scores to compare hospital performance.
Eric Mar, MSc (Statistics), completed 2011, supervised by Professor Alan Lee and Roy Lay‑Yee. Hospital restructuring: Was it harming us?
Jessica Maclean, BSc Honours (Statistics), completed 2011, supervised by Professor Alastair Scott and Dr Barry Milne. Investigating outpatient non-attendance in the New Zealand public health system.
Ui Young (Brian) Byun, MSc (Statistics), completed 2011, supervised by Professor Alan Lee and Professor Peter Davis. Occupation‑based socioeconomic scores: A path analysis approach.
Chia Wern (Carmen) Lim, BSc Honours (Statistics), completed 2010, supervised by Professor Alastair Scott and Professor Peter Davis. Tracking changes in primary medical care: Waikato 1979‑2002.
Karl Parker, MSc (Statistics), completed 2010, supervised by Professor Peter Davis and Professor Alastair Scott. Underpinning transparency in research: Establishing a template for a research repository with real‑world examples.
Sanat Pradhan, MSc (Statistics), completed 2009, supervised by Professor Alastair Scott and Professor Peter Davis. Predicting clinical activity in New Zealand general practice.
Summer Scholars
Completed
2021‑2025
Ryan Blackmore (Politics & International Relations), 2024‑2025, supervised by Professor Barry Milne. Investigating reasons for support/non‑support of republicanism, from the Social Attitudes Survey Aotearoa New Zealand 2023: Cititzenship & National Identity.
Emily Ren (Statistics), 2024‑2025, supervised by Dr Natalia Boven. Updating the New Zealand Socioeconomic Index (NZSEI) for the 2023 New Zealand Census of Population and Dwellings.
Olivia Rowe (Sociology) & Kelvin Xiao (Biology), 2023‑2024, supervised by Dr Natalia Boven. A Quantitative Analysis of Weight Bias and Healthcare Attitudes in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Molly Mitchell (Sociology), 2022‑2023, supervised by Associate Professor Barry Milne & Dr Komathi Kolandai. Measuring alternative medicine and online health information use in trusting medical doctors.
Ethan Renner (Criminology), 2020‑2021, supervised by Associate Professor Barry Milne. A literature review focusing on digital exclusion as it relates to incarceration and reintegration into society.
2016‑2020
Liam Nelson (Engineering), 2019‑2020, supervised by Dr Barry Milne, Dr Marama Muru-Lanning, and Dr Lara Greaves. Assessing indigenous participation in the International Social Survey Programme.
Charlotte Svardal (Psychology), 2019‑2020, supervised by Dr Stephanie D’Souza and Professor Karen Waldie. Antidepressant dispensing trends and prevalence in pregnant New Zealand mothers between 2007/08 and 2017/18.
Vinh An Nguyen (Psychology, University of Melbourne), 2019‑2020, supervised by Associate Professor Barry Milne and Dr Stephanie D’Souza. Relationships between socioeconomic status and general health status and life satisfaction: Evidence from New Zealand.
Lucas Chen (Statistics & Pharmacology), 2017‑2018, supervised by Dr Nichola Shackleton and Dr Barry Milne. Testing the healthy immigrant hypothesis: Obesity in four-year-olds.
David Campbell (Statistics), 2017‑2018, supervised by Dr Barry Milne and Roy Lay-Yee. Are correlates of loneliness similar across the life-course?
Caitlin Spence (Statistics), 2016‑2017, supervised by Dr Nichola Shackleton. Underachievement in the 1970 British Cohort Study.
Irene Wu (Engineering), 2016‑2017, supervised by Dr Barry Milne. Creating weights for the 2016 International Social Survey Programme (ISSP).
Rebecca Grimwood (Sociology), 2016‑2017, supervised by Dr Barry Milne and Associate Professor Louise Humpage. The role of government: Analysing results from the 2016 Social Attitudes Survey.
Clark Tipene (Politics & Sociology), 2015‑2016, supervised by Dr Barry Milne and Associate Professor Louise Humpage. Insights from the Social Attitudes Survey New Zealand 2015.
David Chan (Statistics), 2015‑2016, supervised by Roy Lay-Yee and Associate Professor Brian McArdle. Analysing social network data from the New Zealand General Social Survey 2014.
Katie Fahy (Statistics), 2015‑2016, supervised by Dr Barry Milne and Professor Alan Lee. Updating the New Zealand Socioeconomic Index for the 2013 Census: the NZSEI-13.
2011‑2015
Rahul Singhal (Statistics), 2014‑2015, supervised by Dr Barry Milne. Adjusting for linkage bias in the New Zealand Longitudinal Census.
Chris Liu (Statistics), 2014‑2015, supervised by Roy Lay-Yee and Professor Alan Lee. Construction of life-course variables for the New Zealand Longitudinal Census.
Lucy Cowie (Psychology), 2014‑2015, supervised by Professor Tracey McIntosh, Dr Barry Milne, and Associate Professor Ann Sullivan. Obtaining best estimates for Māori transitions through the life-course: A review of published and unpublished literature on Māori youth.
Mengdan Yu (Statistics), 2013‑2014, supervised by Jessica McLay. The simario R package.
Vera Puti Puti Clarkson (Statistics), 2013‑2014, supervised by Dr Barry Milne and Professor Alan Lee. Assessing linkage bias in the 1981‑2006 longitudinal census cohort.
Shubham Sharma (Engineering), 2012‑2013, supervised by Roy Lay-Yee, Martin von Randow, Tim McNamara, and Richard Hosking. New Zealand Social Science Data Service (NZSSDS) database platform migration from NESSTAR to Dataverse.
Bede Maclaurin (Computer Science), supervised by Roy Lay-Yee and Professor Robert Amor. Enhancing an open source policy decision support package: Improving the interface of JAMSIM.
Aimee Matiu (Māori Studies), supervised by Associate Professor Ann Sullivan and Martin von Randow. Māori political patterns from the 2011 New Zealand Election Study. Published in Vowles J (Ed.) (2014), The new electoral politics in New Zealand: The significance of the 2011 election. Institute for Governance and Policy Studies, Wellington.
Lucy Power & Chris Levett (Politics), supervised by Dr Gerard Cotterell, Associate Professor Jennifer Curtin, and Associate Professor Raymond Miller. Surveying the electorate: The 2011 New Zealand Election & Referendum Study.
Emma Gullery (Statistics), supervised by Professor Peter Davis, Dr Barry Milne, Martin von Randow, and Roy Lay-Yee. Improving efficiency and underpinning transparency in research: Enhancing research resources via a research repository.