Behavioural Insights Exchange (BIX)

The new University of Auckland Behavioural Insights Exchange (UoABIX) allows Masters thesis students to work with external organisations across the private and public sector to develop a real-world behavioural science project.

Students will gain industry-relevant skills by applying knowledge of our cognitive biases and errors in decision-making to help address the challenges faced by our external partners. UoABIX will create the opportunity for knowledge exchange between business and academia, bringing state-of-the-art scientific knowledge, methodology and data analysis tools to industry-relevant questions and databases.

UoABIX was launched in 2022 with industry partners including PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and Auckland Council. We are looking for high-GPA students with excellent communication and social skills, good knowledge of statistics and a passion for using rigorous experimental design to tackle real-world problems. If you have been looking for an opportunity to translate the knowledge and skills learnt at UoA so far into industry and government then UoABIX is for you!

Career paths

Behavioural insights is a rapidly growing area with applications across government, NGOs, and industry. Governments around the world, including the UK, NZ, USA, Germany, Singapore, Australia, the Netherlands, Canada, Denmark, and Brazil have all established BI teams.

Organisations such as Google, McKinsey, the World Bank, Facebook, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Auckland Council, and the European Commision have incorporated BI techniques into their organisations. There is, therefore, great potential for graduates to work within organisations such as these and make an impact on business and the policies of national and local government.

Fees

The UoABIX programme includes the below courses (please note that these courses can only be completed on-campus):

• PSYCH796A
• PSYCH796B

For more information on the course fees for domestic and international students, please see the relevant Science sections on our Fees by faculty webpage.

Apply

Entry into UoABIX will require an Honours or PGDip qualification or to be currently enrolled in an Honours or PGDip year in Psychology, although applicants with an Honours degree or postgraduate qualification in a related discipline, such as Data Science, Marketing or Economics will also be considered.

The programme commences on 1st March (main intake) and 15th July (Semester 2 start date option). Applications for entry are accepted at any time, but places are limited so we recommend submitting your application as early as possible.

If you are interested in applying to UoABIX’s 2023 intake, please send an email with your CV, unofficial academic transcript and cover letter to: behavioural-insights@auckland.ac.nz