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GREEN PAPER – SOUND, BUT NOT YET RIPE
27 July 1999

The President of the Australian Academy of Science, Professor Brian Anderson, today welcomed the Green Paper on higher education research as 'a determined effort to put Australia’s higher education research on a sounder footing'.

'The mass tertiary education system that has developed over the past decade is a remarkable achievement, but the needs of our vital higher education research system have been left behind.

'In the Green Paper the Government has recognised the need to take action to maintain the excellence of our inherited research capacity through fostering diversity among tertiary education institutions and their sub-units.

'I am particularly glad to see the changes proposed to streamline the operation of the Australian Research Council, the body that allocates competitive research funding to university researchers. The universities are our prime source of basic research.

'The changes to the Australian Research Council will only be beneficial if they are accompanied by additional funding. University research support has been squeezed for too long. No changes in administration will succeed if we go on expecting quality research on the cheap.

'With additional funding, the move to allocate a greater proportion of research money competitively will produce better results. However, if the squeeze on money for university infrastructure is kept up, our research performance will continue to slip down the global league table.

'When the Commonwealth distributes funds, apart from ARC funds, to universities for research (so-called Institutional Grants) it uses measures of student numbers and external funding to decide who gets how much. The use of simplistic formulae as proposed in the Green Paper will threaten the quality of research produced.

'Competition for research funding without quality control will waste our precious funds.

'I strongly support the Green Paper’s intent that research students should be encouraged to move institutions to find the research supervisor best qualified for their interests. However, it will take more incentives in the system to make it happen. The Academy proposes that the research students’ stipends, which are too low in any case, should be loaded if they choose to move places, and they should be allowed longer to complete their research.

'Now is the time to get our research organisation and funding structures right, and to proceed with a national plan of investment in this crucial component of a knowledge economy.'

The full text of the Academy’s comments is available at http://www.science.org.au/reports/green2.htm.