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INDUSTRY & RESEARCH
Go8 defends funding plan
Critics say large universities’ plan for scarce research dollars is self-serving.
By James Wells
The Go8 has lashed back against accusations that its research funding proposal is unfair and self-centred.
The group of large Australian universities is urging Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to fix the country’ s research system by limiting which projects gain access to taxpayer funds for master’ s and PhD research. The Go8 wants this funding to be tied directly to Excellence in Research for Australia( ERA) rankings, meaning it would go only towards those deemed to produce“ world-class research”.
Go8 chief executive Vicki Thomson said 98 per cent of the group’ s research was world-class by ERA standards, compared with just 38 per cent of research non-Go8 universities produce. Thus, if the Go8’ s proposal were to be adopted into policy, the vast majority of $ 680 million in annual funding for research would go the Go8.
Nonetheless, Thomson has rejected widespread criticism that this proposal would entrench the privilege of Australia’ s most prestigious universities.
“ What we’ re saying is, funding should be distributed based on quality, wherever that quality occurs,” Thomson said.“ If that quality research occurs at James Cook University, or it occurs at Victoria University, or it occurs at Edith Cowan University, or it occurs at one of the [ Go8 ] universities, then that funding, that research, and that research training environment should be funded.”
Thomson said as the budget for the federal research portfolio was not expected to receive a substantial cash injection in the near future, the proposal was“ pragmatic” for increasing innovation in Australian research – which is on the federal government’ s agenda. While more funding would be welcome, she said, scarce taxpayer dollars mean only institutions producing world-class research should be funded.
“ It’ s just a simple argument to accuse a group of universities of acting in selfinterest, when in fact what we’ re saying is we need to act in the national interests here, and we need to fund excellent research wherever it happens,” Thomson said.“ Of course, more research funding would always be welcome, but we have to work within the parameters that we’ ve got at the moment.”
But Conor King, executive director of Innovative Research Universities – which comprises six universities including James Cook University, Griffith University and Flinders University – said ERA rankings were not a reliable method of judging research quality.
“ ERA is essentially about what was good in 2005, so there’ s not necessarily a grand alignment between where we want things to be and where they once were,” King said.“ We need research that’ s across a whole range of areas, new areas and developing old areas. It’ s not about just finding one or two winners.
King labelled the Go8’ s approach“ very self-centred” and said it would create pressure among universities to tailor their research to ERA performance, thereby constricting opportunities for students to break into the research workforce, as institutions would be focused solely on performance and financial outcomes. As such, tying funding to ERA rankings would also limit individual student choice about what to study and where, he said.
Greens higher education spokesman Robert Simms said the Go8’ s plan would create a“ two-tiered system” of research funding and called on the federal education minister, Simon Birmingham, to reject the proposal. He slammed it as self-serving and said more research funding needed to be distributed to the higher education sector as a whole – not just funnelled to topperforming universities.
“ Ultimately, it would mean that you would have the Go8 universities basically emerging as leaders in the field with their poor cousins lagging behind, and that wouldn’ t be a good outcome,” Simms said.“ We need to ensure that there’ s equity in funding and we need to ensure that all universities gain access to that critical funding.” ■
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