A New Research Agenda
2 April 2005
As part of its huge package of reforms of the higher education
sector, the Federal Government this week released another 'Issues
Paper' this time on the 'Research Quality Framework' (RQF).
The Government is committed to ensuring that resources provided
to carry out research are directed to areas of research excellence
and public benefit, the Minister, Dr Nelson, has said.
Professor Sir Gareth Roberts, from the UK, where he has been
very influential in shaping a similar scheme called the Research
Assessment Exercise (RAE), is now chairing the Australian expert
panel.
It is clear that resources provided to carry out research will
be directed to areas of research excellence. But there will also be
consideration of the broader impact of the research for society,
through economic, environmental and social benefits.
The Paper identifies thirteen major issues which the Panel hopes
will focus national discussions. There is recognition at the outset
that there is diversity within universities, and that one funding
model is unlikely to suit all institutions. How one overarching
framework can be differentially applied to universities as diverse
as our oldest and most privileged as well as to our youngest and
least privileged in research has still to be worked out.
Most observers believe that, as in Britain, the allocations of
research monies will favour the older universities which already
conduct most of the research in Australia. As the newer
universities have emerged since World War II, they too have
gradually built research expertise in specialist areas, often
focused on regional economic and social benefits and need
encouragement to continue.
It was interesting, in this context, to read the comments of
Professor Michael Gibbons, the recently retired Secretary General
of the Association of Commonwealth Universities. He claimed that if
Australia copied the UK model then it risked sacrificing the very
'diversity' that the Federal Government claims it wants in higher
education. Across twenty years the RAE has decreased diversity and
resulted in the closure of many small-scale research centres or
departments. He estimated that by 2007 only twenty universities out
of 123 in the UK would be receiving significant research
grants.
In a country like Australia, with greater distances between
research centres, more diverse regions, new and old,. with
different needs, this is a sobering warning as we formulate a new
RQF.
For some years Gibbons has been stressing that only universities
embedded in their communities will be able to preserve their
distinctiveness and autonomy and need to conduct research relevant
to those communities.
Since we started, USC has consistently reflected this engagement
philosophy in its choice of courses and research foci.
Whilst the need to be globally competitive is essential, and the
need to invest in proven research strengths is beyond doubt, it is
also to be hoped that a new RQF will not neglect the new and
rapidly developing universities in the regions, where there is so
much research needing to be done, but where those universities like
USC, need time to fully develop their potential as generators for
economic and social advancement. If this exercise further
strengthens the already strong at the expense of the new, then not
only will the new universities be disadvantaged, but their regions
will also be correspondingly retarded.
Professor Paul Thomas is Vice-Chancellor of University of
the Sunshine Coast