Australian Higher Education: Snapshot of Development,

Policy and Research

V. Lynn Meek

7 September 2015

The Australian higher education system

• Federation of 6 States and 2 territories, but public universities primarily funded and regulated by the federal government

• University governance: autonomous, self-accrediting institutions established by act of State parliament, governed by lay council

• National higher education regulator: Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TESQA)

• 37 large to very large public universities; 3 small private universities

• About 94% of students enrolled in public universities and 6% in some 130 private providers

• Annual revenue of $27 billion+

• About 1.4 million higher education students, of whom around 75% are domestic and 25% fee-paying International students

• About 56% of students are female, and one-quarter are postgraduates

2

The Australian higher education system

• Research a legally defining characteristic of Australian universities – must be research active across at least 3 broad fields of study

• Assumption that most academics do both teaching and research as well as community engagement

• Two broad types of research funding: competitive project- based funding and performance-based block research funding

• Australian universities are large/very large comprehensive institutions by international standards

• Particularly in Victoria, a number of universities are dual sector institutions with substantial Technical and Further Education (TAFE) components

• Domestic student tuition fees loan scheme (HECS-HELP) repaid through tax system once employed

• Recent dramatic increase in domestic enrolments due to government uncapping student places

• Current policy debate on deregulation of domestic student tuition fees

University self-defined affiliations

• Go8 – 8, mostly older research-intensive university

• Australian Technology Network of Universities – 5 pre-Dawkins leading Colleges of Advanced Education

• Innovative Research Universities of Australia – 7, mostly newer post-WWII universities

• Regional Universities Network – 6 regional universities

• Other non-aligned universities – 13 institutions

4

University expenditure by source of funds

Australian publications in Web of Science 1981 – 2012, total output and % of world output

Bentley 2014

Top Ten areas of Research Effort in Terms of Output

Go8 2008

Research expenditure by type of research

Norton 2015: 39

Percentage of Higher Education Research & Development (HERD) financed by government sector

OECD 2014

*

Government R&D expenditure, 2006 - 2016

Issues Paper 2015

Main Commonwealth Competitive Research Funding Schemes

• ARC - The Australian Research Council (Discovery & Linkage)• NHMRC - National Health and Medical Research Council

Block grants:• Australian Postgraduate Awards (APA)• International Postgraduate Research Scholarships (IPRS)• Research Training Scheme (RTS) – paid upon graduation• Joint Research Engagement (JRE) – supports joint research activities

between universities, industry and end-users• Research Infrastructure Block Grants (RIGB)• Sustainable Research Excellence (SRE) – support indirect research cost

of competitive grants

Go8 research intensive universities attract around three-quarters of competitive research funding

Issues Paper 2015

ARC and NHMRC grants annual expenditure

Norton 2015: 49

Research Block Grant Funding per university, 2015

Pettigrew 2015

Firms’ research collaboration with higher education or public research institutions

OECD 2013

Federal government agenda to boost commercial returns form research

• Discussion paper ‘Boosting the Commercial Returns form Research October 2014 http://www.education.gov.au/news/discussion-paper-boosting-commercial-returns-research-released

• An agenda for action May 2015 http://www.industry.gov.au/INDUSTRY/INDUSTRYINITIATIVES/Pages/Boosting-the-Commercial-Returns-from-Research.aspx

• Review of Research Policy and Funding Arrangements for Higher Education Issues Paper http://docs.education.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/issues_paper_-_review_of_funding_policy.pdf

ERA (Excellence in Research for Australia) Assessment, 2102

Rating Units of evaluation Percentage

1/2 Well below/below world standard 518 22%

3 At world standard 820 35%

4 Above world standard 594 26%

5 Well above world standard 391 17%

Total 2,323 100%

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Though pockets of excellence in many unis, Go8 dominated 4&5 ratings

A third of medical & health science rated well above world standard

Australian research and innovation policy issues

• Balance of fundamental research and research for economic return

• Low commercialisation record compared to competitor nations

• Low private sector investment in public research

• Problematic level of government investment in research and funding the full cost of research

• Non-research funding (eg international student fees) heavily subsidising research

• Is the uniform, national, open, competitive grant system the best option for growth and development of the Australian higher education research sector?

• Renewal of research workforce and maintaining strong research culture

Thank you for your attention