The Group of Eight’s enrolment of Australian research doctorate students fell by 300 between 2014 and 2023.
And the rest of the system is not picking up the slack – overall the whole university figure was up by only 1%.
Uni of Melbourne emeritus professor Frank Larkins reports that domestic research doctoral students measured in equivalent full-time student load fell by 2.4% across the decade. Overall Go8 research doctorate numbers were up by 14% – but that is due to a 42% lift in international candidates.
“These are surprising outcomes for a consortium that claims leadership of the sector,” he suggests.
Some of the individual Go8 university results are solid, but others less surprising than astounding. Uni Queensland increased its domestic doctoral EFTS across the decade by 8% and Monash, Melbourne and Sydney were stable but UNSW was down 10% and ANU collapsed by 22%.
Almost all of the Go8 grew their research base by hiking international HDR enrolments, Uni Sydney by 88% , Uni Melbourne by 74%and Monash U by 65%. ANU, however, grew by just 12%, short of a third of the Go8 average. “The erosion of ANU as a premier research university is well reflected in its declining international rankings in recent years,” Professor Larkins concludes.
Overall, he warns that the Group of Eight’s “prominent leadership role” has depended on “cross-subsidisation of research and research training programs from university discretionary funds.” It’s a problem because the Go8 supervise 46% of all Australian doctoral students.
But it’s more than institutional resources; there is a supply shortage. Universities Australia points to, “misconceptions about the value of PhD graduates in sectors outside academia, particularly in industry” as a reason for the five year decline in enrolments. “While education is often considered an investment in human capital, the return on investment for PhD studies may not be obvious to many.”
“Australia cannot afford for economic, social and internationally competitive reasons, to experience a decline in the contribution of universities to our national research and innovation programs,” Larkins warns.
The evidence was in this week, with the Prime Minister proposed a productivity push and research lobbies announced how they can help – what went unsaid was where the next generation of senior scientists will come from.
Frank Larkins publishes HERE
