The 2020-22 decline in HE spending as a share of GDP was the largest since data was first collected in the early 1990s, demonstrating why Australia underperforms on R&D compared to global competitors, the University of Melbourne’s Frank Larkins reports.
The proportion of university funding for research and development fell from 2012 to 2020, due to increased teaching outlays and no Commonwealth cash for the “indirect costs” that support research.
There was a blip in 2022 as feds kicked in Covid cash, but while we will not know until the ABS releases new numbers next year, Professor Larkins expects the good times did not roll for long.
In a new edition of his series tracking research funding, Professor Larkins points out governments have long left universities to bear the burden of R&D, which is a national problem given its declining share of their resources.
Across 2012-2022 total university expenditure increased 54%, to $35.9bn while R&D was up 45% to $13.9bn.
Some research categories were funded way better than others. Reflecting government priorities, applied research outlays increased from 48% to just short of 60% between 2018-22. And the long decline in basic and strategic basic research, “the driver of fundamental breakthrough in knowledge-creation” continued, from nearly 50% in 2008 to to 34% in ’22.
Professor Larkins warns of another decline in a fundamental resource – young people.
Overall, academic numbers in R&D were up 7% to 25,000 in person-years and “other” staff grew 39% to 13,000 – but postgraduates barely moved, up by just 4% to 24,000.
Overall, Professor Larkins concludes, “this is not in the national interest … a reflection of the declining importance placed by governments and communities on the potential of universities to contribute to state economic prosperity.”