The Australian Research Council will replace a competitive ranking of universities, with a “research insights capability.”
“The ARC will not rank, score or rate institutions but will openly share knowledge, highlight key issues and successes across the sector, and produce annual assessments,” it states in a two-page consultation.
The Council is creating a replacement for the fiendishly complicated, fiercely contested, Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) ranking which ranked universities by discipline against international competitors and which was last completed in 2018. The data-light, community-benefit-focused Engagement and Impact survey is also gone.
Their end was recommended by the 2023 Sheil Review of the ARC Act, which concluded the metrics were over-engineered, “we are using a Ferrari to pop down the shops for milk and bread,” Professor Sheil and colleagues wrote that year, in Campus Morning Mail.
The ARC now proposes evaluations using:
- data “that harnesses smart technologies” and “dynamic real-time insights”
- “targeted insights and vignettes which highlight research impact”
- an ARC overview of the state of the system
It commits to ensuring, “data sources, processes and indicators … make best use of new or emerging technological advancements.”
The big attraction for everybody who crunched university numbers for ERA in 2010, 2012, 2015, and 2018: “The new capability aims to be less burdensome for stakeholders.”
Curtin University's Dr Karl Huang said the ARC announcement was significant, as the organisation had indicated it was focused on open data, and wouldn't be basing its system on databases of publishers such as Web of Science or Scopus.
Dr Huang's Open Knowledge Initiative team have been selected as preferred providers working with the ARC on new projects.
"We welcome the new ARC evaluation framework that signals a significant move towards more open and transparent approaches to evaluating research at Australian Universities,” Dr Huang said.
“We are excited to be part of this shift and look forward to working with Universities and the ARC to help deliver better research evaluation for Australia."