Government has pushed universities to a policy crossroads – and the choice of paths is poor, according to Academy of Science president Chennupati Jagadish.
Government incentivises them to attract students, to improve balance sheets and subsidise research but then shuns them “for not maintaining a social compact” he told the Council of Deans of Science in a speech last week.
“Government’s need to maintain a social contract with voters is at odds with its technocratic contract with universities.” he warned.
And like aged care, child care and housing, “universities are trapped between wealth creation and delivering the human right to education regardless of postcode or place of birth.
What Australia needs, he said, is a “rational and balanced discourse about higher education as an industry supporting our economy, as a common good, as a social responsibility, and as a means to elevate all of us.”
Despite this, Professor Jagadish added he sees “a bright future for Australian university science,” although, it will be brighter if policy challenges are met, including;
- Addressing the science-skills gap, notably in geoscience and materials science
- Ending unsustainable long-term funding cuts and the smaller proportion of research agency grants that go to fundamental research
- The concerning situation created by the Strategic Examination of Research and Development (in development for Industry Minister Tim Ayres), which has “no proposals aimed at boosting funding for discovery research – the wellspring of innovation.”
“There is no ‘D’ without ‘R’ “ he warned.