Times are horrible for HASS students, what with the government leaving in place the Coalition-created super-premium fees most of their students pay ($16,200 a year in HELP debt, compared to $4,400 for education degrees).
But eternal vigilance is the price of funding and so the Deans of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities are rising above the message that their disciplines don’t rate for public funding in teaching by making a case that they merit more money for research. It’s in a submission to the Australian Research Council’s review of the National Competitive Grants scheme.
The core message is that DASSH disciplines are being unfairly ignored, given a “narrow focus on commercialisation” within the NCGP.
“This obscures the broader potential research impacts, including around policy reform, public engagement and community enrichment, which are often the domain of research in the humanities, arts and social sciences”
And without “a strong commitment” from the ARC opportunities, HASS research “will be further eroded.”
Arts and social science projects should be a priority for ARC industrial transformation schemes, the submission argues, because HASS can really help industry, including STEM based businesses.
Helping the humanities will also do something about the under-representation of women. DASSH points to Industrial Transformation Training Centre grants, where men received two thirds of the awards.
