The Group of Eight likes ATEC’s proposed Statement of Strategic Priorities. They will like it even more if the regulator focuses on its research-focused members.
The Australian Tertiary Education Commission has ideas on “where Australian tertiary education needs to go and how to get there.” The draft SSP is out for comment, with two-year priorities to be set in stone for the new year.
The Eight appear to recognise an opportunity for the priorities to entrench the role of elite institutions to run the research system while other universities focus elsewhere. Thus the Go8 recommends the SSP recognise the “complementary strengths of different institutions, not by requiring institutions with different missions and capabilities to pursue uniform activities, priorities or outcomes.”
ATEC has what appears a similar idea – it is also consulting on a Minister Clare suggestion that not every university should research all they teach (FC here). Plus funding for research that is already embedded in Commonwealth Supported Places will inevitably come up in the efficient cost of teaching review now underway (FC HERE).
But the Eight want to make the driving role of research explicit, calling it “an enabling part of the system that should be embedded across all priorities, as well as recognised as a standalone priority.”
And lest ATEC ignore the obvious, the Go8 repeats the point in specific recommendations:
- Strengthen global engagement: “by explicitly encompassing international research collaboration, global knowledge networks;”
- Collaboration: “greater and more explicit recognition to research partnerships, research translation and innovation alongside education and workforce partnerships.”
And not all need be involved. “System-level priorities should guide and strengthen the sector, not become uniform provider-level requirements.
“This will enable ATEC to strengthen the capability, diversity and resilience of the tertiary education system, while preserving the specialisation and distinctive institutional strengths on which that system depends.”