Unis most in need of funding receive less

CAPA applauds the eighteenth recommendation of the Senate Committee Report, Universities in Crisis, that the balance between funding provided by the Institutional Grants Scheme (IGS) and by competitive grants be reviewed.

"The current research funding model is biased in favour of the wealthy universities, and is inadequate to maintain, let alone advance, Australian research", said CAPA President, Mr John Byron.

Funding provided by the IGS, which replaces the Research Quantum from 2002, is allocated to support research that has attracted competitive grants. This effectively means that the universities which are most successful in winning grants will also receive the most IGS funding.

"This is a system which gives the most money to the universities that need it the least," said Mr Byron

In addition, the current model ties funding to previous research output, making it very difficult for new universities to receive the funding they need to support their research.

"It is a vicious cycle. Without adequate funding for new universities, their research output is reduced, which inevitably means their future research funding will not increase," argued Mr Byron.

For example, in 2001, the Research Quantum allocated $26 million for the University of Melbourne, but only $60,000 for the newly established University of the Sunshine Coast.

"The current system is also weighted far too heavily in favour of grants for specific projects," argued Mr Byron.

"This means that universities are forced to abandon the sort of speculative, open-ended research that has proven to be crucial to the advance of knowledge."

In practice, this has seen applied science projects funded to the detriment of basic scientific research and research in the humanities and social sciences.

"The additional funding allocated by Backing Australia's Ability simply perpetuates this narrow research focus."

"It is testament to the broad vision of the ALP and Democrat members of the Senate Committee, that they have recognised the need to review the deficiencies of the current funding model," Mr Byron concluded.