Wealthy unis manipulating funding allocation

CAPA hails the nineteenth recommendation of the Senate Committee Report, Universities in Crisis, that two of the mechanisms by which universities can manipulate the funding they receive under the Institutional Grants Scheme (IGS) be removed.

"The current system gives the most funding to the richest universities, and the least to those universities struggling to develop their research capacity," argued CAPA President, Mr John Byron.

The IGS allocates research funding to universities on the basis of their ability to attract research income from a number of sources. Universities that have received the most research income, from sources such as Australian Research Council grants and industry investment, will receive the most IGS funding.

The Senate Committee has recommended that funds invested in research by the universities themselves, which can currently be included as research income for the purposes of the IGS, be excluded.

"It is only the wealthy universities, whose income is boosted by endowments and the like, that have the capacity to fund their own research," said Mr Byron.

"Surely the goal of our research funding system should be to enhance the research capacity of all Australian universities, rather than to entrench the dominant position of a wealthy few."

The Committee has also recommended the exclusion of income received from consultancies that do not involve the development of new knowledge.

Again, academics from Australia's most prestigious, and wealthiest, universities are more likely to be hired as consultants.

"University research should be carried out for the benefit of the whole community, rather than catering to the demands of the industries that can afford to hire academic staff as consultants", commented Mr Byron.

"I applaud the courage of the ALP and Democrat members of the Senate Committee to recommend the removal of these two mechanisms for distorting total research income, in the face of vocal protest from the universities that have benefited from them in the past.

"Unlike this current government, the ALP and the Democrats will not be swayed by the demands of those with the most financial clout.

"Our research funding system should adequately support the innovative work of academic researchers at all Australian universities," concluded Mr Byron.