Australia’s innovation future depends on students
MEDIA RELEASE Australia’s innovation future depends on students
4 December 2015 – The Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations (CAPA) is pleased to finally see the report from the Senate inquiry into Australia’s Innovation System and that the report recognises the important role of students and young people in Australia’s Innovation Future.
CAPA welcomes many of the report’s recommendations, including the proposed student venture fund and the five strategic action areas, particularly the proposal of a National Science, Research and Innovation Foundation (NSRIF) and the establishment of Doctoral Training Centres. But CAPA is very concerned by the proposal for an ‘integrated national tertiary education system’.
‘A proposal which sees Universities and VET institutions joined at the hip or forced to amalgamate would irreversibly damage higher education in Australia’ Said Harry Rolf the National President.
‘Instead integration must mean an approach to the system that is holistic, which respects the system and its various parts, and that recognises it also interacts with other systems. To put that in context the Tertiary Education System, the Innovation System and the Research Training System (RTS) are not mutually exclusive, they interact extensively as do their various parts’.
‘The RTS plays an important role in bridging parts of these systems, postgraduates on one hand are students, but also trainees, teachers or researchers depending on the nature of their projects and their work commitments. Their omission from the report is perhaps justified by the ongoing review of Australia’s Research Training System but it is not systematic or helpful to consider these reviews in isolation. A holistic approach must be taken, one that recognises postgraduate students. Properly supported Doctoral Training Centres would certainly be a step in the right direction’.
‘It is also good to see the report place emphasis on the importance of digital literacy, but there are some serious challenges in this space – none more significant than the gender participation gap in Information Technology. According to 2014 higher education enrolment data for the field of Information Technology only 16% of domestic enrolments were female students, and only 21% of overseas students. This figure speaks volumes about the challenges ahead, particularly if digital literacy is an important aspect of social inclusion as the report suggests’ concluded Harry Rolf.
ENDS
Media Contact:
Harry Rolf | National President | president@capa.edu.au
Peter Derbyshire | Media Officer | media@capa.edu.au
