1800 staff needed to plug uni holes

Australian universities need at least 1800 new full-time academics over three years to plug the hole left by an ageing and retiring workforce.

Launching its budget submission, the National Tertiary Education Union warned universities could not sustain a 52 per cent rate of casual staff. The union has proposed the Federal Government help fund 600 permanent positions in the existing casual workforce, based on merit. The other 1200 places would be found by attracting new PhD graduates to the sector.

Union president Carolyn Allport said the total cost to Government would be just over $105 million over four years, based on providing each university with a $50,000 subsidy for each placement over three years.

The union has also called on the Government to implement the findings of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Innovation, which recommended increasing government support for research and development, including the number of scholarships, the amount of support and the conditions of postgraduate awards, to make research careers more attractive.

''We are looking at a huge retirement bulge coming up over the next few years where we will lose many of our most senior colleagues through retirement. How do we replace them and how do we encourage others to move into these positions?'' Dr Allport said.

''Many of those people have spent their entire life in academe so to replace them would not be easy.''

She said the union had had discussions with the Government and the Government was aware of and had given favourable responses to the union's concerns. ''This is the first time that someone has actually put out a particular program with objectives and targeted at certain points in the academic career cycle,'' she said.

While Dr Allport believed the financial crisis would affect the Government's ability to better fund research and research careers, she said it had had huge aspirations for what it could actually do in research.

The federal Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Kim Carr, said in a speech on Monday, ''It is our ambition to progressively address the gap in funding for the indirect costs of research, subject to the capacity of future budgets.''

 Dr Allport said, ''Clearly the budget is in no position to sustain it [but] the Government remains committed to the principles.

''It is unfortunate. It will put us behind in the OECD rankings but we just have to see if next year brings a better future for research.''

The president of the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations, Nigel Palmer, said postgraduate students needed to look forward to career flexibility, security and better funding, otherwise they would not enter academia. ''There are a lot of things that could make significant improvement for research students today that don't cost much money.''

He suggested increasing Australian Postgraduate Awards by 50 per cent, exempting part-time scholarships and awards from tax and supporting workplace flexibility to recognise the average postgraduate student was 36, with financial and family responsibilities.