Attachment: CAPA Submission
The Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations (CAPA) welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the Government’s proposed framework for establishing national research priorities. We applaud Minister McGauran’s decision to incorporate public consultation into the priority setting process. We submit the following response to the Minister’s issues paper, Developing National Research Priorities, on behalf of all students enrolled in Australian postgraduate degrees.
CAPA is the national peak body representing Australia’s 155,312 postgraduate students. It has affiliated postgraduate associations in 34 of Australia’s public higher education institutions and in all States and Territories. Australian postgraduate students fall into two broad categories: postgraduate coursework students who number 116,913 and postgraduate research students who number 38,499.
The research undertaken by doctoral and research masters candidates, as well as the research carried out by many postgraduate coursework students for the thesis component of their degrees, is a vital part of the Australian research effort. In 1984, Margaret Powles estimated that postgraduate students contributed 35-50 per cent of universities’ research and between 10.8-15.5 per cent of Australia’s total research effort. More recently, Siddle has argued that a more accurate figure is 65-70 per cent of university research.
CAPA accepts the need to set national research priorities in order to better coordinate Australian research. However, we are concerned that without additional research funding the priority setting process becomes a zero-sum allocation: targeted funding for research priorities must be diverted from other research. We have already seen Australia’s research capacity undermined by the implementation of the Research Training Scheme in 2001, which reduced the total number of postgraduate research places from 24,980 in 2000 to 21,644 in 2001 (EFTSU).
We cannot afford to let Australian research be weakened any further. CAPA is also concerned by the Government’s decision in January this year to target 33 per cent of the 2003 Australian Research Council (ARC) funding round to four scientific research areas, thus pre-empting public consultation on appropriate research priorities. We find the priority setting process outlined in Developing National Research Priorities, with its emphasis on public consultation and broad thematic research priority areas, to be highly preferable.
The following submission contains CAPA’s suggestions for further improving the priority setting process.
