National Innovations Summit: Time for some positive solutions
9 February 2000
The National Tertiary Education Union has welcomed the National Innovation Summit as providing an opportunity for Government and industry to identify some positive solutions to the problems confronting higher education. The Summit, which has been organised by the Commonwealth Government and the Business Council of Australia, will be held in Melbourne on February 10th and 11th.
NTEU President Dr Carolyn Allport said that the Summit’s stated aim is `to achieve broad consensus on clear strategies to enhance Australia’s competitiveness through innovation and thereby encourage economic growth.’
`We hope that the Summit will develop strategies to enhance the value of universities in the innovation process. However, there is already consensus among many Summit participants that we need increased public investment in higher education, as well as strategies to stimulate industry investment in R & D,’ she said. `This consensus should translate into some clear policy directions for the Commonwealth Government, with real dollars attached in the forthcoming Federal Budget.’
Dr Allport described the Government’s main contribution to the innovation debate so far, its `White Paper’ on research and research education, as disappointing and lacking substance.
`We need more than soothing rhetoric – we need a real recognition of the value of university research and education in fuelling innovation, and practical support for this role.’
`US President Clinton has just announced an 8% increase in funding for higher education research, with the National Science Foundation receiving its largest budget boost ever,’ she pointed out. `If Australia does not recognise the importance of publicly-funded research and lift our level of investment, we will be left behind.’
Dr Allport, who will be representing NTEU at the Summit, said she hoped that the `human dimension’ of innovation – the education and training and development of career opportunities for Australian knowledge workers – would also receive the attention it deserves.
`We must develop practical strategies to ensure that Australian education and training are world class, and that the contributions of knowledge workers – particularly in higher education – are appropriately rewarded.’