Government resorts to blackmail to reduce postgraduate research places
18 July 2000
The National Tertiary Education Union, which represents university staff, has accused the Government of blackmailing institutions in its attempts to reduce the number of funded postgraduate places in Australian universities.
Universities have been offered the choice of converting some of their current funded postgraduate research places to undergraduate places – and therefore keeping the funding – or giving them up for allocation by a new competitive mechanism. It is a mechanism that is likely to favour large research-intensive universities, and in the Union’s view, amounts to blackmail of institutions scared of losing more funding.
`While the UK Government announced this week a billion-pound injection into research – most of it directed at nurturing PhD students – our government seems intent on cutting postgraduate research places,’ said NTEU President Carolyn Allport.
`The Government’s White Paper on research clearly stated the Minister’s intention to reduce funded load for postgraduate research from 25,000 places to 21,500 places,’ said Dr Allport. `However, the Minister hasn’t provided any reason why this will be in the national interest. On the contrary, it seems to run counter to all the Government’s rhetoric about the `Knowledge Economy’.
`Figures collected by the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations show that all universities will be losers in this process, but that those universities with a high proportion of non-scholarship postgraduate research student places will be particularly disadvantaged. Australian Defence Force Academy could lose all its postgraduate places, and RMIT could lose up to 40%.’
`Why is the Government removing opportunities for postgraduate research? Where are the knowledge workers to fuel the knowledge economy to come from, if we cut back on our postgraduate research?’ asked Dr Allport.
`Staff will stand by CAPA in fighting this unfair and ill-conceived attempt to further cut higher education research.’