NTEU WELCOMES PLAN TO REVISE POSTGRADUATE EDUCATION
August 12 2004
The National Tertiary Education Union welcomes the announcement by the shadow Minister for Science and Research, Senator Kim Carr, that the ALP will abolish the $540 million per year Research Training Scheme (RTS), which provides funding to universities to educate higher degree research students.
“NTEU has long argued that the RTS has failed to perform for either postgraduate research students or universities,” said Dr Carolyn Allport, NTEU National President.
“The RTS funding formula is overly complex and lacks transparency and public accountability. For example, a number of universities claim the scheme penalises those institutions where students complete their postgraduate research degrees ahead of schedule.”
“The RTS needs to be replaced by a funding mechanism that is transparent, delivers resources directly to those engaged in research education, and does not waste scarce resources on high compliance costs and bureaucratic red tape.”
“The education of research higher degree students is becoming a critical issue for Australia, as we will face a severe shortage of academic and research staff over the next decade. In 2002, 72% of academic staff employed at Australian universities were aged over 40 and 39% were aged over 50.”
“Any new research and training policy must be aimed at building the next generation of researchers,” said Dr Allport. “In its current form the RTS fails this key objective.”
NTEU expects Labor’s industry and research policy to:
- provide a substantial increase in the number of higher degree research places,
- deliver an increase in the level of funding per place to compensate for real cuts in expenditures since the introduction of the RTS,
- include indexation arrangements that reflect changes in the actual real costs of providing research training in Australia,
- allocate higher degree research places to institutions (not to individual students by the way of a voucher system) and ensure that smaller and regional institutions continue to be involved in research, and
- facilitate the entry of higher degree research students into the academic and research workforce.
“Australia needs high quality postgraduate education in order to build a strong research foundation for our economic and social future.”
For Information and Comment:
Dr Carolyn Allport, NTEU National President: 0419 349 064
Andrew Nette, NTEU Policy and Research Coordinator: 0438 026277