Government should postpone the Research Quality Framework
March 28 2006
The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) on Tuesday welcomed the Federal Education Minister’s decision to undertake further consultation on its controversial Research Quality Framework (RQF) but urged the Government to announce that it will postpone the framework’s implementation to allow this to take place.
“Despite the Government releasing four major discussion papers and undertaking extensive consultation with the sector, including invitations for three sets of written submissions since late 2004, the RQF remains a highly contentious issue amongst participants in the higher education sector,” said Andrew Nette, NTEU Policy and Research Coordinator.
“Unfortunately the Final Advice on the Preferred RQF Model makes it no clearer as to whether the Government intends to proceed with the RQF and if it does, what the final model will look like.”
“Given the complexity of the issues surrounding its design, the Government’s current agenda of implementing the RQF beginning in 2007 is highly unrealistic.”
“At a very minimum, the NTEU believes the Minister should announce now the postponement of any new research quality assessment exercise until at least 2008 and any funding changes until 2009.”
“Delaying implementation by 12 months will provide both the Government and the higher education sector sufficient time not only to consider what the appropriate final model might look like, but more importantly whether it is an efficient mechanism for ensuring whether public funds are being used to support high quality research.
“This is especially important given the UK Government’s announcement last week to scrap its Research Assessment Exercise, on which the preferred model for the RQF is closely based, in favour of a model that looks more like the performance based funding model currently used in Australia.”
“This model is based on research publications, research income and higher degree research completions.”
“There have been a number of serious concerns expressed in the UK about the RAE, including the huge bureaucratic and financial cost to Government of implementing it and to individual universities taking part in it,” said Nette. “It is vital that any Australian research assessment mechanism avoid repeating these problems.“
For Further Information and Comment:
Andrew Nette, NTEU Policy and Research Coordinator: 03 9254 1910 or 0438 026 277
Paul Kniest, NTEU Policy and Research Officer: 0418 170 622