Submission to the Review of Higher Education Financing and Policy
The Australian Institute of Physics
Professor Jaan Oitmaa, PhD, DSc, FAIP
President
1. A coherent national policy for universities needs to be established and enunciated.
2. This policy needs to recognize and reaffirm the importance of the basic sciences and mathematics, within the teaching programs of all of our universities.
3. There needs to be a redirection of resources within the University System in order to maintain the strength of those technological disciplines on which Australiaís future competitiveness will depend.
4. Funding for research in universities needs to be increased to allow them to maintain internationally recognized quality research programs.
5. Mechanisms need to be established to allow entry of our brightest young people into continuing academic careers.
6. Incentives and rewards need to be developed to attract bright graduates into the secondary teaching profession, especially in the science and mathematics areas.
7. The private sector must be encouraged to contribute to the support of university programs of teaching and research.
The Australian Institute of Physics (AIP) is the primary professional society that represents physicists in Australia. Its membership of approx 2500 includes academics, scientists in public and private research organisations and industry, and some secondary teachers.
The AIP is vitally interested in promoting and enhancing the contributions that science and technology, and in particular physics, can and must make in the national interest. We view with great concern recent trends in secondary education, university funding and policy decisions, and other developments which are harming Australia’s capacity to develop a high-technology based economy able to compete with the technology-based economics of East Asia and the rest of the World.
We welcome the establishment of the Review of Higher Education Financing and Policy, and the opportunity to make this submission. While we often refer specifically to the discipline of Physics, it should be understood that most of our recommendations and points refer to science and technology as a whole.
The AIP wishes to stress the importance of a good university system to a prosperous, equitable and harmonious society. An educated and rational society is not something we can take for granted.
Universities exist and are supported by the government and the community to serve a number of roles
While Universities need to embrace the best quality and management practices they cannot and should not be seen simply as corporations to produce and market a product at lowest cost.
Australia’s system of Universities has undergone massive upheaval during the last decade and the rate of structural change is, if anything, increasing.
The initial "Dawkins" restructuring was driven mainly, it seems, by a philosophy to equalise all universities and to make them accessible to a large proportion of the nation’s youth. Current restructuring is driven largely by government budget cutbacks.
There is a lack of a coherent national policy for universities. Each institution is reacting to market forces in order to establish its own profile. This has led to a proliferation of courses. The system cannot be allowed to develop with student preference as the sole criteria for determining the course mix of universities. Such a system tends to proliferate intellectually less demanding courses at the expense of science and engineering without any consideration of the nationís need for strong and viable departments offering disciplines such as physics.
We would submit that, in the national interest, there needs to be a redirection of resources and priorities to those fundamental disciplines which educate students in the broadest sense and to the high level professions. This requires leadership from governments, both at the federal and state levels.
Over the last five years, because of reducing budgets, Physics Departments in Australian Universities have found themselves in situations where 90 % or more of their income is committed to salaries. This means that it has become impossible to maintain essential research equipment, much less allow for upgrading or development of new programs. Postgraduate research students cannot be adequately supported from recurrent funds but must depend on support through ARC and other external research grants.
Recent surveys have shown that over the 1996-1997 period Physics Departments in the 19 "pre Dawkins" Universities have lost, or will lose, 30-40 academic staff positions and a comparable number of support staff. This represents a loss of approx 12 %, whereas the student load taught has remained essentially constant. Further massive staff losses appear inevitable in view of salary increases through current enterprise bargaining. The situation in newer universities is similarly grave.
Because of budget pressures on Universities Vice-Chancellors are looking to cut programs in expensive areas of relatively low student demand. Thus at least one University (Ballarat) has closed its Physics department and in at least 6-8 others threats of closure have occurred and have resulted in amalgamations and staff losses. The AIP views with alarm the prospect that, in the near future, students will be unable to take even an undergraduate Physics degree in many of our Universities.
It seems likely that the present mix of funding, from government, HECS and overseas student fees will remain and will largely determine the total budget available to higher education. It also seems likely that, even with the possibility of some local full fee students, the overall level of funding will not increase substantially.
In these circumstances there is a need to review the whole basis of government funding to Universities. The "DEET" Funding Formula" has been adopted almost universally down to departmental level. There is little possibility in the present system, of any department arguing for "preferred status" on the basis of superior performance and hence none of our Universities, despite the rhetoric, is able to be considered in the top band of international institutions of higher learning.
The AIP strongly supports the principle that all subjects in Universities should be taught by experts in the discipline. The current funding mechanisms within institutions work against this. For example an Engineering Faculty can increase its student load and funding by either reducing or taking over the basic science and mathematics components of its programs. This is not in the best interests of either the students or of the community.
The AIP supports policies which encourage universities to concentrate their teaching and research in areas in which they can demonstrate strength and quality. Only the largest universities would be expected to maintain a broad range of research disciplines and a broad range of research within a particular discipline. The AIP also supports any moves by Universities in a given city or region to share resources and cooperate in teaching and research programs where this will lead to evident benefits.
There have been a number of recent reviews of research funding and the lack of career paths for young researchers.
eg "Waiting in the Wings: A Study of Early Career Academic Researchers in Australia" (ARC/NBEET Report No 50, Sept 1996)
Some of the salient facts are
The Minister for Science and Technology, has declared that Australian "needs more scientists, technologists and engineers and fewer accountants, doctors and lawyers". Yet fewer students in years 11 and 12 of high school are studying the more rigorous science subjects and fewer of our brightest students are choosing to study these subjects at Universities. There are many factors which contribute to this.
The Executive of the Australian Institute of Physics has presented, in the material above, a brief summary of its views on a number of aspects of Australia’s higher education system. We would raise for consideration the following recommendations/suggestions.
(I) The role of Universities needs to be enunciated, including an indication of which disciplines and courses should be encompassed and which are more appropriately assigned to the VET/TAFE sector.
(ii) The Review should examine whether Australia’s population can support the present number of universities, each seeking to encompass most major fields.
(iii) Australia needs universities which offer strong programs in the fundamental sciences and humanities as well as those professions requiring an intellectual research base. The funding formula for these institutions needs to include more than just student numbers.
(iv) Incentives should be provided to the private sector to contribute to the support of universities eg by establishment of endowed chairs, joint research programs, etc.
(v) Programs need to be developed to ensure a continuing inflow of young people into academic careers to maintain the vigour of Universities and to improve the gender balance.
(vi) Incentives and rewards need to be developed to encourage bright science and mathematics graduates to enter the secondary teaching system.
(vii) Government support of research and research infrastructure needs to be maintained at or near the best OECD levels.