SUBMISSION TO THE WEST REVIEW OF HIGHER EDUCATION FINANCING AND POLICY
Michael Lynch
GENERAL MANAGER
AUSTRALIA COUNCIL FOR THE ARTS
APRIL 1997
The Australia Council is interested in the Inquiry into Higher Education Financing and Policy and encloses herewith its submission.
Principally a service organisation, the Australia Council fosters a strong artistic life throughout the nation by encouraging excellence and diversity in the arts, by providing money and expertise to allow artists, organisations and communities to develop their artistic potential and to experiment in new directions, and by making the arts available to as many Australians as possible.
As the Federal Government’s arts funding and advisory body, the Council has been recognised for over two decades as one of Australia’s major cultural institutions. It has made nearly 50,000 grants since its inception, enabling thousands of plays, music and dance performances, arts and craft exhibitions and books to be created, and for communities across Australia to be involved in their arts. These works have reached large audiences all over Australia and around the world.
The Australia Council would hope to draw attention in this Inquiry to a number of key issues. Many distinguished names in the Australian arts scene are working, or have worked in universities and it is in the institution’s interests to have staff performing at a high level both in the classroom or workshop and in the studio or on the stage. There is a mutual expectation and commitment between the university and the individual to maintain this practice at a high level and to produce original work. This expectation must be appropriately supported.
The arts industry is one of the fastest growing sectors of the economy as shown by employment growth: in a recent five-year period employment grew by 11.4 per cent; only the Finance/business services sector and Community services sector grew more rapidly.
However Australian practising professional artists earn on average $20,000 per year, of which $5,000 is from their creative work. Somewhat less of the remainder comes from paid work in a related field (often teaching). It is critical that Australian artists enjoy affordable access to tertiary education. The Government approach to Higher Education financing and policy should ensure that access.
Preamble
The Australia Council for the Arts was established in 1975. As a service organisation for all Australians, the Australia Council enriches the cultural life of the nation through supporting and promoting the arts.
The Council provides advice on arts matters to the Commonwealth Government through the Minister for the Arts and Communication. It manages a range of grant programs and strategic initiatives in various artforms, including literature, music, dance, theatre, visual arts and crafts, new media arts, community cultural development and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts.
The Australia Council realises that it is a key participant in the Australian arts industry but recognises that it cannot perform these functions on its own. It requires the support and cooperation of state arts authorities and local governing bodies, as well as galleries, small and large professional arts organisations, museums, libraries and, of course, institutions such as universities. In recent years, the Australia Council has also looked to the corporate sector to provide support for the arts. It maintains however, that without strong and predictable levels of financial support from the public purse it is impossible for it to promote in Australia a culture of artistic awareness and excellence.
The Council is firmly committed to the view that education is crucial to heightening awareness of the arts and nurturing a life-long interest in their practice. The arts are enriching and empowering, as well as highly significant in galvanising national confidence and contributing to Australia’s cultural and economic growth. Arts education plays a key role in the socialisation process and in introducing students to imagination, experimentation and problem-solving, producing perspectives that are central to defining Australia’s role in the emerging global economy and culture.
The Australia Council maintains that arts are characteristically dynamic in their engagement with the world. They are continually responding to changing economic, political and cultural circumstances. In recent years, the arts have made a major contribution to the debates concerning Australian identity and Australia’s relationship within the Asia-Pacific region. They have readily accommodated the diversity of cultural traditions that exist in Australia. They have played a role in the processes of reconciliation and in the promotion of cultural understanding. New forms of arts practices are now emerging as a result of the cut and mix of Australia’s cultural traditions. New mediations by television and other communications technologies have also affected the ways the arts are now conceptualised and practised.
Australia’s unique cultural circumstances have put it in a good position to develop arts products that are distinctive and much prized internationally. Already, the arts make a major contribution to the Australia economy. The total supply of cultural goods and services in the Australian economy exceeds $15 billion, and there are more than 200,000 people employed in the cultural industries. Export income generated from the arts has increased steadily over the past decade and is expected to grow more strongly in the future.
In view of the importance that the Australia Council attaches to education, it is pleased to have the opportunity to make this submission to the West Review of Higher Education Financing and Policy. The Council’s interest in higher education matters is linked to its view that the Australian universities and other tertiary level providers (such as NIDA, the Australian Ballet School and the Australian Film, Television and Radio School) are important sites of cultural production, training, access and participation.
Without support and cooperation from the higher education sector, the development of Australia’s arts is constrained. Many Australian artists work in universities, either on a full-time or more frequently on a part-time or sessional basis. Some of the projects supported by the Australia Council are located either fully or partly in universities. The Council supports the work of a number of university galleries and theatre groups. The higher education sector both represents an important audience for arts products and helps create new audiences that are informed and engaged with the arts. Needless to say, many cultural workers undertake training in universities and other higher education providers prior to their involvement in professional practice, and in professional development programs. Universities are also the sites of many important debates about contemporary cultural concerns. These concerns, both intellectual and practical, help shape Australian culture and identity.
The Australia Council has always enjoyed positive and open relationships with individuals and bodies within the higher education sector and considers cooperation with universities to be an essential factor in the strategic development of a creative Australian culture. It therefore has a vital interest in a confident and flourishing higher education sector.
This submission addresses many, though not all, of the areas within the parameters of the current review of higher education financing and policy. In what follows, the Council wishes to present some of its key concerns regarding the place and future of the arts within the higher education sector. It particularly wishes to comment on:
Impact of the Unified National System on arts education and training
In any balanced judgement it must be accepted that the UNS has had both positive and negative outcomes for performing and creative arts schools and universities. Positively, arts schools have enjoyed enhanced community acceptance, new management expertise, new facilities have been accessed, the training of arts workers now receives input from a more comprehensive range of disciplines, and during the evolutionary process arts schools have been able to productively re-examine themselves. Universities have become enlivened, rendered less conservative by the arrival of the practising artists, and have to some degree been challenged into reconsidering their dominant paradigms.
On the other hand, many artists have been forced to deal with unworkable administrative conditions that are not always supportive of the specific needs of arts education. In many cases sites of management have been rendered more geographically remote, and in some universities arts schools have felt marginalised and unappreciated within the larger institution. There is also now some evidence to suggest that, in the current austere financial climate, a number of professional arts courses have been downsized, with their curricula becoming generalised. Specialist courses are also in decline. This is a serious situation which if unchecked could lead to the deskilling of many artists.
Typically, those universities which have been able to come to terms with the distinctive natures and needs of arts schools, and have accorded them a degree of respect, have become more confident and outward looking. Some institutions, however, have yet to face up to certain fundamental issues regarding cultural production and training.
Clearly, a university that wishes to claim a position on the world stage cannot afford to take the arts lightly. Increasingly, the importance accorded cultural matters has become one significant index of a university’s maturity. The Australia Council would like to see recognition of the importance of arts education and training established as a basic factor in any university benchmarking procedure. Further, it recommends additional support and enhanced recognition for the pedagogical methods peculiar to the arts.
Effects of the Relative Funding Model (RFM) on university arts schools
The status of arts education in Australian universities is not enhanced by current DEETYA funding policies, including the RFM. The intent of the RFM, devised in 1990, was to assess the appropriateness of university funding through an analysis of the cost of teaching in specific discipline areas. In the early 1990s the consensus view in the art world was that the cost of arts education was severely underestimated in the RFM. As a direct consequence, the funding index and band accorded to the visual and performing arts has handicapped the delivery of first class arts education in Australian institutions.
These unfortunate facts appear to be well known to government officers and interested politicians. Concerns on this matter were the subject of extended comment in chapter 5 of the 1995 Senate Inquiry into Arts Education ["...Submissions to this inquiry from university people were unanimous in condemning the effects of the Relative Funding Model on the arts..." (page 149)]. Recommendation 20 of the Senate Inquiry Committee was, basically, that DEET should realistically evaluate teaching costs so as to at least discover the extent of relative disadvantage in the model.
The Australia Council wishes to see the inadequacies in the RFM addressed in meaningful and effective ways so as to facilitate best practice in our arts training institutions. Many traditional methodologies in arts education are expensive and teaching in contemporary visual and performing arts increasingly requires the use of expensive new technologies. Revised health and safety perspectives are also raising costs.
The Arts and the Research Quantum
Research outcomes are an important consideration in higher education, for a number of reasons, but the logic of distribution in this support is often confusing for those in the art world. Research income to universities (for example grants from approved funds) and certain forms of output from universities (such as articles published in refereed journals) factor into calculation of the "Research Quantum", which determines how an important quantity of government funding is distributed between universities. Understandably, perceptions of research achievement directly affect individual and divisional standing within institutions.
When arts schools became parts of universities their presence precipitated wide ranging discussion regarding the relative natures of "scientific", "academic" and "artistic" inquiry. This debate has been of interest to the Australia Council. Regretfully DEETYA, the AVCC and the ARC have not brought this discussion and analysis to a satisfactory conclusion. For example, despite the fact that a DEETYA funded inquiry into artistic output indicators (conducted by the peak bodies in art and music education) is in progress it was recently announced that research data collection would henceforth not include information on performing and creative arts outcomes. Details about this study are attached.
As a result grants from the Australia Council do not factor in to the Research Quantum as income. There are reasons for this situation, arising from both policies and current practices relating to the ways grants are administered. The Australia Council gives grants to both organisations and artists, but when a grant is given to an individual it is intended to be for that artist or craftspersonís own use. Grants therefore bypass the accounting procedures within institutions that tally research monies for Quantum calculation. The Australia Council does not administer its grants through the universities because it wishes to protect the rights of the individual grantees. In doing this however, the individual artist employed at a university does not have his or her efforts included within the quantum. In the Australia Council’s view it should not be beyond DEETYA and the universities to broaden its administrative mechanism for quantum calculations.
Whilst artistic quality is a standard factor in decision making for grants by the Australia Council, the Council seeks to distribute its resources as broadly as possible. In typical Australia Council grant schemes a successful applicant must wait a certain period before applying again. Some fellowships can only be obtained once in a career. In contrast, with most research grant schemes the more a researcher is funded one year the more he or she deserves the following year (as long as output in the form of papers etc. can be demonstrated), because grant income is seen to be a very reliable indicator of worth. In the case of Australia Council fellowships in particular a singular grant is regarded as a crowning achievement for an artist, and should therefore be regarded as at least equivalent to ARC research fellowships.
In the current system, a book written about a creative project (a project which, say, systematically questions both fundamental societal issues and the nature of the art form used as a vehicle) will be worth quantum points (and therefore dollars) to a university but the actual work of the artist, who may be a "full-time" academic, will not. It is true that this variation may not greatly change the general distribution of funding (because scientists, for example, earn much more from grants than artists) or the fact that institutions are able to distribute resources internally for the most part as they see fit. Clearly, however, this denial of output recognition and respect will lower the standing of arts divisions within universities, they will inevitably receive less funds, and they will be effectively marginalised. Legitimate imaginative endeavour, rather than being encouraged, will be penalised.
The position of the Australia Council on these matters is that creative arts inquiry is as legitimate as other modes of research, that it is as essential to the cultural and economic life of the country, and that it is therefore imperative that government moves to redress problems pertaining to the current situation. Fair and workable output indicators need to be established and applied. Success in arts investigation should factor into funding as success does in non-art disciplines.
Issues of articulation
Arts schools are generally positive about providing articulation for students who arrive via TAFE pathways, but due to the relatively technical and necessarily prescriptive nature of TAFE courses it is not feasible to contemplate TAFE institutions taking on more of the current curricular agenda of art schools. TAFE institutions provide invaluable access to the arts for many Australians and they should be encouraged to continue fulfilling this role, nurturing students and then passing them on to more specialised opportunities in expansive higher education environments.
Many students wishing to go on the postgraduate study are now, as they draw near the end of their first qualification, diligently searching far and wide for the best possible venue for their particular needs. The Australian community must recognise the growing mobility of art students. Articulation is one basic means to encourage excellence.
Internationalisation opportunities and challenges
Almost every report on Australian institutions or industries makes the point, sooner or later (usually sooner), that internationalisation is an important key to long-term success. Australian visual and performing arts, operating from a modest resource base, have been characterised by regular international applause. Cultural exports have clearly played an important role in introducing the world to Australia and what it has to offer. Universities, and arts schools, have figured in this success. Their needs in this context must not be overlooked.
Arts schools must be able to facilitate students in travelling overseas for part of their studies and staff for professional activities, as well as simply attracting students here. Also, Australian standards must be so well recognised that many international applicants are attracted, allowing the selection of students with both talent and the ability to pay fees. The current situation is that whilst there is a proliferation of memorandums of understanding between Australian and overseas arts institutions there are regrettably few agreements that produce much in the way of tangible two-way "traffic". The arts provide an excellent means of strengthening international awareness of Australia. If arts training divisions are funded at an adequate level they immediately, and quite naturally, consider overseas linkages.
Final Remarks
The arts community in Australia has paid a substantial price for arts schools’ reconfiguration within the UNS, in terms of dislocation, lengthy debate and laboured reconstruction in new surroundings. New structures are only just beginning to be bedded down and widely understood by a broader community with an interest in accessing arts training. In Council’s view, it would thus be profoundly counter-productive (nationally and internationally) to contemplate the reinvention of an extensively tiered higher education sector. One of the things that the arts community most needs at the moment is a measure of predictablity, both financial and organisational, in its dealings with institutions like the universities, so it can plan confidently.
This is not to suggest however that the arts community is reluctant to contemplate change. On the contrary, for artists change represents an opportunity to view things afresh. But for them to continue to make the kind the contribution they clearly do requires a stable policy framework, a financial regime that recognises the importance of public funding for the arts and a work environment in which their efforts are valued and supported.
Attachment
Research in the Creative Arts Project: Background
As part of its work in this field, the Australia Council joined the Advisory Group to the Research in the Creative Arts Project, a Department of Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs (DEETYA) funded study under the Evaluations and Investigations Program. The Advisory Group consists of senior representatives of most of the key organisations concerned with the creative arts and research in universities.
In 1996 the Australian Council of University Art and Design Schools (ACUADS) and the National Council of Heads of Tertiary Music Schools (NACHTMUS) is making a comprehensive study of research outputs in art, craft, design, music, dance and drama in order to develop a set of performance indicators and weightings in the creative arts which would: