SUBMISSION TO THE HIGHER EDUCATION REVIEW

Trevor H. Cairney,

Pro Vice-Chancellor, Research & Development
University of Western Sydney

Introduction to the submission

The following submission is concerned primarily with issues of research, and in particular, the 4th and 5th terms of reference. The submission is framed by 6 fundamental premises which can be summarised as follows:

• The University of Western Sydney has made rapid progress in research since its establishment in 1989.
• UWS seeks to develop a more distinctive research profile based on a number of focussed areas of quality research, and the development of a major research institute focussed on the specific needs of the region within which it is based, but looking outwards nationally and internationally.
• UWS seeks to build a unique university for the 21st Century that can make a significant contribution to the Unified National System.
• The University of Western Sydney sees the development of significant alliances with external partners (including other universities, government departments, business and industry) as vital to its future.
• The development of a distinctive research profile at UWS is of critical importance to its region, the attraction of high quality staff, and the development of outstanding teaching programs.
• The funding of research must be strengthened and should be maintained for all universities based on principles of open competition, strategic importance, and developmental needs, particularly for newer universities.

1. Rapid growth in UWS research productivity

UWS is a young and vibrant university with a number of emerging research strengths and rapid growth in research funding, research outputs and postgraduate research. In just 8 years, UWS has become one of the strongest of the post 1987 universities, with high relative performance in research funding, postgraduate enrolments and publications. In 1996 UWS reported external research grant income of $4,000,000 and total external funding of research activities exceeding $6,000,000. Research productivity as indicated from the provisional data from the Composite Research Index, shows that output has increased by 50% over the last 3 years of reported data. UWS has also developed an active community of research students across all of its disciplines with postgraduate research student load increasing from the equivalent of 70 full-time students in 1990 to 737 in 1996 (over 1200 students currently enrolled representing 4% of total load). UWS has established 14 research centres and 17 Research Groups. It has also become involved in a number of nationally funded research centres including the CRC Waste Management and the CRC for Eye Research and Technology.

The recent Australian Research Council report, Patterns of Research Activity in Australian Universities indicates that UWS is ranked 25th on total research income, and 24th on overall research output, putting it behind only one post-1987 institution and ahead of two pre-1987 universities. Its performance has been even stronger in selected fields of study, particularly in research publications. For example, in the Humanities, UWS is ranked 12th in output and outperforms 11 of the pre-1987 universities.

Research productivity has also risen rapidly with total publications output, as measured by the Composite Research Index, increasing by over 50% between 1992 and 1995. In 1995 (the most recent year of DEETYA reporting) UWS increased research publication outputs by 11.19%. An encouraging sign was that the growth in publications resulted mainly from large improvements in refereed journal articles (+37.09%), refereed conference proceedings (+27.72%) and authored research books (+21.09%).

The research work of staff and students is increasingly being recognised internationally in a range of disciplines and fields of study, including advanced food research, self concept and psychometrics, cultural studies, language and literacy development, farming systems, visual and performing arts, environmental management, primary health care, biological sciences, feminist studies, horticulture, international management, finance, and chemistry.

2. The development of a distinctive research profile

The mission of the University of Western Sydney is:

To be a university of international standing and outlook whose students and staff achieve excellence in scholarship, teaching, learning, research and service to the community with a particular benefit for the people of Greater Western Sydney.

To achieve this mission the University seeks to build on the strength of its emerging strengths to develop a distinctive research profile that is integrated with quality educational programs. To do this UWS has set itself a number of key goals for the next 5 years. These include the need to:

• establish more effective links between the research efforts of staff and community organisations, professions, business, industry, government organisations, universities and other education providers;
• continue to recognise that research is closely integrated with teaching, professional practice and community involvement, and has many outcomes including the generation of images, journal articles, performance, artefacts, books, inventions, conference presentations, patents, computer software and exhibitions;
• work towards the development of further areas of recognised research strength through the establishment of Research Groups, Research Centres and Research Institutes;
• integrate the work of research students more closely with emerging research concentrations;
• develop the research skills and experience of staff, particularly newer researchers;
• encourage the development of multi-disciplinary research teams across the various members of the university;
• make a significant contribution through research, teaching and community involvement to the region’s economic, social and cultural development;
• actively promote the research of staff and students internationally and develop active and strategic relationships with outstanding universities working in related fields of study.

3. A unique university

The University of Western Sydney seeks to make a significant contribution to the Unified National System, and to Australia more generally. It aims to do this utilising a federated multi campus structure serving the needs of Western Sydney, but looking outward in order to develop a significant national and international profile.

UWS seeks to provide access to quality teaching and research through its distributed system of 6 campuses, each offering access and distinct research strengths located close to industry, business and regional organisations in one of Australia’s most significant regions. In doing this, the university believes that it has a major contribution to make to Australia’s understanding of regionalism and regional development.

UWS is challenging traditional assumptions concerning the shape and make up of a university. It is seeking to create a new type of university that will serve Australia well into the 21st century. The shape of the institution that we are seeking to develop is probably best described by Gibbons et al (1994), as the "Mode 2" institution; one shaped by a new paradigm concerning the production of knowledge. Whilst the type of university which we seek to build values knowledge production, just like universities for centuries before it, it seeks to do this by stepping outside the boundedness of discrete disciplines and departmental structures. Rather, it seeks constantly to identify relevant applications of knowledge - knowledge intended to be of use to industry, business, governments, professions and so on.

Rather than knowledge production being confined, research problems are seen as requiring the determination of the necessary skills and disciplines required, leading inevitably in many cases to transdisciplinary solutions. Research at UWS is increasingly being characterised by the close interaction of knowledge production from across a range of relevant disciplines. An example, of such solutions is the development of industrial archaeology as an area of teaching and research by drawing on the fields of chemistry, history and archaeology. Such research recognises the need for social accountability and leads increasingly to researchers from the humanities and social sciences having a viable working relationship with colleagues from the sciences and engineering. Other examples include the development of Mechatronics; and the introduction in partnership with the New Children’s Hospital of Australia’s first research centre focussing on educational issues faced by children with medical conditions.

The type of university we seek to develop is also characterised by heterogeneity and organisational diversity. UWS seeks to draw on its multiple faculties spread across its 6 major campuses, to push back the boundaries of the traditional university to embrace industry and business sites, and other key research facilities in the region, across the nation, and internationally. This can be seen clearly in the co-location of facilities with TAFE on 5 of our campuses, shared facilities with business and industry partners, the use of specialist facilities across the university network (e.g. the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance facility), and the utilisation of significant facilities nationally (e.g. national astronomical facilities) and internationally (e.g. Max Planck Institute). Such organisational diversity not only requires a preparedness to locate activities on multiple sites, it also requires greater use of technology and networked arrangements.

Finally, UWS seeks to judge the quality of its research work by applying forms of quality control that go beyond peer review and discipline accountability to more sensitive measures incorporating the competitiveness of ideas within the marketplace, and the applicability of knowledge, and the social, economic and cultural value of the work .

In short, UWS does not seek to replicate older universities in Western Sydney, rather, it seeks to build a new type of institution that will benefit its region and the nation, and provide a university model that adds diversity to the Unified National System.

4. Growth in regional research alliances

Increasingly, key organisations in Western Sydney are viewing UWS as critical to the future growth and development of the region. Some of the developing relationships include:

• links with key players concerned with regional economic development, including the North Western and Western Sydney Regional Development Organisations, various regional chambers of commerce and industry and local councils.
• the development of regional and sub-regional economic indicators with other regional partners, including the Greater Western Sydney Economic Development Board;
• co-location of industry research laboratories, regional economic development organisations, research teams and consulting activities on our campuses;
• a rapid increase in the number of research contracts with small, medium and large business and industry, e.g. the Army, BHP, Penrith Lakes Development Corporation, Hawker de Havilland.

The region within which UWS is situated is obviously very important to it. But it needs to be stressed that whilst UWS needs its region, the region also needs UWS. The following facts about Greater Western Sydney are relevant:

• Its 12 local government areas cover approximately 72% of the Sydney Metropolitan region.
• Approximately 1.4 million people live in this area.
• It has a GDP of $34 billion (similar in size to that of Singapore).
• In 1995/96 17% of Australia’s private investment occurred in Western Sydney.
• 20% of people employed in NSW were working in Western Sydney.
• The region produced 14% of the State’s exports in 1995/96.

Whilst some of these figures are impressive, it needs to be stressed that there is great potential for further economic growth in Western Sydney. As well, we know that the region has significant problems. These include:

• Significant environmental, health, transport and social problems.
• Lower levels of university participation (8 per 1000 in Western Sydney compared with 32 per 1000 for the rest of Sydney).
• Insufficient large industry and business to sustain its growing workforce.
• High levels of adult and youth unemployment (the latter is approximately 25%).

The university has an important role to play within its region to address these issues and to contribute to its economic, social and cultural development.

One of the region’s greatest deficiencies is the lack of a major body to exercise the type of research leadership and advocacy which will bring together some of the 120 organisations within Western Sydney committed to its development. Whilst there are many significant groups within Western Sydney that have achieved a great deal, there is a constant cry for some way to facilitate the development of shared agendas and coherent strategies for the development of this region. To this end, UWS is establishing a major research institute that utilises the federated structure of the university and its multiple campus locations across the region to develop stronger relationships with regional research partners. It will be called the Western Sydney Research Institute (WSRI).

This institute will act as a vehicle for co-ordinated, strategic and targeted research in Western Sydney. It will be a hub for interaction between learners, researchers and the region, as well as a stimulus for collaboration in research and development with other institutions and communities within and outside Western Sydney. The Institute will seek to:

• secure increased external funding for individual and group research projects;
• facilitate new relationships with industry/business/government authorities;
• facilitate synergies between existing research groups within and outside UWS that have the potential to address significant regional research needs;
• initiate and support shared or complementary research interests in areas that are critical to the region’s development;
• facilitate the development of multi-disciplinary teams able to address a range of regional research problems and issues;
• assist faculties across the University to attract high quality research higher degree students;
• promote the work of staff, students and research groups within and outside UWS;
• actively support the discussion of key research needs in Western Sydney by promoting university and community forums, conferences and seminars, and by seeking to fund a range of postgraduate scholarships, postdoctoral fellowships, and visiting fellowships.

The work of the Institute will be undertaken collaboratively by a broad cross section of staff and students from the university staff and a number of regional partners. Membership of the Institute will include key regional partners; a number of affiliated research groups; and groups of staff working in a series of research programs of significance to the region. The latter will include:

Environmental Management
Regional development and planning
Urban social and cultural development

5. Benefits to the region from the research capability of UWS

The benefits to be gained by our region from both the new research institute and the existing research groups and centres are extensive and include:

Access to research outcomes - knowledge of the findings of regional research; access to the research capabilities of institute staff and UWS postgraduate students; an increased source of focussed research and consultancy within the region.

Access to regional data - a key site for electronically delivered data on the region; a vehicle for co-ordinating, analysing and disaggregating data relevant to the region; provision of new data obtained from research initiated by the WSRI based on regional needs.

Access to infrastructure support - ready access key UWS researchers; access to key publications such as the Western Sydney Database of Key Companies; access to postgraduate students required to conduct paid work through a Graduate Research Placement service; access to University programs such as the Co-operative Employment and Enterprise Development program.

Regional advocacy - advocacy in research issues in association with other key regional groups; conduct of forums on issues of relevance to the region and the university.

Impact on the region’s economic, social and cultural development - raised awareness of the region’s competitive advantages for the location and expansion of business and industry; provision of data to external agencies considering developments in Western Sydney; correction of negative perceptions of this region which have in part held back its development; advocacy leading to more effective targeting of government funds to the region; assistance to other regional organisations to work collaboratively with one another; provision of a vehicle for the identification of regional strategic needs and assist key government and non-government organisations to develop shared goals for the region; and provision of informed and relevant research for government policy developers.

6. Financing higher education and research training

The ongoing funding of research at appropriate levels is obviously important to all universities. If UWS is to develop into a university of international standing (and its region will accept no less) then it must continue to receive government support of research and research training. The most critical issues in relation to this ongoing funding are:

• The allocation of funding for research should essentially be competitive. However, it will be increasingly important to recognise that the application of peer reviewed processes within discrete disciplines is not the only way to judge merit and strategic importance. To the criteria of intellectual merit will need to be added social, economic and cultural acceptability and significance. Such additional criteria should also take account of the strategic importance of research to regions like Western Sydney and to Australia more generally. If we are to pursue the goal of being the ‘clever country’ we must not simply reinforce existing judgements of importance. Whilst major funding bodies like ARC have attempted to recognise additional criteria, much more must be done. This is even more critical when decisions are being made about support of postgraduate training, equipment and facilities required to support the establishment of new research groups, and the provision of matching funding to support for industry initiatives.
• There is a need to increase current funding for the Research Quantum. The Quantum has fallen from approximately 6% of the overall funding to less than 5%. This trend must be reversed.
• Whilst funding of infrastructure has been increased, it is still widely recognised that inadequate funds are being allocated to meet all institutions’ needs. Rather than simply increasing these funds, additional incentives must be offered to industry to encourage joint funding initiatives.
• Incentives to industry and business must also be offered to encourage an increase in R & D funding. The contribution that industry makes to research in Australia is low on world standards. If this is to be reversed, positive incentives must be offered. The reduction of the tax deductibility of R&D expenditure from 150% to 125% should be reversed and other forms of inducement introduced.

The University of Western Sydney has made a significant contribution in its short history to the economic, social and cultural development of one of Australia’s most important regions. Its ongoing development is important to the transformation of Western Sydney into a stronger economic region, with growing cultural and social diversity. As well, it offers the unified national system a unique institution based on a federated structure well suited to the development of one of Australia’s most important regions.

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