Excerpts from a Speech Given by Dr Brendan Nelson at the Sustaining Prosperity Conference at the University of Melbourne Thursday 31 March 2005. (April 1, 2005)

[Copies of the full speech and additional material are available through http://www.dest.gov.au/ministers/nelson/mar_05/speech_310305.htm]

Education, science and training now, more than at any other time, are crucial to Australia’s future economic growth and social well-being. The links between sound public policy in these areas and strong and sustainable economic growth have never been more apparent – nor of greater importance.

The Government’s policies provide a blueprint for continued improvement and change in education – this work is underpinned by the key themes of consistency, quality, equity, sustainability, diversity and choice.

The programmes and initiatives now being put in place will create an Australian education, research and innovation system that will be marked by an unprecedented degree of national consistency, diversity and quality across the entire education system.

The Government’s vision for education has been very much influenced by the aspirations of the Australian community:

• Parents want to be confident that their children will be able to read when they leave primary school;

• Businesses want to see more young Australians with high quality technical and vocational training, especially in the trades;

• Australians want greater flexibility in moving between vocational education and university;

• Universities want to be able to compete on a level playing field when it comes to engaging in commercial activities;

• University graduates want to know that they have attained a degree from a world class higher education system –– one that is thriving in a globally competitive economy;

• Members of our highly mobile defence forces need to be able to move interstate without impeding their children’s primary and secondary schooling;

• Indigenous students participating in Australian education and employment;

• All school educators and career advisors want to be assured that every student at risk of dropping out of school is supported to stay engaged and on track to complete Year 12 or its vocational equivalent; and

• Researchers want to deliver innovation in a system where the very best research can be easily identified and appropriately funded.

In these early years of the 21st century, where so much that lies ahead of us is unknown, it is absolutely critical that our education system becomes more responsive. Responsive to economic needs and to parents’ and students’ expectations. Our education system will need to be more diverse; and yet less divided between sectors. It will need to be more nationally consistent; and yet offer greater choice. If we cannot achieve this, we risk compromising our future prosperity.

Higher Education, Innovation and Science

The Australian Government’s ambition for higher education is that of a confident, strong, high quality sector that plays a vital role in our economic, cultural and social development.

The Australian Government has already committed to increased investment of $11 billion over the next ten years for higher education in Australia and has embarked on a wide-ranging reform agenda to improve the quality of our higher education system and the choices available to students.

If Australia is to remain internationally competitive we must foster all aspects of our social and economic framework, and most vitally, build on our higher education system and ensure it is nationally consistent, high quality and flexible. While Australia already has an internationally competitive higher education system, other countries are investing and transforming their systems. The challenge is to make sure our system not only stays internationally competitive, but that our best universities are in the top tier of world rankings. Universities must continue to diversify, and to foster creativity, great teaching and research. At the same time our universities must be responsive to the needs of their local students and communities.

Higher education today is operating in a vastly more dynamic environment, one which presents a number of challenges to the current framework. For example, we need to consider the blurring of the public/private institution divide and the growth of private higher education provision globally including through internet delivery; new higher education frameworks in other countries that impact on growth and diversity; and the increasing demands of a knowledge-based economy.

All of these challenges necessitate a broader debate around the governance and role of universities.

Governance and management in public universities has not always kept pace with changes in the operating environment over the past decade. While the Government, together with the assistance of the State and Territory governments, have put in place a number of reforms to university governance, the broader issue of who should be responsible for higher education remains.

The fact that the Australian Government has significant financial and policy responsibility for higher education, while State and Territory governments retain major legislative responsibilities, has created overly complex arrangements which lack transparency.
Legislative differences mean that universities cannot always operate on a level playing field when engaging in commercial ventures. Variations in the recognition and accreditation of universities and courses between jurisdictions has also been costly for providers seeking to operate in more than one State and Territory and often confusing for students.

It is timely for us to consider these issues and debate the merits or otherwise of changing the current arrangements. This is not about the Commonwealth taking control of universities from the States and Territories. It is about taking a serious look at how we can best achieve more consistent, efficient and effective higher education provision in Australia through cooperation at all levels.

Certainly if there is to be any change, it will ultimately be the product of consultation between the Australian Government and the States and Territories, as many would see it. Though, I believe it is clear that we have a responsibility to carefully examine the regulatory framework within which Australian universities compete with the rest of the world.

With many other countries now offering more varied and specialised types of institutions, it is also clear that Australia’s current one-size-fits-all approach may not be the best model to position us internationally, to cater to our regional communities and to offer our students a choice of excellence in teaching and research.

One of the key priorities of this Government is to stimulate an informed debate about the role of our universities. It is the Government’s view that universities should be defined more by their quality and diversity and less by their form and structure, which is currently the case.
 

We need to re-examine the requirement for all universities to undertake research as well as teaching. We know that our best research universities are not our best teaching universities. The stellar performers in the nationally administered Course Experience Questionnaire are not our ‘Group of Eight’ Universities, which are our best research performers.

Some countries, in looking at different ways of providing higher education, are inviting reputable foreign universities to establish new campuses at home; while others are asking their institutions to be more active in seeking to operate offshore. This is part of a global trend. In Australia, for example, Carnegie-Mellon in the United States is seeking to establish a university presence in South Australia. In addition, a number of private higher education institutions, which have been operating successfully for many decades and offering a high quality education to students, are aspiring to be authorised by government to accredit their own courses, and use the title university.

At the moment our higher education approval framework does not cater for these developing trends. The current National Protocols for Higher Education Approval Processes outline only one model for an Australian university – one which is active in both teaching and research` across a broad range of disciplines.

The Government is currently encouraging a debate about the way in which we should define universities into the future. For example, how much research should be undertaken in order for an institution to be approved as a university and what should the definition of research be? Should the National Protocols allow for the creation of ‘specialist’ institutions covering only a narrow field of study rather than a wide range of disciplines?

Another key priority for this Government is to make it easier for Australians to enter higher education from a diversity of backgrounds and experiences. There are many pathways to higher education. In building a strong skill base for tomorrow, it is important that we recognise the skills and competencies people gain in the workforce and through vocational education and training and facilitate their entry into university.

While Australia has been active in recognising prior learning and granting different levels of credit and recognition for such learning for the purposes of university entry, we need to do more to ensure that we keep pace with international developments and that we have a consistent approach across all States and all institutions. The Australian Government is determined to continue working with the States and Territories to improve credit transfer and articulation between the two sectors.

For too long emphasis in terms of funding and profile has been disproportionately placed upon research in universities, and not on teaching. Under this Government, excellence in learning and teaching will be placed alongside the delivery of research excellence as a valued contribution to Australia’s knowledge systems. An increased focus on learning and teaching will foster diversity and help to ensure the ongoing high quality of Australia’s higher education sector.

The Government has been encouraging universities to focus on quality in learning and teaching for some time, and will reward those universities that can demonstrate excellence in learning and teaching through its new Learning and Teaching Performance Fund. With more than $250 million in funding over the period 2006-08 my aim is to have universities and academics that excel in teaching being truly recognised for their efforts. This is after all one of the most visible of university activities and one where student’s learning most directly benefits from quality performance.

The Government is also determined to improve universities’ ability to respond flexibly to the needs of their constituencies including potential and existing students, staff, employers, industry, local and regional and national communities. It is the Government’s long-held position that employees should have a choice about their preferred form of employment arrangements or agreements. Higher education should be no exception. Workplace reform in the higher education sector will focus on a number of key areas, including offering employees genuine choice regarding their employment.

Just as the Australian Government is addressing these challenges in higher education, it is also matching gaps in our research sector and looking to fund the best researchers. It is our scientists and researchers, whoaddress the big-picture issues of our time, whose legacy will be the world our grandchildren inherit. Issues such as population ageing, land degradation and climate change, just to name a few, are vital to Australia’s prosperity.

If we are to tackle these and other issues successfully, Australia must continue to build a world-class innovation system. This ambitious agenda depends on effective partnerships between governments at all levels, researchers and business, to share the substantial financial investment necessary to ensure that ideas move smoothly from generation to end use.

Research and development activities perform a crucial role in both science and innovation, covering a continuum from pure basic research to applied research and experimental development.

Innovation is the key to prosperity. Nobel Prize winning Economic Scientist Robert Solow, has said that technological innovation is pivotal to greater than 50 % of a country’s economic growth. A Productivity Commission study in 1995 found the rate of return on domestic research and development was in the range of 25-90 %.

Australia’s economy and population are relatively small by world standards, with comparatively limited resources. Our publicly-funded science and innovation investments must therefore be well-directed and provide excellent value-for-money.

The Australian Government is committed to ensuring taxpayers’ investment in research actually produces results that are of world standard and which contribute to addressing the economic, social and environmental challenges that Australia faces.

The Australian Government has already committed an additional $8.3 billion to science and innovation through the 2001 and 2004 Backing Australia’s Ability packages. We are also moving forward with major initiatives, including the Research Quality Framework, the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy and implementation of National Research Priorities to ensure we build a system based on excellence and with clear focus.

The National Research Priorities focus research effort squarely on the economic, environmental and social challenges that we face. The Backing Australia’s Ability package also provides $542 million for major investments in research infrastructure, to be designed in a way which directly addresses the National Research Priorities while driving greater collaboration in the national research and innovation system.

The Government is also committed to developing an Accessibility Framework for publicly-funded research to ensure that research that is produced can be easily found and accessed by other researchers and the wider community.

Improving collaboration between universities and publicly-funded research agencies is also a priority in achieving better outcomes for the research dollar.

In a global environment where Australia produces just three per cent of the world’s research papers, it is imperative that we continue to strengthen our international collaboration in science, engineering and technology. Solid progress is being made through formal and informal national, international, institutional and individual linkages and more will be encouraged.

Research conducted in our universities and publicly funded research agencies provides commercial benefits directly and indirectly. The direct route –– through the commercialisation of specific intellectual property in the form of patented inventions and ideas –– is strongly encouraged by the Australian Government as a way of generating demonstrable benefits to industry and the wider community, and as a way of garnering income for our research institutions.

The indirect commercial benefits of publicly funded research are also very important. Australia's innovative businesses draw on ideas emerging from universities and publicly funded research agencies through a wide variety of means. These include recruiting high quality researchers and scientists trained in the universities, commissioning specific research through consultancies and contracts, drawing on new research findings published in learned journals and elsewhere, and participating in industry conferences, seminars, workshops and the like.