News & Views item - December 2006

 

 

Ms Bishops Throws Away $87 Million on Her Micro Equivalent of the International Space Station / US Space Shuttle. (December 18, 2006)

    On November 4, 2005 that redoubtable professor of physics at the University of Maryland, Bob Park, wrote in his What's New column (blog):

NASA: THE ERA OF HUMAN SPACE FLIGHT ENDED 33 YEARS AGO.

    That's when Apollo 17 returned from the moon. Someone had better tell NASA. Thursday, Michael Griffin told the House Science Committee that the agency needs another $5B (A$6.4billion) to continue operating the shuttle until 2010. It will take that long to complete the International Space Station so we can begin to dismantle it. The shuttle was the biggest technological blunder in history, but the station is closing the gap. The shuttle was supposed to make it cheaper to send things into space. It didn't. The space station was supposed to do something. I can't remember what. But we do still need the shuttle for one final repair mission to Hubble.

 

Now in what approaches being an act supreme hubris in the face of the Australian Productivity Commission Draft Report's recommendation to just hold off on undertaking a Research Quality Framework (RQF), Britain determining that their Research Assessment Exercise is to be scrapped, and the so-called "preferred model" for an Australian RQF little more than a scaffolding, the Minister for Education, Science and Training, Julie Bishop appears to think nothing of squandering over $87 million dollars to partially defray the additional expense of putting unnecessary fetters on Australian's struggling universities.

 

An $87 million boost to Australia's basic research budget? Or an $87 million addition for the enabling sciences? Just two of numerous useful avenues of support for Australia's university research?

 

But no.

 

The rank inanity of the waste of public funding really is monumental.

 

Now will Labor's Kevin Rudd, Steven Smith, Kim Carr have something positive to contribute?

 

Media Release

Minister announces financial support for RQF

18 December 2006 

The Minister for Education, Science and Training, the Hon Julie Bishop MP, today announced more than $87 million in financial support for the implementation of the first cycle of the new Research Quality Framework (RQF).

“The Australian Government recognises that there will be implementation costs associated with the adjustment to the new RQF system,” Minister Bishop said.

“That is why the Australian Government is providing direct financial assistance to the higher education sector to support the management of the assessment process and the development of a new information management system.”

Of the $87.3 million being allocated for implementation of the RQF project, $41.9 million will be provided to universities to implement the first cycle of the RQF. This programme funding will be provided over three years, commencing in 2007-08, and includes:


The remainder of the funding will be utilised for preparatory work for the RQF in 2007 and for implementation in 2008, including:
pre-implementation trials; discipline specific workshops; preparation and distribution of RQF guidelines and panel specific guidelines; continuing consultation with the sector; and remuneration of reference committee members and assessment panel chairs and assessors.

The Minister announced the Government’s decision to implement the RQF last month, in a move that will restructure the current quantitative based research funding scheme to one which evaluates research based on quality and impact.

On the other hand "The Minister for Education, Science and Training, the Hon Julie Bishop MP, has approved funding of more than $8 million for 13 new projects in universities, including the development of an Engineering in Schools initiative, improving university forestry studies and developing new computer engineering curriculum to help overcome local skills shortages."

See, it's just a matter of getting your priorities right.