Generalisations, Specifics and the 2020 Summit. (April 23, 2008)

One of many who didn't attend this past weekend's 2020 Summit is the vice-chancellor of Monash University, Richard Larkins.

However, today The Australian's Higher Education Supplement allows him to voice some forthright views as regards the university sector and matters that ought to be considered if Mr Rudd is serious about an education revolution.

But to digress for a moment, there appears to be agreement that although academics were at the summit in force, "universities were barely mentioned as a sector".

Reading through the reports one gets the impression that there may have been relief by those who speak for various segments of the sector -- such as Curtin University's vice-chancellor Jeanette Hacket speaking for the Australian Technology Network, Universities Australia chief executive Glenn Withers, Group of Eight chairman and University of Western Australia vice-chancellor Alan Robson, Council for the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences president Stuart Cunningham and Ken Baldwin, president of the Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies -- that the universities weren't sledged.

However, Professor Baldwin did tell The Australian's Jill Rowbotham: "Universities did seem a bit invisible; they are only mentioned twice in passing in the report and there did not appear to be much attention to developing demand-side capacity to utilise research."

Well, to return to Professor Larkins, he makes the following points after discussing just how shortchanged universities have been through the processes first introduced by the Keating Labor  government and then exacerbated by John Howard's Coalition:

Two federal government reviews have been established, one of higher education and one of innovation. They may recommend some radical changes in the way universities should be funded and other schemes such as a national internship scheme, but whatever their findings, let's address the urgent needs:

* Annual increases in government operating grants must keep pace with increases in costs. The progressive erosion of university funding must be arrested.

* The true costs of research must be funded.

* The extent and range of support for poor students must be enhanced.

* The Higher Education Endowment Fund must be increased from budget surpluses to about $20 billion during the next five years.

* The proposed compacts must be used creatively to fund new partnerships between universities and industry, and to reward universities for their role in community and regional development.

* Programs to support indigenous education in universities must be enhanced.

The correction of the progressive fall in Commonwealth Grant Scheme funding is an urgent item and should be included in the forthcoming federal budget.

In addition, the projected budget surplus should be used to supplement the Higher Education Endowment Fund.

Monash's vice-chancellor then concludes: "Universities educate the leaders of the future, the teachers, the innovators and the creators. They perform the research that will allow us to compete through innovation, technology and quality, and the research that will allow us to mitigate and adapt to climate change, fresh water shortages, soil degradation and other environmental problems. They reach out internationally and develop the cultural bridges and understanding necessary for world peace."

So much for the generalisations.

TFW already has reported on the US state of Texas' unique approach to affirmative action which so far we know wasn't discussed at the 2020 summit (it ought to have been).

But today comes news of another initiative of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). It has designated US$60 million in grants slated for 48 US liberal arts colleges in 21 states and Puerto Rico which is meant to improve how students learn science and to prepare them for scientific careers. HHMI supports a comparable program for US research universities.

The schools receive grants anywhere from US$700,000 to US$1.6 million over 4 years. The funding is used for example to pay students to work in a lab and attend school full-time and to produce a documentary on successful alumni scientists.

192 of the 224 schools invited to do so submited proposals, which were then assessed by a panel of HHMI investigators, previous HHMI grant recipients, and other scientists.

Peter Bruns, vice president for grants and special programs at HHMI told ScienceNow: "We're trying to approach education the way we approach our science, ask clear questions, do experiments, measure the results, and go on from there," while Paul Hertz, a biologist at Barnard College in New York City says: "It's made us think very hard about how we teach."