Charles Sturt University opposed the government’s decision for research to pass a national interest test for public funding.
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The Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan said the test on Australia Research Council grants for academics would “improve public’s confidence”.
It was revealed last week in Senate that the former education minister Simon Birmingham blocked 11 grants, worth $4 million in the humanities that had been approved by the ARC.
CSU branch president for the National Tertiary Education Union Dr David Ritchie argued this announcement was “highly problematic”.
“How can somebody like Minister Birmingham be comfortable with overriding a very robust review process to make his own judgement about what is or what isn’t useful to society?,” Dr Ritchie said.
“Why bother with independent reviews if you’re not going to accept the recommendations?
“These decisions aren’t carefully considered and it’s narrow minded to think that unless the research can’t be guaranteed to be successful or commercialised, it’s not worth engaging in.”
Dr Ritchie said the government is practically judging a book by its cover.
“Research is about adding to a body of knowledge and improving our knowledge in some way, and our understanding outside the realm of a commercial or material benefit is really important,” he said.
“Having the government interfere in public funding, whether that is in education, health, defence or transport, where there’s a narrower self interest rather than a broader interest is problematic.”
Similarly, acting deputy vice-chancellor of research, Professor Heather Cavanagh said the government should follow the recommendations.
“Our views align with the sector in that we firmly believe the Education Minister should follow the expert advice and recommendations of the grant funding body’s expert panel and not exercise such a veto in future,” Professor Cavanagh said.
“It is also important that the researchers know their research received the endorsement of the discipline experts but was vetoed by a minister.
“ARC grant schemes already provide a compulsory ‘national benefit’ section for completion which asks applicants to outline the benefit to the Australian and international community of the research.”
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