Aussie government to convene university leaders to address broken research funding model

Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-25 17:00:26|Editor: huaxia

CANBERRA, June 25 (Xinhua) -- Australian Education Minister Dan Tehan will convene a panel of university leaders to devise a new funding model for university research.

The new panel will consist of five of Australia's most powerful university leaders to lead consultation on a new way to fund research.

"One of the things I'm looking to do is establish a small group of vice-chancellors to work with me on this next challenge," Dan Tehan told Nine Entertainment newspapers.

"We will look at all the data. I will take their views and consult within this group of vice-chancellors but more broadly, to see what we need to do."

The federal government has undertaken a significant shake-up of the higher education sector, with Tehan earlier this month announcing a major overhaul of university fees.

Under the changes, direct funding for university teaching budgets will be cut by approximately 750 million Australian dollars (514.2 million U.S. dollars) after a report by consultancy firm Deloitte found that 10 percent of funding for teaching was spent on research rather than educating students.

Instead the government will spend 900 million Australian dollars (617.1 million U.S. dollars) on an industry linkage fund that will incentivize research ties between universities and businesses.

"Now that the government has made a clearer delineation in the funding flows to research and teaching, it is exactly the right time to have a discussion about how research is funded in Australia," Catriona Jackson, chief executive of Universities Australia, said. Enditem

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