Vice-chancellors call for regular boost in research funding

University chiefs in Australia say they have slashed spending and staff as hard as they can to get through 2021, but the tough years are still to come and they will need a permanent AU$1 billion (US$713 million) boost in yearly research funding, writes Tess Bennet for the Australian Financial Review.

Vice-chancellors rebuffed suggestions by Education Minister Alan Tudge that they have sufficient resources to ride out the international student drought without further government support. They also downplayed the prospect that Tudge’s research commercialisation push could in any meaningful way make up for the absence of foreign students and cut in per-student funding in some courses accompanying the Job-ready Graduates programme.

“The idea that there are unicorn companies that are going to pop up in all universities and solve the funding problem is complete fantasy,” University of Melbourne Vice-Chancellor Duncan Maskell said. “It really is a time of crisis, notwithstanding anything you might have heard today. And we’re still facing some pretty tough times ahead.”
Full report on the Australian Financial Review site