AUSTRALIAN COUNCIL OF DEANS OF SCIENCE

SUBMISSION TO THE SENATE EMPLOYMENT, WORKPLACE RELATIONS, SMALL BUSINESS AND EDUCATION REFERENCES COMMITTEE

On

The capacity of public universities to meet Australia’s higher education needs

As befits a submission from the Board of the Australian Council of Deans of Science (ACDS), the emphasis will be on the capacity of Australian universities to conduct teaching and research in the sciences.

(a) the adequacy of current funding arrangements
•	There has been a drastic decline in the financial positions of universities over the past decade with the Vanstone 6% cuts and two unfunded salary increases. The requirement on universities to “do more with less” is having a severe impact on their abilities to maintain quality in both teaching and research.
•	Shortfalls in university funding and the need to meet load targets place great pressure on those courses that are more expensive per EFTSU to run. Courses in science fall under the “more expensive” category
•	EFTSU/FTE staff ratios are approaching 20:1 for experimental disciplines and exceeding this figure for non-experimental disciplines such as mathematics. In some universities, the student/staff ratios exceed that which would be acceptable in the primary and secondary sector.  At the same time, it should be appreciated that academic staff are expected to spend around 30% of their time on research and need to achieve in research in order to receive promotion.  This means that the effective student:staff ratio is much higher than 20:1 when considered on a FTE basis.
•	Some departments are coping with the reduction in funding by increasing the fraction of teaching undertaken by casual and adjunct staff. This has resulted in the remaining permanent staff having an increased load in administration, coordination and student counselling, a situation exacerbated by the burgeoning amount of paperwork imposed on staff due to cumbersome processes of accountability for quality in teaching, research and community service and due to changes in reporting requirements in areas like Occupational Health and Safety, and copyright legislation.
•	Reduction in the number of support staff, both technical and clerical, imposed by budget stringencies, is impacting on science staff. For example, it is now the norm for science staff to perform their own typing of lecture notes, tutorials, exam papers, manuscripts and memos on a desk top computer as departments no longer have sufficient general clerical staff.
•	Funding cuts for the sciences have meant an aging equipment infrastructure for both teaching and research.
•	New courses, often to meet industrial needs, are frequently mounted without increase in staff resources. 
•	The weak Australian dollar is having a markedly negative effect on the ability of universities to maintain quality infrastructure eg equipment, IT equipment, library collections, let alone attract overseas staff.

(b) the effect of increasing reliance on private funding and market behaviour
•	An area of great concern is that market pressures are leading to unproductive and money-wasting behaviour in universities through much greater competition for students and the associated need for marketing expenditure, the tendency for immediate response to the actions of competitors in mounting new programs etc. This is particularly a problem for the city-based universities who are in direct competition in a restricted market.  
•	There has also been a marked increase in the engagement of universities with industry and the community in general. While this is recognised by all as a positive trend, there is no doubt that it represents a further drain on resources and pressure on the limited staff numbers that University budgets can support.
•	In spite of this increased engagement, there is a lack of ownership of the universities by the community and the reduction in public funds reinforces this feeling. 
•	The reduction in public funding of universities reduces the capacity of the sector to implement visionary plans which involve substantial expenditure.
•	While industry specific problems are appropriate for university research, international experience points to strong, untied basic research as the chief generator of wealth. Industry support for research is very low on the OECD scale. The recently announced increases in research funding through the ARC etc by the Government’s Innovation Action are welcome but there is some way to go to before the levels of funding of the mid nineties is restored.

(d) the equality of opportunity to participate in higher education
•	Differential HECS has had an adverse effect on enrolments in science
•	Differential HECS is iniquitous in the context of teacher training. The Batterham recommendation that HECS free scholarships be made available for Science Education students is strongly supported.
•	Australia is not experiencing a growth in science enrolments across all areas in proportion to overall enrolment growth 
•	The rate of science teacher graduations appears to be insufficient to maintain current levels of science teachers, particularly in physics, mathematics and information technology.

(e) the factors affecting the ability to attract and retain staff
•	Difficulties in recruiting suitable staff from overseas and retaining current staff include
•	Low salary levels
•	Weak Australian dollar
•	Poor research funding
•	Poor infrastructure
•	Perceived isolation from the “main game”.
•	Perceived lack of genuine commitment to a technology/knowledge-based future.
•	Competition from employers that provide better salaries and prospects, or better working conditions e.g. IT industry, research institutes in the case of biomedical staff.  The difficulties of attracting the really top staff into Universities in all but a few areas where these competitive pressures are less evident (e.g. environmental science) is in danger of causing universities to suffer the same fate as schools in a diminution of the prestige of a university career, and a reduction in the intellectual standards of universities.
•	Low morale of current staff
 (f) the capacity of universities to contribute to economic growth 
•	Lack of graduates in key disciplines will stifle economic growth
•	An educated community will be a wealthier community. Australian university graduates are raising the level of education in the community.
•	Strong universities foster substantial regional infrastructure and services 
•	Off-shore and on-shore teaching and training of overseas students will continue to be a major export earner (and foster long-term international links) while staff remain committed
•	Aging research infrastructure is adversely impacting on research productivity and training
•	A brain drain still persists caused by lack of opportunity, low salaries and low granting success rates

On behalf of the Board of the Australian Council of Deans of Science.

W R MacGillivray
President
Australian Council of Deans of Science