Australian Research: The Evidence for Student Caps and Implications for Student Employment and Housing in the Early 2023-2019 Australian Research Year in Review
Nature Index data shows the weakened state of Australian research. Since 2020 there have been publications funded by the Australian Research Council that show the country’s output has declined steeply. In 2023, the total number of ARC-funded publications was 15,783, according to the Nature Navigator platform, which uses data from Dimensions by Digital Science. The lowest number of publications since 2016 was 15,382.
Some researchers do not believe that the plan would work. In a commentary for The Conversation in August, Norton says the caps could lead to a situation in which some universities are forced to reject international students who they would have otherwise enrolled while others fail to fill their quotas. Norton says it’s likely that many prospective students will abandon plans to come to Australia if they can’t get into their chosen institutions and adds that the plan is unlikely to improve housing availability as intended. A report by the Student Accommodation Council, an industry group, found that international students in Australia make up just 4% of the total rental market. In September, the chief executive of the Regional Universities Network spoke to the Sydney Morning Herald and said that although student caps seem to allow growth at some regional universities, they are still below pre-pandemic levels.
The cap would be in place by the end of the decade, pending parliamentary approval. The Coalition party decided in early November to vote against the bill, despite the fact that it was supported by the government. For months, universities and other educational facilities have been planning for the implementation of the caps.
Research and innovation in Australia’s early and mid-career research sector: How Australian scientists are raising Indigenous knowledge and their impact on the economy and future of Australia
There are deep frustrations within the early and mid- career researcher community, which could have lasting effects. “As job prospects narrow, many are looking abroad or considering leaving academia altogether, which could result in a ‘brain drain’ that would really impact the quality of Australian research in the long run,” she says.
The need for greater funding security for early and mid-career researchers was highlighted by the Universities Accord, which recommended increasing competitive government grants that run for five years or more. Increasing stipends and providing tax breaks to part-time trainees are things that it urged the government to make research training more attractive. In May, the Australian government announced a Aus$430 million grants initiative for early and mid-career researchers in health and medical fields.
Lee says that there is a concern that research by the Aborigines is so neglected compared to the impact that Indigenous knowledge can have on national science and research priorities. She says that the turmoil currently happening in the research sector might be an opportunity for Australia to elevate Indigenous knowledge more fairly. Upheaval can open “new ways of undertaking collaborative research and injecting innovation” across higher education, says Lee. “If not now, then when?’
Emma Lee, a sociologist at Federation University in Victoria, states that there are federal government policies and strategies that are genuinely elevating Indigenous commercial and environmental expertise as central to Australia’s economic future. Lee says that the sustainable ocean plan is an example of strong collaborative work. She notes how the Australian department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water has brought in the aboriginal people in the project and highlights how important it is to inform policy with Indigenous ecological knowledge. She also points to the importance of collaborating with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to achieve Australia’s legislated target of net zero greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050, and says some good work is being done in the fisheries and farming sectors.
During the mining boom of the early 2000s, Australia’s research and development (R&D) intensity, a term to describe R&D expenditure as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP), was at its peak. But it has since been in steady decline, bucking the trend of other major Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) economies. Whereas the average R&D intensity of the OECD group grew from 2.3% of GDP in 2008 to 2.7% in 2021, Australia’s dropped from 2.25% in 2009 to 1.68% in 2022, its lowest level in 20 years.
The increase in free to read papers over the last decade is a stark change. Navigator stated that 65 percent of the publications were pay-to-read in 2015, with 28% free to read. These numbers stayed relatively consistent until 2022, at the height of the pandemic, when free-to-read papers jumped to 47%. By 2023, 60% of papers were free to read and 29% were pay-to-read, and in 2024, which is an incomplete year, free-to-read publications account for 68% of ARC-funded output so far.
The biggest topic areas in ARC-funded research between 2015 and 2024 are computational models and algorithms, and clinical studies and public health, accounting for 103,840 and 101,586 publications, respectively, of the total 212,979 for the period, according to Navigator (papers can be related to one or more topic and subtopic). There are 101,866 publications that were related to mathematical modelling and numerical methods. 76,355 publications were related to clinical interventions and health service research, according to Navigator.
Australia’s drop in Share was the biggest among the top 20 countries, signalling trouble for its research sector. For the first time since 2018, Australia dropped from 10th place to 12th in 2023, overtaken by India and Italy.
The charts show the strongest institutional players that need to regain their footing in an increasingly competitive landscape.
