Gutting of innovation & research could cripple Australia's post-COVID recovery

Terri MacDonald Policy & Research Officer

Universities perform approximately 43% of all applied research in Australia, making them the largest single research sector. However, with higher education in crisis due to COVID-19, this research sector has been hit particularly hard, in both losses of research jobs and research capacity.

The Morrison Government’s actions to date have not only failed to assist the sector as it faces a multi-billion dollar deficit, mass job losses, the discontinuation of courses, campus closures and research shut-downs; it has actually made the situation far worse.

Despite early warnings that 21,000 full time equivalent (FTE) higher education positions could be lost as a result of the COVID-19 crisis, the Government – on three separate occasions – shifted the goalposts to keep public universities out of JobKeeper. Unfortunately, the Union’s predictions of mass loss jobs across higher education look to be on target, and will continue over the next 6–12 months, at least. While all sector job losses are distressing, the loss of research positions will directly impact our capacity for a post-COVID recovery that is led by innovation and research. It will also result in a ‘brain drain’ through the loss of research talent to overseas, or as people leave the research sector. This talent cannot be easily replaced, particularly in our STEM and health/medical research areas.

The Rapid Research Information Forum report to the Federal Government (May 2020) stated that at least 7,000 research jobs are at risk in the sector because of COVID-19. It also noted that some 9,000 international research students were at risk of not being able to return to their studies. Also impacted are the thousands of domestic research students whose studies have been interrupted or threatened by campus lockdowns and disruption to lab access, collaborative networks and supervision, not to mention the withdrawal of research funding by cash strapped universities.

While all our researchers are vital for our current research capacity, we rely also on new research students to come through and build on that capacity in the future. These research students are also often employed as sessional or casual academics – and were first in line for COVID-19 staff cuts.

Reinforcing this is modelling by the Group of Eight that forecasts the loss of 6,700 jobs across its members. While all universities perform research, the Go8 are research intensive institutions and represent a large part of our research workforce. Their projections include around 4,400 short term and non-permanent positions that are unlikely to be renewed. Indeed, our research-only staff are some of our most vulnerable, with NTEU finding that eight-out-of-ten research-only (FTE) positions are insecure contract roles, making these staff particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 cuts.

While institutions are shedding staff now, they will need to replace these positions down the track. Unfortunately, experience has shown that once a permanent position is lost it’s often replaced by an insecure position. In the case of academic roles, teaching-only casual positions are frequently the replacements; indeed, this is where the sector growth is.

More teaching only roles would suit the new focus by Government under its poorly designed Job-ready Graduate package, which requires universities to teach more students with less funding overall; however, the loss of these teaching-research positions will have a detrimental impact on our research capacity, seeing the loss of researchers to both undertake research and to supervise research students.

Another threat to research is that the Job-ready graduate package would also prohibit universities from using Commonwealth Grant Scheme (CGS) funding to support research that is linked to teaching. This, combined with the loss of international student income (which subsidises domestic teaching and research) creates even more stress on the sector, with devastating consequences for our national research capacity.

Australia’s higher education research and innovation sector is an essential driver for our post-COVID-19 recovery. Yet, in all the stimulus measures offered by Government to date, there has been almost no targeted funding for research.

The NTEU believes that there must be a targeted recovery program by Government to support our research sectors, which could also encourage industry support and investment. However, it should not be limited to commercial research only, as some of Australia’s most innovative discoveries have come from blue sky/ pure research, which can lead to important discoveries, such as vaccines that safeguard against diseases such as COVID-19.

Most importantly, we need to protect, and make permanent, as many jobs as possible – including in research. •