University rankings quest ‘saw department gutted’

A univer­sity gutted its philosophy department in favour of hiring overseas professors, a former lecturer says.

The ACU pays its overseas hires between $70,000 and $100,000 a year each.

The Australian Catholic Univer­sity gutted its philosophy department in favour of hiring overseas professors on $90,000-a-year part-time contracts as part of a “ruthless” strategy to artificially boost its research rankings, a former lecturer says.

A separate university source said there were about 10 such professors with full-time overseas jobs who were on ACU’s payroll in its theology department, allowing the university to put their research output towards the Excellence in Research Australia ranking ­system.

This brings the number of foreign staff with no teaching load at the university to about 26 professors and academics in just three departments. Stephen Buckle, an internationally respected scholar in the philosophy of David Hume, was forced into early retirement when he questioned hiring practices and management of staff.

“The $100,000 holiday gigs ­offered to the American professors could have, and should have, paid for three or four regular lecturers — staff desperately needed to provide a credible degree program, and to save the existing staff from impossible workloads,” Dr Buckle told The Australian.

“One result is that two high-quality appointees from a couple of years ago have resigned.”

The practice relies on a loophole in the federal government’s ERA system that allows universities to hire academics on fractional packages and still have their work output count towards the ratings system. The rule was originally designed to allow career researchers who had children to return to work part-time and have their publishing continue. Instead, institutions are, to varying degrees, bringing in overseas academics with full-time positions elsewhere to bolster their ratings.

Signing one professor from another country on such arrangements allows a university to count their entire research output for a six-year period as being connected with the Australian organisation and, in essence, produced by them.

The ACU pays its overseas hires between $70,000 and $100,000 a year each and pays for their business-class travel and ­accommodation should they be required to visit. Deputy vice-chancellor (research) Wayne McKenna conceded the “recruitment of overseas academics” was a ­deliberate part of the university’s strategy.

“The research investment that ACU has made, however, means that our academics have access to significant additional research ­opportunities and professional ­development in research excellence,” he said. “Fractional ­appointments with ­academics from prestigious institutions attract other academics from those institutions and help build the university’s research profile.”

Education Minister Simon Birmingham was unconvinced, however, and has asked the Australian Research Council to investigate allegations universities are gaming the ERA system.

In the ACU’s philosophy ­department, for example, there are as many lecturers with strict teaching loads as there are foreign academics being paid for their ­existing research output.

An internal review of the strategy was critical

“Many submissions and interviewees supported the process in principle, however, expressed the view that in practice (the strategy’s) administration was opaque and disheartening even to good staff,” a report said.