Universities want to rein in minister’s veto power on grants

The university sector says it wants a review of the Australian Research Council, announced by the government on Wednesday, to limit the Education Minister’s veto power of grant decisions.

Education Minister Jason Clare. Picture: NewsWire / Monique Harmer

The university sector says it wants a review of the Australian Research Council, announced by the government on Wednesday, to limit the Education Minister’s veto power of grant decisions.

Leading academics say a key test for Education Minister Jason Clare will be how he addresses the treatment of humanities at universities after the former government increased fees as part of the Job Ready Graduates package.

In his first major address as Education Minister, Mr Clare on Wednesday told the annual Universities Australia conference the government would commission an independent review of the “role and function” of the ARC following demands for a major shake-up of the research funding agency.

It followed the former Coalition government vetoing several grants recommended by the ARC because it believed they did not serve the national interest.

Group of Eight chief executive Vicki Thomson said the independent review was “well received by Australia’s research-intensive universities”, but the minister’s veto power needed to be carefully looked at. “The fact peer review has, on occasion, been replaced with ministerial vetoes did not go unnoticed by researchers and research institutions, including overseas, and impacted Australia’s international research reputation,” she told The Australian.

“Allocation of public funding for individual research proposals (is) best taken following evaluation by an independent council of experts and not directly by a government department or minister. Nothing could be more obvious or effective as a first step to rebuilding Australia’s research grant reputation.”

Australian Academy of the Humanities executive director Christina Parolin said ministerial intervention was “no way for a world-class research system in a liberal democracy to operate”.

“If the requirement for ministerial oversight stands, there should be further legislated checks and balances that provide transparency … and a detailed response as to the basis on which the minister has rejected the advice of the experts – such as a requirement to advise parliament within a set period of time,” she said.

Dr Parolin hoped the review into the Job Ready Graduates program, due to begin this year, would be transparent and reveal modelling used to determine the basis for the reforms in the first place and any decisions going forward.

The veto power of the minister in the allocation of ARC grants came into focus in December, when acting minister Stuart Robert used it to cancel grants.

Academy of Social Sciences chief executive Chis Hatherley said the new minister’s commitment to ensuring all future grants rounds were “to a predetermined time frame” would help with long-term certainty for researchers.

He said it was heartening particularly for those applying for grants in the humanities and social sciences, which had seen their grants vetoed for “purely ideological reasons”. Dr Hatherley said the way in which Labor approached the Job Ready Graduates program would “be telling” about the significance of the humanities to the government.

Opposition education spokesman Alan Tudge said the Coalition made changes to the ARC in its last year of government to ensure grants were aligned with the national interest.