ABOVE: Australian coat of arms
© ISTOCK.COM, PHOTON-PHOTOS
Australia’s mid-year budget update, released Monday (December 17), reveals that the country’s funding under so-called University Research Block Grants is to be slashed by $328.5 million AUD ($235.6 million USD) for the upcoming four years. The budget cuts are twice the amount Australian universities had expected.
In a statement, Universities Australia describes the cuts as “a ram raid” on research.
“The effect will be felt immediately by the nation’s researchers and their research projects in positions lost and projects slowed, limited or not started,” Margaret Gardener, president and vice chancellor of Monash University, writes in The Conversation. The cuts will mean less money to pay research faculty and staff, fewer PhD students funded, and long-term harm to Australia’s status as a leader in research, she writes. The slimmer budget will make it more difficult to entice leading scientists to come to Australia, she ...
