As the debate over international comparisons and the merits of metrics over peer review hots up, John Byron (QUT) asks if the ARC needs to reform Excellence for Research in Australia or just give it a rest

“I remain unconvinced that the reforms would inject enough new life into ERA to make another round worthwhile. That’s not a criticism of the ARC – the option of pausing ERA is not available to them at present – or of their reform proposals, which are imaginative and carefully considered. But an incoming government would be well advised to take a step back instead of just steaming relentlessly ahead, and considering what it hopes to achieve by holding another round,” he argues, in  Features this morning.

In Features this morning

Franziska Trede and Sonal Singh UTS) make the case for “concrete action to create university cultures that enable all students and dismantle structural inequality in higher education. This week’s selection by Commissioning Editor Sally Kift for her celebrated series, Needed now in teaching and learning.

plus James Guthrie (Macquarie U) and Brendan Parker (RMIT) add an accounting perspective to the debate on using peer review in the next edition of Excellence for Research in Australia. Universities with staff publishing in the same journals can receive very different ratings –  they demonstrate.

Curtin U’s Open Knowledge Initiative has $1m to help small open access scholarly publishers

Publishers need data on who is reading their digital publications, and how, not to mention when. But there’s a problem – while commercial publishers can afford all the essential analytics to track monographs – there is no standard system independents can access.

Cue the commendable COKI, which has $1m from the Mellon Foundation to address “the analytics capability gap.”

Which really matters for OA titles, without evidence they are being read funders won’t.

Learning-support provider (and CMM advertiser) Studiosity opens nominations for its Tracey Bretag Prize

It is for, “or advancing understanding of best practice and demonstrating impact of Academic Integrity initiatives,” and honours the achievements and memory of the late Professor Bretag, a pioneer of academic cheating research.  Details here.

When opposition leader, Peter Malinauskas wanted to merge Adelaide unis to create a global top 100 institution. Now he is premier, he still wants to. Uni SA VC David Lloyd wonders what that means and why it matters

In a message to staff yesterday Professor Lloyd set out a context the premier’s proposal.

For a start, he asks if a merger of any two of SA’s three public universities is needed to create a global top 100 university.  Instead “sound strategy and good management” can do it.

Then there is the question of which top-100. A university could hire talent and concentrate research to meet specific ranking requirements,  but such a top-100 result would not have the “wider economic outcomes” the premier has in mind.

And size does not matter for uni performance. “If you’re good, you’re good. It does not really matter how big you are. “Well-resourced institutions outperform all others in international rankings across the board.”

But there is a different rank that that he thinks would rate, “At a minimum it’s having one of the top three Australian universities in this state. That’s interesting. That’s ambitious. That would attract students to South Australia – domestic and international – in a way that existing institutions individually cannot achieve.

Smart stuff.  Lloyd has given whoever will draft the terms of reference for Mr Malinauskas inquiry things to consider – and who gets their ideas on the agenda is always well-placed.

By CLAIRE FIELD

One in ten of us are “highly excluded” from digital life. We have to fix it

The OECD’s recently released Development Co-operation Report 2021: Shaping a Just Digital Transformation prompts some important considerations for Australia.

While the report focuses on the big picture, i.e. global digital transformation and the “tipping point” opportunity to significantly progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, and while foreign policy and development aid are beyond the scope of this column, there is nonetheless plenty to think about in the report from a domestic perspective.

The domestic policy question it prompts is how we ensure that in this period of profound digital change, we adopt an inclusive approach which provides equal access to technology as well as the necessary levels of digital literacy for all Australians?

The report offers some useful case studies for Australian policymakers to consider, including:

* the government of the Netherlands supporting civil society partners through education and training and the development of guidelines focussed on digital safety, digital inclusion and human rights online

* the Korean International Cooperation Agency’s dual focus on a Digital Mainstreaming Strategy and a Digital Transition Programme in its work with partner countries such as Paraguay. Their four key areas of focus are: digital government, digital accessibility, digital economy and digital safety.

* the German government’s “Digital by Default” strategy supports “structures that enable the sustainability of digital public goods and ensure access to digital opportunities” and requires projects to “identify and justify their reasons for not employing digital components.”

With the Australian Digital Inclusion Index (a collaboration between the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making & Society at RMIT, the Centre for Social Impact at Swinburne University of Technology, and Telstra) showing that one in four people in Australia are digitally excluded and a shocking one in ten are “highly excluded”, a whole of government and civil society effort is urgently required to improve digital inclusion in Australia.

 Claire Field is an advisor to the tertiary education sector and a PhD candidate at RMIT

 

Peter Hendy is the new CEO of Independent Higher Education Australia. Mr Hendy is a former economic policy bureaucrat and ministerial adviser. He held the federal electorate of Eden Monaro for the Liberal Party 2013-16.  

 Linda Tapsell (Uni Wollongong) is a 2022 Fellow of the American Society of  Nutrition.