The commitment was universally welcomed by HE lobbies on budget night

But while a year in politics is an epoch the crisis in research funding Australia faces will continue for an aeon, beyond the forward estimates.

Unless of course, the international students whose fees have paid for the great growth in research come back. All of them, and starting next year.

If they don’t a one-off $1bn hike won’t cut it but $1bn in growth money, annually for the next four years might. Frank Larkins and Ian Marshman from the Melbourne Centre for the Study of Higher Education  estimate, “new and targeted funding of several billion dollars over the next five years will be required.”

Uni Sydney VC Michael Spence said what research leaders are thinking yesterday; “this very welcome research support programme one-off boost comes in the context of a longer-term slide in research funding.”