TEQSA proposes minimum outputs and achievements

The Tertiary Education Quality Standards Agency has quietly announced what it  proposes  the research thresholds should be.

* volume of citations for peer-reviewed papers and the quality of journals where citations appear

* peer-review process

* an institution’s research governance and funding frameworks

* research community and activity

* competitive funding won, and;

* “results from Excellence in Research for Australia or any comparable evaluation in Australia, and from comparable national and international research assessment exercises.”

Presumably that last one covers the recommendation in the Coaldrake Review of category standards, that by 2030 existing universities should undertake “world standard research” in at least 50 per cent of fields of education they teach and that any new university should start at 30 per cent and scale up to 50 per cent (CMM October 16 2019).

Which, might be a challenge, if as expected, institutions free-fall on rankings without international student fees to fund research.

Responses to the proposal are due end April.