Research Performance of Australian Universities. Policy Note. Number 4

Go8 universities account for over two-thirds of the research undertaken at Australian universities. Go8 universities attract the highest levels of industry and competitive government grant funding for research. This paper presents an analysis of trends in research performance for Go8 and non-Go8 universities including research income as reported by institutions to the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science, Research and Tertiary Education (DIISRTE) as part of the Higher Education Research Data Collection (HERDC) and the DIISRTE Research Block Grant Allocations as well as ERA outcomes and commercialisation data from the National Survey of Research Commercialisation. This analysis shows clearly that while the absolute amount of higher education research funding has grown significantly, the relative shares of research income (as reported in the Higher Education Research Data Collection) and research block grant funding of the major university groupings in Australia has been largely unchanged over the period 1992 to 2010 and 2002 to 2012 respectively with most redistribution of shares occurring between non-Go8 institutions. The National Survey of Research Commercialisation showed that in 2009 Go8 universities dominated in the number of invention disclosures and active licensing agreements as well as in licensing income and the number of patents issued. Based on the Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) 2010 outcomes, research of the highest quality (ie research well above world average and rated 5) is predominately undertaken at Go8 universities. Government policy should focus on selectivity and concentration of the higher education research effort with the aim of ensuring that funds flow to the best research wherever it may be and that Australia's research universities can sustain international research excellence. (Contains 18 figures.)