SEB Bulletin January 2007
From the President's desk
As I write this from my desk at the world-famous Waite Campus of the University of Adelaide, it is exactly seven weeks since I left the UK to take up my new post as Head of the School of Agriculture, Food and Wine at UoA. More notably, England is just about to lose the first Ashes cricket Test Match which is being played in Brisbane. Apologies to those who don't understand the global sporting significance of that last statement but as an Englishman in Australia, it causes some pain to be the subject of constant joking about the collective failure of the England team in this match. However, I have been telling all my Australian friends that it is just a cunning ploy to lead them into a false sense of security, and one they seem to have gullibly fallen for. I hope I am right because next weekend I may witness another abject English failure with bat and ball at the Adelaide Oval cricket ground.
But I digress. I thought I would take as my theme the differences I have experienced so far between the Australian University scene (at least as I have experiences it in Adelaide) and that I am used to in the UK. I should say as a preface that the two systems are remarkably similar because Australia took British universities as its original model and much remains that is familiar to me. But evolution has occurred and differences in philosophy and culture have emerged that are interesting to consider.
One notable difference is that universities generally seem richer here. This may be a false impression because of the many new buildings that seem to have been built recently. This in part is because most big research initiatives seem to be accompanied by construction of new facilities rather than refurbishment of existing ones. However, my impression is that there is generally more money around even though most Australian academics think things are very tight. It is true that there is little money to support consumables or technical staff for research groups but general infrastructure is good and there is a lot of money for initiatives to improve teaching and research. This may not last for long, though, as things look a lot tighter for 2007.
I mentioned in my last article that Australia was looking at the possibility of replicating the UK's Research Assessment Exercise. This has now been formally approved by the Federal Minister of Education and will go ahead next year. Until this point, preparations in Adelaide have been fairly low key with only one member of the central University staff dedicated to understanding the process and preparing papers on it. Now a great flurry of activity is ensuing to try to work out the best strategy to take to maximise the final score. I have a strong sense of déja vu of things I experienced for the last RAE in the UK. However, even now, planning is being inhibited by the lack of a definitive document from the Federal Government outlining all aspects of the exercise. One difference from the RAE, though, is that research will be judged on “impact” as well as quality. Impact is defined as the economic, societal, cultural or other non-academic benefits that have flowed from the research. The problem is that no-one quite knows how to measure this and the time frame over which it will be measured will probably be short which is likely to defeat the opportunity to get a real measure of it. Quite a challenge!
Another difference I have found is that politicians and decision makers are much more accessible here. Even in just three weeks, I have met a former Premier of South Australia, the Federal Minister of Education has visited, and various leaders in the Agriculture and Wine industries have contacted me to make my acquaintance. This is refreshing after the relative isolation of politicians in the UK and makes the thinking in government agencies much more available. In addition, one can run one's ideas past these people and get some idea if things look sensible to them and whether it will be possible to leverage funding.
Of course, apart from the Ashes, the big preoccupation here is water, or the lack of it. Southern Australia has not had significant winter rain for some years now. As a result water supplies are low and the Murray River, which supplies most of Adelaide's water, will run dry if its sources are not replenished significantly next winter. Another big impact has been on cereal crops which will be yielding only small amounts of grain this year. This has a direct impact on research for my School which has significant funds from the Grains Research Development Council, a levy-funded body. Again, if this situation continues, our research funding will drop and that has all sorts of consequences that I prefer not to consider just for the moment.
So moving from Cambridge to Adelaide has brought many challenges but also lots of opportunities. Day-to-day activities are similar in many ways to the UK but there is much that is different and makes each day a new experience as I settle in and learn more.
Roger Leigh Honorary President
RL225@cam.ac.uk
roger.leigh@adelaide.edu.au