Council for the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences

The Honourable Kevin Rudd MP
Prime Minister
Parliament House
Parkes ACT 2600

February 13, 2009

Dear Prime Minister

The Council for the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences believes the Bradley and Cutler Reviews offer the Government a once-off opportunity to strengthen and expand Australia's knowledge economy, ensuring future productivity growth and success in meeting the Government's social inclusion targets. CHASS is delighted by the commitment shown by Ministers Gillard and Carr in pursuing the structural reform necessary for a creative imaginative Australia. The Council believes Australia at this time cannot afford NOT to invest in a new higher education system. Linking the Government's short term stimulus for the economy with longer term investment and reform strategies is a crucial driver for Australia's success in dealing with the global financial crisis, as the evidence assembled by the Reviews demonstrates.

Although there is much to do in refining and clarifying recommendations, CHASS sees the Reviews commissioned by your Ministers as providing the bedrock for structural reform in research funding, equity of access to education, training high-quality academic staff, and enhancing the quality of teaching. We urge the Government to adopt the Bradley and Cutler recommendations for urgent investment into the full cost of research and research training, on top of salary and teaching costs, and for preserving the real value of the government's investment in base funding of the sector over time. We also urge the Government to recognise the differences in teaching and research funding requirements for the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences in the restructured funding system.

CHASS's more than 100 member organisations are ready to work on the implementation of the education revolution and to connect research and education with wider commercial and non-profit sectors. CHASS can facilitate access to social science research and practice to assist the Government in dealing with specific review recommendations such as improving participation rates of disadvantaged students in higher education; developing a National Innovation System; and developing a professional career structure for higher degree researchers in the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences.

Yours sincerely

Helen O'Neil
Executive Director

CC: The Hon Julia Gillard MP; Senator The Hon Kim Carr

 

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For more information, please contact:

Executive Director

Council of the Humanties, Arts and Social Sciences

Phone: +61 2 6249 1995

director@chass.org.au