There are currently far too few vacant academic jobs in Australia each year to employ all our PhD students. It’s time to rethink the training of doctoral students.
Indonesia has the potential to make important contributions through academic research and the dissemination of knowledge emerging from Indonesian universities.
Many centres were set up in Australian universities to take advantage of China’s rising importance, but without ongoing funding they might be subject to interference from external donors.
The recent NHMRC funding announcement has renewed criticism about how medical research is funded in Australia. Is the system fair? Or is it stacked against some researchers?
Food, drug and other companies often sponsor research in the hope it might produce results favourable to their products. How can we ensure such research remains independent?
A new clause being embedded in a number of university contracts attempts to restrict academics from speaking freely in public debate about issues that are outside their area of research.
People have always known science would advance faster with various incentives and rewards. As modern experimental science took off, these took the form of gifts and favors to and from wealthy elites.
Previous Vice President of the Academy of Science of South Africa and DSI-NRF SARChI chair in Fungal Genomics, Professor in Genetics, University of Pretoria, University of Pretoria