Australia produces thousands of PhD graduates every year but many will find it hard to secure a university career. So we should do more to help them consider a career outside of academia.
Financial incentives alone won’t increase research collaboration between universities and business. Academics say they need time, support and an environment encouraging of engagement.
Universities stand to benefit enormously if excellent teachers are celebrated and given the chance to share their skills, and if they have the power to really change their institutions.
Academics from several South African universities say that in the current world economy decisions about any country’s finance minister cannot be made “lightly or capriciously”.
Prime Minister Turnbull has signalled a desire to move away from a ‘publish or perish’ academic culture toward one that prioritises public impact and engagement. It’s a challenge scholars should embrace.
Publicly-funded research should contribute to society in some way. But we need to think carefully about how we create a system that allows us to measure the impact of research.
The students’ movement has stretched South Africans in personal, professional, powerful and provocative ways. Have academics been stretched enough to reflect deeply on the status quo at universities?
Shouting past each other via different kinds of media isn’t going to help researchers – from éminences grises to new postdocs – effectively work together on issues in the field of science.
There is more to drawing diaspora academics back to their home countries in Africa than striking up individual relationships. Infrastructure must be fixed and institutional management must improve.