Sydney

The Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee has criticized a white paper released by the education minister David Kemp as being “flawed” by the government's refusal to accept that Australia's research base needs major additional investment.

Kemp says that the white paper, which seeks to tie research to its commercial potential, is intended to make Australia competitive in “the global knowledge economy”. Kemp also confirmed legislation to establish the grant-giving Australian Research Council (ARC) as “an independent body with broader membership and a more strategic role”.

Criticism has focused on the government's refusal to restore cuts to research budgets. Deryck Schreuder, the acting president of the vice-chancellor's committee, says that the “key contention” that Australian funding is comparable to that of other countries in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development is based on outdated figures and shows a complacency that has left university funding “critical”.

Kemp has jettisoned six of the more contentious aspects of his proposals (see Nature 402, 113; 1999), notably a voucher scheme for postgraduate students, a shorter completion time for graduate degrees, and the abolition of a block-grants programme for research infrastructure.

The Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies is also challenging the government's statistics. Its new president, Sue Serjeantson, wants an independent audit of public spending on research “that permits valid international comparisons”. Serjeantson claims the government has inflated its figures by including grants for the humanities, economics and social sciences.

Deane Terrell, vice-chancellor of the Australian National University, welcomed “the emphasis on performance-based funding for research training and infrastructure,” but says that the problem of more money “remains to be addressed”.

The Australian Academy of Science welcomed the strengthening of the ARC, but attacked the use of “simplistic formulae” to allocate money. It advocated an assessment exercise that would reward excellence.