Academy of Social Sciences in Australia
President's Report
Professor Sue Richardson
In September 2005 this Academy, along with the other Learned Academies, was reviewed by the Commonwealth Government. The purpose of the Review was to assess our performance over the past five years, and to recommend the appropriate level of funding for our Grant-in-Aid for the coming five years. This review provided the occasion for us to document in a comprehensive way, and to reflect on, the activities of the Academy over the past five years. At the time of writing, the outcome of the review is unknown.
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We have a good story to tell. And I believe that we told it very well in the submission that we provided to the Review team. We are indebted to our Executive Director, John Beaton, for the imagination and skill with which he drafted our submission. With the equivalent of 4.5 fulltime staff, and the tremendous talents of our Fellows willingly contributed to the many enterprises of the Academy, we have achieved much.
The following table summarises in crude form the increases in our main areas of activity, over the past five years.
| Program | 1995-2000 quantum | 2000-2005 quantum | Est. increase |
|---|---|---|---|
| Workshops supported | 24 | 40 | 67% |
| Workshop publications (books only) | 10 | >14+2 e-Books | >60% |
| Research Projects | 5 | 9 | 80% |
| International Program | 3 funded exchanges | 6 joint-action programs | 100% |
| Outreach | Ad hoc involvement of non-Fellows |
Inclusion of about 800 non-Fellows in a range of Academy activities.
Established Indigenous Summer School, involving about 100 students and supervisors. |
|
| Commissioned policy papers | None |
3 published
2 undergoing review 2 pledged for publication in 2005 |
|
| Submissions and representation to Government | c6 | 19 | c30% |
The activities of ASSA in this five year period have arguably doubled. Much of this is due to the $115,000 pa DEST-HEIP funding (2002-2005) that has used the platform provided by the Academy's organisational structure and the strengths of the Fellowship to expand all existing programs and to launch a new one, the Policy and Advocacy Committee.
Our Constitution requires us to:
- Promote excellence in and encourage the advancement of the social sciences in Australia;
- Act as a co-ordinating group for the promotion of research and teaching in the social sciences;
- Foster excellence in research and to subsidise the publication of studies in the social sciences;
- Encourage and assist in the formation of other national associations or institutions for the promotion of the social sciences or any branch of them;
- Promote international scholarly cooperation and to act as an Australian national member of international organisations concerned with the social sciences;
- Act as a consultant and advisor in regard to the social sciences; and
- Comment where appropriate on national needs and priorities in the area of the social sciences.
I report below on our progress against these objectives, in 2005.
Promote research and excellence in the social sciences
We promote our first three objectives through a balanced suite of activities. These comprise the Research Program, the Workshop Program, the Policy and Advocacy Program, the Publications Program, the Annual Symposium and the Indigenous Summer School. All of these programs, while being led by Fellows, increasingly reach beyond the Academy's own members to include other scholars and policy-makers.
The Academy promotes research in the social sciences primarily through its research and workshop activities. These are distinct and complementary programs. They share a commitment to drawing on a number of the social sciences, and scholars from a range of institutions, for every question that they tackle.
The Research Program focuses on relatively large projects of new work, together with smaller commissioned studies that explore important public policy issues. The Research Committee plays an active role in identifying, assisting and promoting the quality of the work done under this program. Each year the Committee assists in the selection of a major project that is funded under the ARC Learned Academies program, and provides a small advisory committee to contribute to the development and integration of the research. These advisory committees have proved to be an extremely valuable addition to the resources available to the team that is undertaking the research. The 2005 ARC-funded project is Patterns of Population Mobility and Internal Migration in Australia. It is pleasing to see that every one of the projects that has been funded under the Learned Academies scheme has led to the publication of an important book. In 2005, the two projects Rethinking Wellbeing: Policy and Program Issues in Disability, Disadvantage and Community Development and Building a Better Future For Our Children, will each be published. The 2004 project, What Is To Be Done With Management Ethics? Addressing National Needs and Priorities, will be published early in 2006.
The Research Program has been extended to commission thoughtful studies of important policy problems. This has been made possible by the addition to the Academy's resources of the three year funding under the Higher Education Innovation Program. This additional funding, which is due to cease in mid-2006, has also supported a number of other valuable additions to the Academy's range of activities.
As a complement to the Research Program, the Workshop Program is designed as a completely bottom up activity that provides social scientists with the opportunity to engage quickly with current issues. The Academy provides guidelines, financial and logistic resources, some good advice, and a selection process. The ideas come from the Fellows and their colleagues. Over the past five years, about 700 people, many of whom are not Fellows, have participated in Workshops. During 2005, these included 19 people from government, industry and community groups, as workshop conveners responded to encouragement to incorporate policy makers where appropriate. The program goes from strength to strength. A survey of participants in 2005 rated it highly in most dimensions. It is probably stimulating more cross-disciplinary debate and engagement than can be found anywhere else in the country. Its chief limitation is the small amount of money that is able to be provided to each workshop - too little, for example, to be able to fund international participants.
The Policy and Advocacy Committee - new in 2004 - provides direction to policy and advocacy engagements across the Academy's programs, identifies topics for the commissioning of policy papers, and engages directly with government to build trust and networks for the provision of social science based knowledge to policy makers.
The Academy's Occasional Paper Series (Policy Papers) has been the major vehicle for the publication of policy papers commissioned by the Academy. Like the Academy's excellent journal Dialogue, which also includes many articles relating to policy issues, the Occasional Paper Series is circulated to members of Federal Parliament, Government departments, educational institutions, NGOs nationally and internationally, libraries, media organisations, and interested individuals.
As a result of the new publication program and the quality of papers being published, this year ASSA sought and was granted registration of the Series as a peer reviewed journal in the DEST list of Refereed Journals. Overseeing the publication of policy papers, the PAC has acted as an Editorial Board, with members of the Committee called upon as editors who engage referees and ensure the quality of the papers.
The Academy's commitment to fostering excellence in teaching and research in the social sciences was manifest also in the third Indigenous Summer School, held in February at Ormond College in Melbourne. This outstanding initiative has, over its three years of life, brought about 50 students and a similar number of their supervisors to a week of intensive work that is devoted to expanding the capacity of the students to successfully complete their higher degrees. In an evaluation of the program, students rated it 4.9 on a five-point scale for its overall value. Leon Mann and Marcia Langton took the lead in organising the program again in 2005. For the next Summer School, Ruth Fincher will replace Leon. I congratulate Leon for having the vision and energy to initiate and bring to fruition this most valuable program.
Encourage and link with other scholarly organisations
In 2005, the Academy continued to support the activities of the National Academies Forum (NAF). This forum comprises the Presidents, Executive Directors and one other from each of the four Learned Academies. The Presidency of NAF rotates among the four Academies: in 2005, it was held by John Zillman, of the Academy of the Technological Sciences and Engineering. NAF serves a very effective role in facilitating cooperation and joint initiatives among the four Academies, while respecting the separate missions and cultures of each. The Academies collaborate when it is useful to do so, and otherwise go their own way. We continued our contribution to the Joint Academies Committee on Sustainability, which is providing a review of sustainability assessment projects to identify good practice in this field. We participated in the consultation on the measurement of research quality that NAF organised. All four Academies shared ideas on how to approach the review of the Learned Academies Grant in Aid.
The Academy continued as a member of the Council of the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences and to provide accommodation for the staff of CHASS in our premises. The precise relationship and different domains of activities between CHASS and its member bodies continue to be refined. CHASS has been very active in the development of evidence of the contribution of its sector to innovation and economic activity, following a substantial grant to support this work from DEST. It also ran the second of its HASS on the Hill events, where members of the HASS community met with members of the Commonwealth Parliament at Parliament House. A number of Fellows of our Academy joined in this event.
Promote international scholarly cooperation
The Academy belongs to only one international association, the Asian Association of Social Science Research Councils (AASSREC). The AASSREC executive has asked ASSA to take over its Secretariat, which has been located in the Philippines for more than a decade. We have agreed to do so, beginning in December 2005. The AASSREC Secretariat comes with modest administrative support (about $2,500 pa), but this move will enhance our opportunities to make a significant contribution to social sciences in our region.
Historically, the Academy's international relationships, apart from that with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, were essentially unfunded. They developed not so much strategically, but rather as opportunities arose in the course of the activities of individual Fellows who formed international collaborations. Some of these relationships proved to be fragile and short lived, becoming moribund when either party changed research directions or priorities. Over the past several years, the whole approach to international agreements has been revised, and all new initiatives now focus on bilateral research activities rather than study tours.
This view has prevailed with new international partners and has dramatically rejuvenated our international activities. In 2005, we signed a revitalised agreement with the Vietnamese Academy of the Social Sciences, expect to finalise a new agreement with India in December, and have commenced discussions with Indonesia. The international program has supported about 20 scholars per annum in joint work, through these links. We currently have seven joint projects underway. Our main embarrassment is our inability to fund these exchanges at the level that our partners are willing to offer.
Consult and advise
The Academy has responded to a number of requests for advice from government and its agencies during 2005. It has also taken the initiative to generate publications that canvas policy questions. The new Policy and Advocacy Committee is charged with collaborating with other Academy committees and convening its own activities to provide expert independent advice to Government, and has been very active in 2005. This structure, together with the extra funding of the HEIP grant, has substantially increased our capacity to make social science knowledge work for the nation through debate.
The Academy has also responded directly to several invitations to provide advice. Perhaps the most notable contribution was an extensive submission to the NHMRC committee reviewing the guidelines for ethical conduct of research. We were praised for the quality and thoughtfulness of the submission. We also provided submissions and facilitated forums advising on the research quality framework; the necessary characteristics of a university; managing misconduct in research; and responding to the Tsunami.
In all that it does, the Academy relies on the voluntary contributions of its Fellows. It is a credit to the Fellows that on every occasion on which I have approached Fellows for assistance, advice or to represent the Academy, the response has been positive. The Fellows also contribute immensely to the activities of the Academy through the committees on which they serve and through providing the intellectual content for our many activities and publications. As we said in our submission to the Review of the Learned Academies "The bulk of ASSA's substantive contributions derive from the voluntary contributions of Fellows and reflect a committee and management structure that very efficiently meets the needs of its Fellows and the responsibilities described in its Grant-in-Aid, its constitutional objectives, and other contractual agreements. ASSA is well suited but under-funded to harness academic potential, to enlighten public debate, and to enrich the deliberative functions of public policy makers."
In addition to their voluntary time, and their subscriptions, Fellows also make donations to the resources of the Academy. I record with appreciation the generous donations given by John Elkins, John Grant, John Legge, Don Spearritt, Geoffrey Blainey, Geoffrey Bolton, Lois Bryson, JD Bruce Miller, Keith Hancock, Ross Day, Leon Mann, John Foster, John Quiggin, Staniforth Ricketson, Cindy Gallois, Chin-Liew Ten, Mary Luszcz, Harry Edwards and Margaret Jolly.
Let me conclude this report by expressing my immense appreciation for the dedicated and able work done by the Secretariat, and for the extensive contributions made by every one of the Committee Chairs and the Executive. It is their efforts that enable me to say that 2005 was a good year in the life of the Academy.
Sue Richardson
President, 2005
Last modified: 2 November 2009.