Academy of Social Sciences in Australia
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President's Report
Fay Gale
At the beginning of February the Minister for Education, Training and Youth Affairs, The Hon Dr David Kemp MP, wrote to me advising of the review of the learned academies and giving the terms of reference. As you are aware the academies have been reviewed every five years since they first received direct annual grants from the Education portfolio when John Dawkins was minister. Our last review was in 1995 and thus we are to be reviewed again in this current year.
The Minister has appointed Professor Geoffrey Blainey, previously professor of history at The University of Melbourne and former Chancellor of Ballarat University, and Professor John Maloney, the previous Vice-Chancellor of Curtin University of Technology and former Deputy Vice-Chancellor (International and Public Affairs) of Monash University. Mr Jason Finley of the Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs will provide the secretarial services. The Terms of Reference provided by the Minister are as follows:
- Examine the role and effectiveness of the Learned Academies in promoting their respective areas of interest to the Australian and international communities, noting in particular, developments that have occurred since the last Review was undertaken in 1995.
- Examine the role and effectiveness of the Learned Academies, including through their publicly funded activities, as sources of advice to Government.
- Identify cost effective means by which the public funded activities of the Learned Academies could further contribute to the development of public policy.
- Develop and examine mechanisms to ensure the Academies' effectiveness in assessing excellence in research and scholarship, with particular regard to the role the Learned Academies could undertake in benchmarking and quality assurance, and how this might be achieved.
We have already commenced preparing our submission and this will be discussed and finalised at the meeting of the Executive in April. Other committees will also meet then to consider their contributions to the final submission. Over the last two years the Academy has made a number of changes to its procedures and these will be important in the review process. All Fellows have also been asked to provide the Secretariat with a summary of their interests and their public activities over the last 10 years to help us demonstrate the major contribution that Fellows of our Academy make to the national interest and to international scholarship across a whole range of socially significant issues.
The White Paper
At the end of last year the Hon Dr David Kemp released the white paper entitled Knowledge and Innovation: A Policy Statement on Research and Research Training. There had been a great deal of discussion and many concerns were raised about a number of aspects described in the initial green paper. All of the Learned Academies made submissions arguing for changes of various kinds. The four presidents also had an appointment with Dr Kemp in Parliament House, Canberra. We asked a number of questions, the answers to which allayed some, but not all, of our concerns. The issues which particularly worried us dealt with the pivotal role of an independent and well-funded Australian Research Council, the need for effective, realistic and respected procedures for quality assessment of research and the assurance of high academic standards in postgraduate training.
The white paper does not fully answer the key areas that need to be addressed in the second and third of these concerns. However, one thing that is assured is the establishment of a new and independent Australian Research Council supported by its own Act, the Australian Research Council Act. Independent from the Department, but still within the Education, Training and Youth Affairs portfolio, it should enable the Council to play a more strategic and policy oriented role in research and research training in Australia. I have been appointed to this new Council and hope to be able to provide a strong voice for the Social Sciences.
In the first issue of Dialogue for 1999 I raised our concerns about the future of the ARC following the Penington report. It is gratifying to know that so many scholars responded to the green paper and made strong representations. Clearly these were not in vain.
Cross-Disciplinary Research
The ARC has now released an important discussion paper entitled Cross-Disciplinary Research. It is especially important that social scientists assess this paper since we have such a wide coverage of cross-disciplinary research. It is an issue we have often debated, even in relation to our panel structure and how we incorporate new fields of knowledge. Much of the really ground-breaking research is now taking place at the edge of old disciplines and depending on methods of several areas whilst developing new techniques along the way. As we do with our panels, the ARC has a discipline-based program structure to determine funding. The ARC Council, recognising the limitations of such a structure and the barriers it presents for problem-based issues that cross disciplines, commissioned this discussion paper.
The paper begins by saying: 'There is currently widespread recognition that many of society's major problems, such as violence in families, drug addition and environmental problems such as global warming, can no longer be addressed appropriately within the confines of individual disciplines.' These are certainly topics we have discussed and we have debated ways of recognising such crossdisciplinary scholarship. Our workshops do cross discipline boundaries which adds greatly to their effectiveness. But we have not yet resolved this problem at the panel level.
I am sure Fellows will find this discussion paper interesting. The section for example on judging merit in cross-disciplinary research is of special relevance to us. Particular attention is drawn to the report of our review, Challenges for the Social Sciences in Australia, and to the attention our Academy has tried to give to the problems of evaluation and funding of cross-disciplinary research.
International Year for the Culture of Peace
The primary focus of this, the first edition of Dialogue for 2000, is the recognition that 2000 has been designated the International Year for the Culture of Peace. As those of you who attended the Annual General Meeting of the Academy in November last year will know, we agreed to make the subject for our annual symposium The Culture of Peace. We plan to do this in conjunction with UNESCO and are hopeful that funding will become available from that body. A committee was established at the last AGM to prepare the symposium. In addition, the Academy of the Humanities will be meeting in Perth just prior to our meeting and they have now decided to adopt the same topic. If UNESCO funding is sufficient we plan to share some international visitors. I cannot say more until the funding is determined as this will influence the nature and scope of the symposium and whether we run it alone or in conjunction with the other bodies.
April Meetings
On 11 and 12 April a number of the Academy's sub-committees will be meeting followed on 13 April by the first Executive Committee meeting for 2000. A central topic for discussion at these meetings will be the Review. I will be having a preliminary meeting with our Executive and members of the Department for Education, Training and Youth Affairs on 10 March. After that we hope to have a clear idea of what is required. It is exciting that, for all these meetings, we will have the benefit of our new rooms with greater space and more efficient offices and meeting rooms.
Social Sciences in the United Kingdom – the new Academy
Since my first report of the establishment of an Academy of Social Sciences in Britain, we have had various correspondence with both the new Academy and the British Academy. There was initially some concern amongst some of our academicians and associated colleagues about the relationship of the new to the older Academy and the degree of overlap. In a previous issue of Dialogue (4/1999) we published a letter from one of our Fellows, Professor John Barnes, outlining some of these issues. In this edition of Dialogue, I am reproducing two letters from Sir Tony Wrigley, President of the British Academy (see under Academy News). These are self-explanatory and demonstrate the progress being made. Sir Tony suggested that I also publish the list of names and affiliations of the foundation academicians elected to the new Academy of Learned Societies for the Social Sciences. The new academy, in announcing the inaugural members, states:
Members of the Academy were nominated by more than 40 learned societies affiliated to the Association of Learned Societies in the Social Sciences.
The new body will represent the social sciences of the United Kingdom in government, research councils, business and international bodies.
Space does not allow us to publish the full list of names and affiliations, but a copy is available on request from the Secretariat.
Fay Gale
2000
Last modified: 2 November 2009.