Review of Australia’s Research Training System: Response to the Consultation Questions

This submission responds to the consultation questions of the Review of Australia’s Research Training System, an initiative under the Australian Government’s Boosting Commercial Returns from Research strategy. Research Australia maintains that research training should be more flexible, better prepare candidates for doctoral study and serve not only career researchers but also the ‘research literate’ people who commercialise discoveries, manage research programs, run clinical trials, regulate, communicate science and make evidence-based policy. It notes that industry sees PhD graduates as lacking communication, project management, teamwork and commercial skills, and that the average age at commencement of a research doctorate was 33 in 2011. Citing 2014 completions data showing that Masters degrees by research are widely offered but rarely taken (240 in health against 8,075 Masters by coursework), it proposes that a two-year Masters degree by research, combining coursework in research ethics, governance, experimental design, grant writing and commercialisation with a research project, should largely replace the Honours year as the pathway to a PhD, with articulation to shorten the subsequent doctorate. It also recommends that science and vocational health Bachelors degrees, including medical degrees, include training in scientific and research methods and career exposure through placements; that the Doctorate by research remain largely unchanged; that shorter postgraduate qualifications allow skills to be added when needed; and that prospective students receive better information about careers and employer expectations. An appendix examines how the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) treats Masters degrees.