2017 – Pre-Budget Submission

The Federal Government now recognises the challenges of the changing economy and the importance of innovation and research in this new economy. While changing legislation and encouraging industry investment is one way of stimulating an ideas boom the most effective measure is through the use of budgetary tools. Postgraduate students lay at the forefront of the innovation economy whether they are research students tackling the questions of today and tomorrow or coursework students that will become the professionals of the future.

Past budgetary cuts to programs such as the Research Training Scheme as well as commonwealth support for student placements have left universities to bare the bulk cost of research training. This has directly affected the ability for universities to train the researchers and innovators of the future and has left Australia lagging. Previous plans to increase income support to coursework postgraduate students have also been shelved threatening completion rates as well as limiting postgraduate degree participation. While investment in postgraduate education may seem to provide few short term benefits the long term benefits of increasing support and funding to Australia’s economy are quite clear.