On December 22 2017, the Minister for Education and Training, the Hon Simon Birmingham released the Research Training Implementation Plan which was developed by a cross sectoral Working Party to respond to the findings of the ACOLA Review of Research Training.

The Implementation Plan outlines 18 actions for the higher education, government and industry sectors to respond to the Review’s findings. The actions address five Priority Issues:

  • Pathways to HDR training
  • Industry-university collaboration, including placements
  • Equity, including Indigenous participation
  • Quality of the HDR training system
  • Data and evidence to better monitor HDR system performance.

View the full Research Training Implementation Plan.

Responding to this release, ACGR Convenor Elect, Professor Sue Berners-Price said:

Australia has a strong and vibrant research training sector which is recognised globally for its quality and innovation.
Before, during and since the ACOLA Review, ACGR and individual institutions have continued to reflect, review and innovate to improve their research training delivery and outcomes.
This Plan is another step in this process of continual improvement and provides a blueprint for the critical university- government and industry collaboration that is required.

ACGR was pleased to be involved in the development of the Plan, has already made a start on some of the deliverables and looks forward to working with our research training partners to pursue the other actions during 2018.

ACGR Actions

During 2018, the ACGR Executive and members have put a great deal of time and effort into meeting the responsibilities ascribed to the Council in the Plan:

New guides to support valuable partnerships between university research students and industry partners have been collaboratively produced by ACGR and the Australian Industry Group (Ai Group), the two complementary publications assist both universities and industry partners to realise the substantial short-term and long-term benefits that can be gained from graduate research student-industry engagement.

New Good Practice Guidelines for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Research Education have been developed with the support and endorsement of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Higher Education Consortium (NATSIHEC).

ACGR has refreshed our Good Practice Principles for Research Supervision to include increased focus on the development of students’ skills and attributes to reflect the aims of contemporary HDR training to equip students with employability skills and experience.

New Guidelines for the Quality Graduate Research Supervision, Transferable Skill Development and Tracking Graduate Research Candidates have been developed and published.