I'm still confused by the last advice I got from an unisuper advisor. Also since someone I know who used to work as a Prof in accounting told me that I should definitely not follow that advice.
There are no easy answers I feel. But maybe portability could be allowed for ECRs but restricted from a certain level of seniority onwards?
Not sure, we had the opposite concern in Australia when we had ERA. Allowing portability incentivises unis to poach senior and very well established researchers rather than support and retain their early career academics.
I will have to check later properly, but is this about whether the publication record of a researcher moves along with them if they change universities? If so then I think not allowing this is very reasonable actually to recognise who funded these and to reduce incentives to game the system.
Yes, we weren't overly impressed. Some of the book chapters in our reference list had been turned into invented journal articles, that was the main issue we encountered. Plus some changes to book titles. The journal editors were really helpful although this stuff is beyond their control.
It is really frustrating particularly when the original manuscript and the references were in good shape. Based upon my recent experiences, these days, the proofing provided by the big publishers tends to be not so much a 'value-add' but a source of additional work and headache.
It could well have been the publisher's fault, but still. This happened to me not too long ago - when we got the proofs for a journal article back and the references had all sorts of fakes in it since the proofing team had used AI. I'm glad we spotted this in time, but it took ages to fix.
More news coverage (in 'ResearchProfessional News') for our paper examining what academic staff in Australia are experiencing as the key dimensions and drivers of administrative burden (to access the paper see the pinned post in my profile): www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-aust...
The administrative burden in Australian universities is most keenly felt by teaching and research staff, according to...[the] study from the University of Melbourne’s faculty of education'. 2/2
Link to underpinning research: academic.oup.com/spp/advance-...
We just published the key findings arising from our admin burden survey conducted across Australian universities and committee meetings came out as one the biggest drains on time. Here's the entire paper is you're interested, may give you some additional ideas: academic.oup.com/spp/advance-...
I think one needs to distinguish between limiting the number of publications (which won't work) and moving toward restricting evaluations to a limited number of papers (per annum or in total). The latter strategy has a lot of merit IMO and has already been adopted by many research councils.
Today's edition of Future Campus includes a piece discussing our recently published research article (available open access) on how academic staff experience administrative burden in Australian universities: futurecampus.com.au/2025/08/08/c...
The Times Higher Education (THE) covers our just published research article (open access - see pinned post) on how academic staff experience administrative burden in Australian universities.
The THE piece can be accessed here (requires a subscription): www.timeshighereducation.com/news/automat...
3) Due to a lack of local staff support and administrative automation, academics generally feel they are not effectively supported if they are experiencing admin issues or problems. This is a key concern to them and is seen to result in frustration, delays, and additional admin workloads.
2) Academics experience their teaching and research as administratively highly laborious activities (thus adding to their admin workload arising from generic admin responsibilities). Also, university meetings are a killer in terms of the demands they impose on time.
We packed a lot into this article, but there are three core findings that are particularly interesting perhaps:
1) Academics largely associate the digital transformation and automation of uni administration with an increase, not a decrease, in their own administrative workload and burden.
Our article examining what academic staff are experiencing as the key dimensions and drivers of administrative burden in Australian universities is now published online. It draws on survey responses from 350 staff from 37 Australian unis. Available open access at: academic.oup.com/spp/advance-...
Btw, I really wish we had better data on this in Australia - this is all self-reported (QUILT) data yes? I would be great to have more reliable large-scale studies using taxation data or the like, although there may be privacy issues rending this impossible.,
From what I hear IT may not be too different. I recently talked to a mate working in a senior role in IT and was told they are receiving a few hundred applications for entry level roles atm - and that the job market is very tough for graduates. It would be interesting to see proper data though.
Gwilym Croucher and I wrote a short piece for 'Future Campus' that adds to discussions of supply of and demand for PhD graduates in Australia and makes some specific policy recommendations: futurecampus.com.au/2025/07/07/h...
📣 I am very excited about my new book "#University #Governance, #Management and the #Academic #Profession" is out!
🙌 Thank you so much to co-editors Prof. Monica Marquina and Prof. Glen Jones for great collaboration !
📘 Check it out through Springer:
👉 link.springer.com/book/10.1007...
Our paper analysing academic staff experiences of administrative burden at Australian universities recently got accepted for publication. It should be available online soon. This is quite a chunky paper focusing on what these staff view as the key dimensions and drivers of admin burden at work.
Oh the joy when your university has just released a new and mandatory travel portal which obviously isn't yet ready for users to use...
Just published (open access): In our article, we explore the key institutional forces that have led to casual academic employment being regarded as legitimate and normal element of university activity in Australia: link.springer.com/article/10.1...
The THE just published a niece piece discussing our recent article examining professional staff perspectives on administrative burden at Australian universities (subscription-based): www.timeshighereducation.com/news/endless...
New publication (open access): Our article examines how professional staff at Australian universities see the administrative burdens they encounter at work, and what they regard as effective strategies to reduce such burdens (e.g., fewer restructures!): www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Thank you - you beat me to it, good to see this published!
From hearsay, this is still pretty common practice I think. There also used to be a fair bit of poaching of DECRAs once they got funding, with a continuing role being the carrot. It may be a bit dependent on the field perhaps.
But, back to your point re ERCs, one thing I never liked here is how the DECRA has become this 'win or lose all' thing - also because many universities promise people a continuing job on the condition that they get a DECRA. This puts an additional and immense pressure on applicants.
Btw, one additional challenge we have is that research funding in Australia is very concentrated in terms of funders. Basically, in some fields, there is only the ARC to go to. This really puts us at a disadvantage compared with other systems with a greater diversity in funding sources.
