September 9, 2026
Higher Education Standards Committee, Australian Tertiary Education Commission
The Group of Eight (Go8) consents to the publication of this high-level submission and has no wish for any of it to be treated as confidential.
Australia’s future prosperity will increasingly depend upon its ability to generate, apply and diffuse new knowledge throughout the economy. Research and development is a critical driver of innovation and productivity, and productivity is the long-term source of national prosperity, higher incomes, improved living standards and sovereign capability. A strong and effective research system is therefore not simply a higher education objective; it is a national economic imperative.
Go8 members collectively invest $10 billion in research annually, representing approximately 20 per cent of Australia’s total research expenditure. As part of a world-class university sector, they form the backbone of Australia’s research system.
If Australia is to realise the full economic and societal benefits of research, university research must be sustainably funded, and universities must be empowered to focus their research efforts in areas aligned with their institutional missions and local, regional and national priorities.
For these reasons, the Go8 supports reforms that enable greater strategic diversification and specialisation across the university sector and makes the following recommendations.
Recommendations
Recommendation 1
Revise the provider category standards for the Australian University category to provide universities with the flexibility to undertake research of excellence in three or more four-digit Fields of Research (FoR), allowing institutions to specialise in line with their missions and strategic strengths, and remove the requirement that universities undertake research at world standard in at least 50 per cent of the fields in which they teach.
Recommendation 2
Revise the provider category standards for the Australian University category to preserve university autonomy, allow institutions to maintain comprehensive research capability where appropriate, and retain higher degree by research (HDR) training as a defining characteristic of university research activity.
Recommendation 3
Consistent with the recommendations of the Australian Universities Accord and the Ambitious Australia report, move towards funding the full economic cost of government-supported research, including competitive research grants, research training and research infrastructure, to place Australia’s research system on a more sustainable footing and reduce reliance on institutional cross-subsidisation.
Recommendation 4
Implement a light-touch national research capability mapping framework, potentially through the Australian Research Council’s Research Insights Capability initiative, to provide visibility of national strengths, emerging opportunities and capability gaps without recreating the administrative burden associated with previous research assessment exercises.
Discussion
Why research specialisation matters
The Go8 supports greater research specialisation across Australia’s university system.
Research excellence is strengthened when institutions can concentrate investment, talent and infrastructure in areas where they possess genuine comparative advantage. A more differentiated system can improve research performance, strengthen capability in areas of national importance and support the translation of research into productivity-enhancing outcomes for Australia. This approach aligns with Recommendation 3 of the Ambitious Australia report, which proposed reforms to enable greater research specialisation across the university sector.
The Go8 supports a system that enables universities to differentiate according to mission, scale and strategic focus. Such differentiation should be driven by research excellence and informed by Australia’s sovereign capability requirements, economic priorities and national interests. A more diverse and differentiated university sector would strengthen Australia’s overall research performance while enabling institutions to build internationally competitive capability in areas of strategic importance.
At its core, research specialisation is about making the most effective use of national capability. Universities should be encouraged to build depth and critical mass in areas of genuine strength. This can enhance research quality, improve research translation, strengthen industry engagement and contribute to the productivity growth that underpins long-term national prosperity.
The importance of university autonomy
The Go8 supports reforms that create opportunities for specialisation, not requirements for specialisation.
Research-intensive universities play a critical role as comprehensive institutions capable of supporting interdisciplinary research, nurturing emerging fields of inquiry and addressing complex challenges that transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries.
The role of government should be to create the conditions that enable institutional differentiation while safeguarding broader local, regional and national interests.
The objective should be a system that encourages diversity of mission rather than one that imposes uniformity of institutional models. A differentiated system should continue to accommodate universities that maintain comprehensive research portfolios where this aligns with their mission and contribution to local, regional and national priorities.
The importance of sustainable research funding
The Go8 estimates that every $1 of direct research income requires an additional $1.19 in institutional cross-subsidisation to meet the full economic cost of research.
The introduction of Job-ready Graduates effectively severed the funding link between Commonwealth-supported teaching and research activity by aligning Commonwealth Grant Scheme funding more closely with the costs of teaching alone. If the proposed changes to the research requirements mean that teaching activity no longer serves as a proxy for research activity, it becomes even more important that research is sustainably funded in its own right.
Consistent with the recommendations of both the Universities Accord and Ambitious Australia, government should move towards funding the full economic cost of competitive research grants, research training and research infrastructure. This would reduce reliance on cross-subsidisation and place Australia’s research system on a more sustainable footing.
Research specialisation within a national research system
Australia cannot afford a situation where multiple universities independently reduce investment in the same capability areas, resulting in unintended gaps in nationally important disciplines, that may be expensive or have low levels of student demand.
As institutions increasingly differentiate, understanding where research capability exists, where it is emerging and where it may be declining becomes increasingly important. This is particularly true in areas linked to sovereign capability, national resilience, future productivity growth and Australia’s ability to respond to emerging national priorities.
The Go8 therefore supports the Australian Research Council’s work to develop more sophisticated approaches to understanding Australia’s research capability. A national capability mapping framework could provide government, funding agencies and universities with a clearer understanding of Australia’s research strengths, emerging opportunities and potential capability gaps. Such a framework would assist strategic decision-making across the national research system while preserving institutional autonomy.
Importantly, this should be a strategic and light-touch exercise.
Australia should not recreate a resource-intensive process equivalent to the former Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) framework. Any future capability mapping exercise should make maximum use of existing data sources, contemporary analytics and emerging ARC capability measures while minimising administrative burden on universities.
Research training must remain central
The Go8 considers it essential that higher degree by research training remains a defining characteristic of university research activity.
Research training is fundamental to Australia’s future productivity, innovation and sovereign capability. A highly trained research workforce increasingly contributes across business, government, industry and the broader economy. Research specialisation that is disconnected from higher degree by research training would ultimately weaken the pipeline of talent that underpins Australia’s future research and innovation capacity.
Any revised research requirements should therefore continue to recognise research training as a core element of research capability. Universities undertaking specialised research activity should demonstrate an active research training environment, including HDR supervision, completion and workforce development outcomes.
Both the Universities Accord and Ambitious Australia, recognised research training and workforce development as critical components of a modern knowledge economy and an effective national innovation system.
Conclusion
The Go8 supports reforms that enable universities to build greater depth, scale and excellence in areas of strategic strength.
The Threshold Standards have an important role in assuring institutional research quality and capability. At the same time, broader processes led by government and national research agencies will be required to provide strategic oversight of Australia’s research capacity as universities pursue greater differentiation.
Together, these reforms can support a more diverse, sustainable and strategically aligned research system, strengthening both institutional excellence and Australia’s long-term innovation, productivity, prosperity and sovereign capability.
