Industry & ResearchNews
UQ defends coal seam gas centre
The head of a new research centre says the University of Queensland is not prepared to stand by and just watch as a new energy source is developed. Susan Woodward reports.
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The public (in the form of the taxpayer, not activist students) has been underfunding universities for years. Consequently, universities are forced to look for other sources of funding in order to retain employment for essential research staff.
The private sector provides some funding, but, of course, wants to have a say in how their money is spent, just as much, and with quite as much right, as does the public.
The public should be content with having its say limited according to its funding contribution. It can hardly expect to pay the minimum while getting the maximum say in the decisionmaking process.
Furthermore, if the public demands the right to veto what universities research, then the universities won’t be doing independent research either. Universities will effectively be forced into smaller and smaller fields of research, because research will be limited to fields which the “public likes”.
That is not research.