Sarah Hanson-Young: "Code for cuts is what this is." Simon Birmingham: "Sarah, you might love esoteric little papers, but we actually think that it is important that billions of taxpayer dollars going into research delivers things that are of benefit ...

Conor King, executive director of the Innovative Research Universities (IRU), wants the government to know that universities aren't as cashed up as many assume. Also, he contends, the government's other presumptions on which university funding plans are based are false. For example, although ...