research and research training strategic intent 2011 - 2015
UNSW Canberra
Research and Research Training
Strategic Intent 2011 - 2015
Mission
UNSW Canberra provides high quality undergraduate and postgraduate education to the Australian Defence Force at the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) funded by an agreement between the University of New South Wales and the Commonwealth.
Vision
Excellence in research is the backbone of any higher education institution’s capability to achieve excellence in learning and teaching. As described in the UNSW Strategic Intent (B2B), UNSW’s aspiration is to be a leading research intensive university in the Asia-Pacific region. As a campus of UNSW and the only national institution with an integrated defence focus, the aspiration of UNSW Canberra is:
to be one of the top specialist institutions in the world by achieving a significant international research profile, thereby ensuring the delivery of education services to the Australian Defence Force is of the highest standard.
The Operating Environment
Since the implementation of the Research and Research Training Management Plan 2004 – 2009, the research performance of UNSW Canberra has been significantly increased. During this period, the total research output increased by over 120%, the total external research income increased by over 135%, the total number of research students increased by over 105% and the number of thesis completions increased by over 170%. For 2008 and 2009, the number of research output per staff member had exceeded the UNSW average and the research students overall satisfaction in the research students exit survey was the highest among all UNSW Faculties. The number of research students per academic increased from 42% of UNSW average in 2005 to 80% in 2010.
The Higher Education Sector globally is focussed on research quality. In the first assessment of quality of research (ERA) in Australian universities conducted by the Australian Research Council in 2010, there are only 12 universities that have achieved an overall score better than 3 (world standard) and UNSW is ranked 4th by achieving an overall score of 4.04 (above world standard). The contributions of UNSW Canberra to UNSW overall score is equivalent to 3.70 based on research outputs. For comparisons, the University of Sydney has achieved an overall score of 3.83 while the University of Western Australia has achieved an overall score of 3.64.
Strategic Goals
To be consistent with the vision of UNSW Canberra, the priorities are:
To build scale, focus and quality in research by
- retaining, attracting and developing leading research staff to provide research leadership;
- supporting researchers to develop critical mass in key research areas and to attract external funding;
- supporting researchers to collaborate with the best in their fields both locally and internationally;
- supporting researchers with cutting-edge research facilities and equipment; and
- supporting researchers to publish their research achievements and impact in journals and outlets of the highest standing.
To further increase the quality of research students by
- developing strategic research collaborative relationships with a select number of overseas universities;
- providing research students with an excellent research environment (facilities, support and high quality supervision); and
- building supervision capacity by recruiting both senior researchers and early career researchers.
To develop and expand strategic research linkages of mutual benefit with Faculties at Kensington campus, Defence, other government organisations and industry; and
To enhance research and research training support capabilities to support both researchers and research students and to identify and capitalise on emerging research opportunities through developing individual researchers and research teams by
- enhancing and engendering research culture and research community and advising on funding opportunities for strategic research areas; and
- streamlining the process for recruitment, administration of HDR students and student matters, and enhancing services provided to HDR students in the areas of pastoral care, counselling and student activities.
