OAF Beard with colleague Lz Bare published, “What we know and don’t know about casual professional staff in Australian Universities.’
OAF Larkins published three papers: ‘Australian Universities 2022 Expenditure on R&D Continues to Decline as a Percentage of GDP’here. ‘The 2024 Financial Health of Five Major Australian Universities – Record Recovery from Pandemic Complete but Headwinds Ahead?’here. ‘Australian Group of Eight Universities Decade Comparative Performance – Student Enrolments’here.
OAF White has published with fellow Professor Richard Eckard, To offset or Inset – That is The Question, which challenges claims that soil carbon sequestration that been heavily promoted as a climate mitigation strategy by the Australian Government exaggerates its potential effect. The practical mechanism is through farmers undertaking a soil carbon farming project to earn carbon credits under the Australian Carbon Credit Unit Scheme. Undoubtedly there are agronomic and environmental benefits for farmers to improve soil health through increasing their soils’ organic matter. But there are significant drawbacks to farmers selling carbon credits to buyersto use as offsets for their own greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, rather than retaining or ‘insetting’ their valuable carbon to reduce the emission intensity of their own produce, which would make them preferred suppliers in national and international markets.
Celebratory booklet of the OAFS 10th AnniversaryA summary and photo booklet, duly indexed in the National Library Collection and traceable through its ISBN, that commemorates the first decade of the Society of Old Agriculture Fellows.
Australian Universities Engagement and Impact Performance Evaluation to be Remodelled: How? by OAF Larkins, published by the Centre for the Study of Higher Education. The Australian Government response to the Review of the Australian Research Council Act 2001 was released in August 2023 (1,2). The Minister for Education Jason Clare agreed with nine of the ten recommendation and agreed in principle with the tenth. The tenth recommendation related to the Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) and Engagement and Impact (EI) exercises. The Government announcement stated that they ‘will not continue ERA and EI in their current form’ whereas the review team led by Professor Margaret Sheil recommended that the exercises ´be discontinued’. The Minister for Education has directed the Universities Accord Panel, led by Professor Mary O’Kane (3), to make by December 2023 recommendations on a new model for ‘measuring impact and engagement in university research’ BUT seemingly not for assessing excellence.
Agricultural Innovation & Education, was published in the Academy of Technological Sciences & Engineering by OAF Falvey in IMPACT 215: 2-5. STEM remains a foundation of agricultural and food science education and research. Today it relies more than ever on efficient coordination between scientific organisations. Perhaps the best Australian example is the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI) in Queensland. Other states have various approaches and in the case of the major production and exporting state of Victoria, more advanced coordination is needed between its four providers- namely LaTrobe University and The University of Melbourne, the state government department and CSIRO’s food research. Coordination of programs and capacity-building in these institutions is ripe for enhancement through a Victorian agriculture and food precinct initiative.
Additional Papers Involving OAFS Janet Beard and Teresa Tjia:
Published by Centre for Study of Higher Education
What happened to casual academic staff in Australian public universities in 2020? Elizabeth Baré, Janet Beard and Teresa Tjia (2023). Occasional Paper Series
Casuals took the pandemic jobs hit (5 April 2023). Elizabeth Baré, Janet Beard and Teresa Tjia. Campus Morning Mail.
Professional staff work in Australian higher education; questioning the 30 year legacy of the first Accord. (Nov 2022). Elizabeth Baré, Arnaldo Barone and Janet Beard. Fellow Voices – Centre for the Study of Higher Education, Faculty of Education, University of Melbourne.
Alleviating the human cost of COVID-19 in Australian universities. (Nov 2021). Elizabeth Baré, Janet Beard and Teresa Tjia. Fellow Voices.
A fork in the road for university enterprise bargaining? (Apr 2021). Elizabeth Baré, Ian Marshman, Teresa Tjia and Janet Beard. Fellow Voices.
Does the COVID-19 emergency create an opportunity to reform the Australian university workforce? (Jan 2021). Elizabeth Baré, Janet Beard, Ian Marshman and Teresa Tjia. Fellow Voices.
Lessons to inform post COVID-19 university professional services. (Aug 2020). Elizabeth Bare, Janet Beard and Teresa Tjia. Fellow Voices.
Casual university staff – not one size fits all. (Jul 2020). Elizabeth Bare, Janet Beard and Teresa Tjia. Fellow Voices.
Does the extent of casualisation of the Australian academic workforce provide flexibility to beat the COVID-19 hit? (May 2020). Elizabeth Baré, Janet Beard and Teresa Tjia. Fellow Voices.
Published by Campus Morning Mail
The professional staff model in universities was designed 30 years back – a bit has changed since then (3 November 2022). Elizabeth Baré, Arnaldo Barone and Janet Beard.
Enterprise bargaining is about to begin: it can make big differences. (29 April 2021). Elizabeth Baré, Ian Marshman, Teresa Tjia and Janet Beard.
Five ways to create a modern university workforce – The structure of the HE workforce is now decades old and unfit for purpose – the pandemic creates the opportunity for change. (29 Jan 2021). Elizabeth Baré, Janet Beard, Teresa Tjia.
University responses to COVID-19: reacting to a crisis, planning for the long-term. How universities are responding and what they will do next. (29 Sep 2020). Teresa Tjia , Ian Marshman, Janet Beard and Elizabeth Baré.
Ten ways for unis to achieve lasting change in professional services. Retrenching staff can save money in the short-term, but staff numbers bounce back. Rather than retrench universities should invest. (10 Aug 2020). Elizabeth Baré, Janet Beard and Teresa Tjia.
Casual learning and teaching staff: essential not expendable. Transforming their roles to improve universities post COVID-19. (27 May 2020). Liz Baré, Janet Beard and Teresa Tjia.
Published by The Conversation
Unis offered as few as 1 in 100 casuals permanent status in 2021. Why aren’t conversion rules working for these staff? (10 Dec 2021). Elizabeth Baré, Janet Beard and Teresa Tjia.
COVID hit casual academics hard. Here are 5 ways to produce a better deal for unis and staff. (23 Feb 2021). Elizabeth Baré, Ian Marshman, Janet Beard, and Teresa Tjia.
As universities face losing 1 in 10 staff, COVID-driven cuts create 4 key risks. (28 Sep 2020). Ian Marshman, Elizabeth Baré and Janet Beard.
Published by Times Higher Education:Covid ‘claims up to 36K casual jobs’ in Australia. Analysts say industrial solutions must be adopted to wean universities off their dependence on casual staff.(26 Nov 2020). Elizabeth Baré, Teresa Tjia and Janet Beard.
Published by OAFs Before September 2023
A proposal to address the need and opportunity to improve agricultural research and education in Victoria has been published by OAF Falvey who was also interviewed on the ABC Country Hour (starts at 15.00 and goes to 25.17 – 10 minutes) with some phone-in comments later. As the most important agricultural State, Victoria has long been home to two universities conducting agricultural research and education, a respected government department of agriculture, and CSIRO food research. The resources, capacities and programs of these institutions can be better coordinated. The State initiative to grow an agriculture and food precinct will benefit from an efficient means of coordinating the resources, capacities and programs of the three institutions. A study is proposed to consider means to effect such coordination in a manner that would use current, and attract additional, funding to this highly productive sector.
The Role of Agriculture in the Australian Government’s Emission Reduction Fund has been published by OAF White in the journal Advances in Environmental and Engineering Research where Australia’s Emissions Reduction Fund reliance on soil carbon sequestration is compared to the constraints imposed by the unreliability of Australian rainfall, the high cost of project management relative to the value of a C credit, and the opportunity cost of maintaining an approved land management for at least 25 years.
The Role of Soil Carbon Sequestration as a Climate Change Mitigation Strategy: An Australian Case Study, by OAF White has been published in Soil Systems. Abstract: Soil carbon sequestration (SCS) is a key priority in the Australian government’s Long-Term Emissions Reduction Plan. Under the government’s Emission Reduction Fund (ERF), farmers are encouraged to change to a management practice that will increase their soil carbon (C) stock and earn Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs). The projections of net C abatement nationally range from 17 to 103 Mt carbon dioxide equivalent annually up to 2050. This huge range reflects the uncertainties in achieving net SCS due to biophysical constraints, such as those imposed by the paucity and variability of Australian rainfall and the difficulty of measuring small changes in soil C stock. The uptake by farmers is also uncertain because of compliance costs, opportunity costs of a practice change and the loss of business flexibility when a farmer must commit to a 25-year permanence period. Since the program’s inception in 2014, only one soil C project has been awarded ACCUs. Nevertheless, an increase in soil C is generally beneficial for farm productivity. As a voluntary C market evolves, the government is expecting that farmers will sell their ACCUs to businesses seeking to offset their greenhouse gas emissions. The risk is that, in buying cheap offsets, businesses will not then invest in new energy-efficient technologies to reduce their emissions at source.
Advancement of grape maturity: comparison between contrasting cultivars and regions, a publication by W. Cameron, P.R. Petrie, OAF Snow Barlow, C.J. Patrick, K. Howell and S. Fuentes addresses the needs of grapegrowers in adapting to climate change in terms of cultivars and planting sites. Grapevine cultivars respond to warming temperature differently and the advancement of grape maturity is predicted to slow as temperature further increases. The significance of the study lies in its demonstration of the diversity in the phenological response of cultivars to temperature, which may be utilised to better adapt to climate change.
The threats of global warming on Australian vineyards: state of play and perspectives published in French as ‘Les menaces du réchauffement climatique sur les vignobles d’Australie: état des lieux et perspectives’ by OAF Snow Barlow and Jacqueline Dutton. The paper provides an overview of the Australian industry and the changing environment so far as it affects grape vines. It concludes that there are serious challenges to the existing approaches including bushfires and their taint effects in wine, and offers hope in terms of ongoing adaptation research.
An everyman’s guide for a landholder to participate in soil carbon farming in Australia by OAFs Robert E White and Brian Davidson and colleague Richard Eckard is an Occasional Paper of the Farm Institute that explains in simple terms the procedures for a farmer to participate in the Australian Government’s Emissions Reduction Fund. It evaluates national and international scientific data on annual rates of soil carbon storage, in tonnes carbon per hectare.30 cm, for several environments, which are compared with some of the exaggerated claims made by commercial aggregators.
Can Carbon Sequestration in Vineyard Soils Provide an Internationally Valid Offset for Greenhouse Gas Emissions?OAF Robert White with colleagues Nick Madden and Alfred Cass have examined suggestions that winegrowers could earn monetary credits by sequestering carbon in their soils to offset greenhouse gas emissions. By distinguishing between carbon sequestration, storage and soil carbon content they have reviewed published literature on soil carbon content and storage as influenced by management practices and evaluated the potential for earning carbon credits in the Australian Emissions Reduction Fund and the California Healthy Soils Program.
Australian university workforce responses to COVID-19 pandemic: reacting to a short-term crisis or planning for longer term challenges? OAFs Tjia and Beard with Ian Marshman and Elizabeth Baré write: Australian universities are facing their greatest challenges since at least the 1930s Depression as a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic. A significant decline in international student fee revenue and public universities’ inability to access government programs like JobKeeper is having a major impact on university finances and staff and resulting in deep and sustained cost-cutting responses. More from the team below: Six approaches to how enterprise bargaining might be done differently see articles here and here.
Does the COVID-19 emergency create an opportunity to reform the Australian university workforce? OAFs Beard and Tjia, with Liz Bare and Ian Marshman write: Universities in Australia and their staff have nimbly responded to the COVID 19 emergency. To ensure the workforce capacity to sustain that response in emerging and radically different circumstances, it is necessary to consider whether the underpinning human resource and industrial relations structures provide the leeway to do so.SoilCarbon_occasional-paper_Aug2021
Global Learning from Asian Agri-history. OAF Falvey writes: Asian traditions are often documented in international literature from a Western perspective. In recent centuries this is relatively unsurprising given the West’s Cartesian orientation and the Industrial Revolution, which originated in Europe. This perspective taken to an extreme can downplay knowledge from Asian traditions and inventions. Agri-history is one example of the wisdom embedded in ancient Asian knowledge that embodies all branches of learning. This paper summarizes a few of the interactions between Asian and Western knowledge and encourages objective consideration of the knowledge that informed ancient practices.
Contribution of postgraduate coursework enrolments to Australian university student profiles and management of the COVID-19 recovery. OAF Larkins states: Overseas student recruitment has been central to a successful outcome, especially over the past decade. The growth in postgraduate coursework students from 2001 to 2019 for 37 universities is profiled in this paper. Because of the high proportion of overseas postgraduate students in 2019, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the financial vulnerability of some universities has been very serious. The capacity to deliver viable postgraduate coursework programs will form an important part of the pandemic recovery.
Soil Carbon – huge potential or complicated high-risk climate solution? Australia’s federal government says soil carbon can play an important role helping to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide. But is this just a convenient brush off to cover insufficient action elsewhere? PhD candidate Thomas O’Donoghue is working on crops and farm management techniques which together can result in build-up of carbon in the soil. And emeritus professor Robert White describes some of the wider challenges in relying on our soils to hold and continue to hold carbon drawn down from the atmosphere. OAF White’s interview begins at 7.47 minutes.
Lessons to inform post COVID-19 university professional services, and, Casual university staff – not one size fits all. OAFs Janet Beard and Teresa Tija with co-author Elizabeth Baré discuss the impact of COVID-19 on transformation of Australian higher education as it attempts to deal with high levels of uncertainty, funding shortfalls and new work practices. What is likely is that Australian universities will have to teach more with less. In the second article they note that casual learning and teaching staff have been and will remain an essential part of the university workforce.
Research funding crisis: imminent and enormous. By OAF Frank Larkins and Ian Marshman. They estimate international student fee decline means $4.2bn less for research and 4 600 FTE jobs gone by 2024. Overall, they warn; “stated baldly, Australia cannot afford the loss of more than 4 600 from its R&D workforce. At a time when increased national resilience, capability and self-sufficiency have become paramount national priorities, such a loss would amount to a national tragedy.”
Is carbon farming an efficient means of offsetting Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions?By OAF Robert White and Brian Davidson. Carbon (C) farming is often promoted as a win-win practice for greenhouse gas (GHG) o sets and improving soil health. However, claims made at the national level for C sequestration potential in the landscape, and at the farm level for C in soil, cannot be substantiated when compared with scientific evidence of measured rates of C accumulation in Australia and overseas.
Does the extent of casualisation of the Australian academic workforce provide flexibility to beat the COVID-19 hit? By Elizabeth Baré and OAFs Janet Beard and Teresa Tjia. Since the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic in early March 2020 and associated restrictions, Australian universities have acted quickly to manage their budgets and focus on the ‘must-haves’, including reducing casuals, hiring freezes, executive salary cuts and deferring infrastructure projects. Further, some universities are foreshadowing redundancies and cutting courses and subjects.
Why can’t we make research grant allocation systems more consistent? A personal opinion, by Roger Cousens. Uncertainty is expected to enter into our grant allocation processes at many points, not limited to those directly involving assessment by peers. The selection of grants for funding is thus prodigiously low in statistical power and will remain so. The replacement of current systems with some form of lottery, as has been proposed, seriously risks weakening the quality of applications. Opportunities exist for agencies to encourage and reward greater clarity and innovation in research outcomes.
Modelling individual Australian universities resilience in managing overseas student revenue losses from the COVID-19 pandemic, by Ian Marshman and OAF Frank Larkins. The predicted revenue losses of 38 Australian universities to 2024, as a result of the decrease in overseas student revenues linked to the COVID-19 pandemic, are modelled in this study. A 2020 outcome and two longer term scenarios to 2023-2024 are modelled. It is demonstrated that the universities face very serious challenges with varying degrees of financial management risk.
Agriculture & Philosophy: Agricultural Science in Philosophy by Lindsay Falvey (TSU Press, Pp321) – Agriculture and philosophy have been parts of a whole across history and remain so. Philosophy informs wellbeing and contentment amidst the vagaries of existence, the primary concern of which has always been security of food. Science, once known as natural philosophy, is a major means of philosophical advance today. Agricultural science is presented as comprising all of these components. Unifying the philosophy, agriculture and agricultural science across cultures and traditions from pre-agricultural times through the European Enlightenment to today, this work builds on neglected ancient insights.
Decade Financial Performances of Five Multi-billion Dollar Australian Universities: 2009 to 2018, by Frank Larkins. Summary: This study reviews the financial performances over the decade 2009 to 2018 of five of the 39 Australian universities. Each one of these five now has annual operating revenues of more than two billion dollars. Their strong financial performance is central to the health of the Australian higher education sector. The University Five (U5), Sydney, Melbourne, New South Wales, Queensland and Monash, collectively had revenue of $11.8 billion in 2018, sourced from a total asset base of $28.8 billion. In 2018 this U5 group accounted for 34.7% of total university system revenues, highlighting their financial dominance. After correction for wages and professional service growth costs over the decade U5 group revenues grew by a remarkable 40.3% in real terms compared with 32.8% growth for the whole university sector. The U5 group and the university sector overall experienced similar decadal total assets growth at 38.6% and 40.0% respectively. The U5 group had more on-going financial liabilities so their total equity grew by 23.4%, while the growth for the whole sector was 30.8%.
Announcing 2019 Crawford Fund Medal Recipient: We are pleased to announce that Professor Lindsay Falvey FTSE, FAIAS is the 2019 Crawford Fund’s Medal awardee, after remaining practically and passionately committed for over four decades to the international contributions agricultural science makes to food security. In his address, Professor Falvey noted the proud tradition and role of Australians in the international agricultural development system, recounted some of the world’s agricultural successes and argued why engagement of a new style of ‘nextgen’ who have strong intercultural and integrated skills, including second languages, is so critical for finding lasting solutions to global challenges. More from ILRI, and youtube video.
Orthodox Soil Science versus Alternative Philosophies: A Clash of Cultures in a Modern Context, by Robert White and Martin Andrew. Abstract: In Australia, orthodox soil scientists dealing with land management and alternative practitioners who promote ‘regenerative agriculture’ have not been communicating and engaging effectively with each other. Over many years, scientists in the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), state departments and universities have made significant achievements in mapping soil distribution, describing soil behaviour and identifying key soil properties and processes that are fundamental to healthy soil function. However, many alternative practitioners are dismissive of these achievements and highly critical of orthodox soil science. Yet many of the tools of soil science are essential to conduct evidence-based research towards elucidating how and why the exceptional results claimed by some alternative practitioners are achieved. We stress the importance of effective engagement and communication among all parties to resolve this ‘clash of cultures’.
Book Review in Historical Records of Australian Science- Agricultural Education in Victoria & the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Melbourne. The Society of Old Agricultural Fellows: Melbourne, 2017. 220 þ x pp, illus., ISBN: 9780975100059 (HB), Reviewed by Andrew J. Turner Veterinarian Melbourne
Historical Records of Australian Science, Volume 30 Number 1
Anyone connected to agricultural education, or who worked in the public agricultural and veterinary fields over 1950 to 2014, will find this book an intriguing read. It is truly surprising to learn how long it took before decisive action brought about reform in the agricultural sector. Only time will tell whether century-old issues have been laid fully to rest. Perhaps universities are the source of good intrigues. There were certainly machinations aplenty in the closure of teaching at the Melbourne Veterinary School in 1927— but that is the subject for another history.
Chapter 4 Food Agriculture and Small Farmers in Asia: the nexus between food demand in an increasingly urban consumer base in Asia and population, development and the environment within the Sustainable Development Goals.
Food for Thought: … our responses to agricultural science education today may be one yardstick by which our contribution to human civilisation is judged … Opinion piece from Academy’s Focus Magazine 207: 44-45.
Male Students Remain Underrepresented in Australian Universities. Should Australia be
concerned? – Gender balance remains an issue, but not in the way that is often assumed.
International Student Enrolments in Australia by Sector in Comparison to Higher Education – Educational services are Australia’s third largest export – trends and risks are important.
Agricultural ERA – A comparison of Australian Agricultural & Veterinary Sciences Research Performance Excellence in Research: 2010, 2012 and 2015, by Frank Larkins
Adaptation of Australian Agriculture to Climate Change – Focus 1706_MagazineScreen – The four challenges for agricultural research in Australia, by Snow Barlow (note OAFS’ initiative of Food & Agriculture Award)
SoilCarbon Critique – ‘Geoderma’: A critique of the paper ‘Soil carbon 4 per mille’ by Minasny et al. (2017) by Robert White
AgriScience Tames an Alien Land. In Boundless Planes to Share: Australia’s Agribusiness Partnership with Asia – Century 21. One Mandate Group; by Lindsay Falvey
Book: History of Faculty of Agriculture & Victoria Agricultural Education: [SEE REVIEW ♥♥♥♥♥] Mentioning Burnley, Dookie, Gilbert Chandler, Glenormiston, Longerenong and McMillan; La Trobe University School of Agriculture, and Marcus Oldham College, the book presents a chronology of Agriculture at the University of Melbourne. Various sites: 1, 2, 3 etc
Agricultural Innovation & Education, was published in the Academy of Technological Sciences & Engineering by OAF Falvey in IMPACT 215: 2-5. STEM remains a foundation of agricultural and food science education and research. Today it relies more than ever on efficient coordination between scientific organisations. Perhaps the best Australian example is the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI) in Queensland. Other states have various approaches and in the case of the major production and exporting state of Victoria, more advanced coordination is needed between its four providers- namely LaTrobe University and The University of Melbourne, the state government department and CSIRO’s food research. Coordination of programs and capacity-building in these institutions is ripe for enhancement through a Victorian agriculture and food precinct initiative.
Additional Papers Involving OAFS Janet Beard and Teresa Tjia:
Published by Centre for Study of Higher Education
What happened to casual academic staff in Australian public universities in 2020? Elizabeth Baré, Janet Beard and Teresa Tjia (2023). Occasional Paper Series
Casuals took the pandemic jobs hit (5 April 2023). Elizabeth Baré, Janet Beard and Teresa Tjia. Campus Morning Mail.
Professional staff work in Australian higher education; questioning the 30 year legacy of the first Accord. (Nov 2022). Elizabeth Baré, Arnaldo Barone and Janet Beard. Fellow Voices – Centre for the Study of Higher Education, Faculty of Education, University of Melbourne.
Alleviating the human cost of COVID-19 in Australian universities. (Nov 2021). Elizabeth Baré, Janet Beard and Teresa Tjia. Fellow Voices.
A fork in the road for university enterprise bargaining? (Apr 2021). Elizabeth Baré, Ian Marshman, Teresa Tjia and Janet Beard. Fellow Voices.
Does the COVID-19 emergency create an opportunity to reform the Australian university workforce? (Jan 2021). Elizabeth Baré, Janet Beard, Ian Marshman and Teresa Tjia. Fellow Voices.
Lessons to inform post COVID-19 university professional services. (Aug 2020). Elizabeth Bare, Janet Beard and Teresa Tjia. Fellow Voices.
Casual university staff – not one size fits all. (Jul 2020). Elizabeth Bare, Janet Beard and Teresa Tjia. Fellow Voices.
Does the extent of casualisation of the Australian academic workforce provide flexibility to beat the COVID-19 hit? (May 2020). Elizabeth Baré, Janet Beard and Teresa Tjia. Fellow Voices.
Published by Campus Morning Mail
The professional staff model in universities was designed 30 years back – a bit has changed since then (3 November 2022). Elizabeth Baré, Arnaldo Barone and Janet Beard.
Enterprise bargaining is about to begin: it can make big differences. (29 April 2021). Elizabeth Baré, Ian Marshman, Teresa Tjia and Janet Beard.
Five ways to create a modern university workforce – The structure of the HE workforce is now decades old and unfit for purpose – the pandemic creates the opportunity for change. (29 Jan 2021). Elizabeth Baré, Janet Beard, Teresa Tjia.
University responses to COVID-19: reacting to a crisis, planning for the long-term. How universities are responding and what they will do next. (29 Sep 2020). Teresa Tjia , Ian Marshman, Janet Beard and Elizabeth Baré.
Ten ways for unis to achieve lasting change in professional services. Retrenching staff can save money in the short-term, but staff numbers bounce back. Rather than retrench universities should invest. (10 Aug 2020). Elizabeth Baré, Janet Beard and Teresa Tjia.
Casual learning and teaching staff: essential not expendable. Transforming their roles to improve universities post COVID-19. (27 May 2020). Liz Baré, Janet Beard and Teresa Tjia.
Published by The Conversation
Unis offered as few as 1 in 100 casuals permanent status in 2021. Why aren’t conversion rules working for these staff? (10 Dec 2021). Elizabeth Baré, Janet Beard and Teresa Tjia.
COVID hit casual academics hard. Here are 5 ways to produce a better deal for unis and staff. (23 Feb 2021). Elizabeth Baré, Ian Marshman, Janet Beard, and Teresa Tjia.
As universities face losing 1 in 10 staff, COVID-driven cuts create 4 key risks. (28 Sep 2020). Ian Marshman, Elizabeth Baré and Janet Beard.
Published by Times Higher Education:Covid ‘claims up to 36K casual jobs’ in Australia. Analysts say industrial solutions must be adopted to wean universities off their dependence on casual staff.(26 Nov 2020). Elizabeth Baré, Teresa Tjia and Janet Beard.
Published by OAFs Before September 2023
A proposal to address the need and opportunity to improve agricultural research and education in Victoria has been published by OAF Falvey who was also interviewed on the ABC Country Hour (starts at 15.00 and goes to 25.17 – 10 minutes) with some phone-in comments later. As the most important agricultural State, Victoria has long been home to two universities conducting agricultural research and education, a respected government department of agriculture, and CSIRO food research. The resources, capacities and programs of these institutions can be better coordinated. The State initiative to grow an agriculture and food precinct will benefit from an efficient means of coordinating the resources, capacities and programs of the three institutions. A study is proposed to consider means to effect such coordination in a manner that would use current, and attract additional, funding to this highly productive sector.
The Role of Agriculture in the Australian Government’s Emission Reduction Fund has been published by OAF White in the journal Advances in Environmental and Engineering Research where Australia’s Emissions Reduction Fund reliance on soil carbon sequestration is compared to the constraints imposed by the unreliability of Australian rainfall, the high cost of project management relative to the value of a C credit, and the opportunity cost of maintaining an approved land management for at least 25 years.
The Role of Soil Carbon Sequestration as a Climate Change Mitigation Strategy: An Australian Case Study, by OAF White has been published in Soil Systems. Abstract: Soil carbon sequestration (SCS) is a key priority in the Australian government’s Long-Term Emissions Reduction Plan. Under the government’s Emission Reduction Fund (ERF), farmers are encouraged to change to a management practice that will increase their soil carbon (C) stock and earn Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs). The projections of net C abatement nationally range from 17 to 103 Mt carbon dioxide equivalent annually up to 2050. This huge range reflects the uncertainties in achieving net SCS due to biophysical constraints, such as those imposed by the paucity and variability of Australian rainfall and the difficulty of measuring small changes in soil C stock. The uptake by farmers is also uncertain because of compliance costs, opportunity costs of a practice change and the loss of business flexibility when a farmer must commit to a 25-year permanence period. Since the program’s inception in 2014, only one soil C project has been awarded ACCUs. Nevertheless, an increase in soil C is generally beneficial for farm productivity. As a voluntary C market evolves, the government is expecting that farmers will sell their ACCUs to businesses seeking to offset their greenhouse gas emissions. The risk is that, in buying cheap offsets, businesses will not then invest in new energy-efficient technologies to reduce their emissions at source.
Advancement of grape maturity: comparison between contrasting cultivars and regions, a publication by W. Cameron, P.R. Petrie, OAF Snow Barlow, C.J. Patrick, K. Howell and S. Fuentes addresses the needs of grapegrowers in adapting to climate change in terms of cultivars and planting sites. Grapevine cultivars respond to warming temperature differently and the advancement of grape maturity is predicted to slow as temperature further increases. The significance of the study lies in its demonstration of the diversity in the phenological response of cultivars to temperature, which may be utilised to better adapt to climate change.
The threats of global warming on Australian vineyards: state of play and perspectives published in French as ‘Les menaces du réchauffement climatique sur les vignobles d’Australie: état des lieux et perspectives’ by OAF Snow Barlow and Jacqueline Dutton. The paper provides an overview of the Australian industry and the changing environment so far as it affects grape vines. It concludes that there are serious challenges to the existing approaches including bushfires and their taint effects in wine, and offers hope in terms of ongoing adaptation research.
An everyman’s guide for a landholder to participate in soil carbon farming in Australia by OAFs Robert E White and Brian Davidson and colleague Richard Eckard is an Occasional Paper of the Farm Institute that explains in simple terms the procedures for a farmer to participate in the Australian Government’s Emissions Reduction Fund. It evaluates national and international scientific data on annual rates of soil carbon storage, in tonnes carbon per hectare.30 cm, for several environments, which are compared with some of the exaggerated claims made by commercial aggregators.
Can Carbon Sequestration in Vineyard Soils Provide an Internationally Valid Offset for Greenhouse Gas Emissions?OAF Robert White with colleagues Nick Madden and Alfred Cass have examined suggestions that winegrowers could earn monetary credits by sequestering carbon in their soils to offset greenhouse gas emissions. By distinguishing between carbon sequestration, storage and soil carbon content they have reviewed published literature on soil carbon content and storage as influenced by management practices and evaluated the potential for earning carbon credits in the Australian Emissions Reduction Fund and the California Healthy Soils Program.
Australian university workforce responses to COVID-19 pandemic: reacting to a short-term crisis or planning for longer term challenges? OAFs Tjia and Beard with Ian Marshman and Elizabeth Baré write: Australian universities are facing their greatest challenges since at least the 1930s Depression as a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic. A significant decline in international student fee revenue and public universities’ inability to access government programs like JobKeeper is having a major impact on university finances and staff and resulting in deep and sustained cost-cutting responses. More from the team below: Six approaches to how enterprise bargaining might be done differently see articles here and here.
Does the COVID-19 emergency create an opportunity to reform the Australian university workforce? OAFs Beard and Tjia, with Liz Bare and Ian Marshman write: Universities in Australia and their staff have nimbly responded to the COVID 19 emergency. To ensure the workforce capacity to sustain that response in emerging and radically different circumstances, it is necessary to consider whether the underpinning human resource and industrial relations structures provide the leeway to do so.SoilCarbon_occasional-paper_Aug2021
Global Learning from Asian Agri-history. OAF Falvey writes: Asian traditions are often documented in international literature from a Western perspective. In recent centuries this is relatively unsurprising given the West’s Cartesian orientation and the Industrial Revolution, which originated in Europe. This perspective taken to an extreme can downplay knowledge from Asian traditions and inventions. Agri-history is one example of the wisdom embedded in ancient Asian knowledge that embodies all branches of learning. This paper summarizes a few of the interactions between Asian and Western knowledge and encourages objective consideration of the knowledge that informed ancient practices.
Contribution of postgraduate coursework enrolments to Australian university student profiles and management of the COVID-19 recovery. OAF Larkins states: Overseas student recruitment has been central to a successful outcome, especially over the past decade. The growth in postgraduate coursework students from 2001 to 2019 for 37 universities is profiled in this paper. Because of the high proportion of overseas postgraduate students in 2019, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the financial vulnerability of some universities has been very serious. The capacity to deliver viable postgraduate coursework programs will form an important part of the pandemic recovery.
Soil Carbon – huge potential or complicated high-risk climate solution? Australia’s federal government says soil carbon can play an important role helping to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide. But is this just a convenient brush off to cover insufficient action elsewhere? PhD candidate Thomas O’Donoghue is working on crops and farm management techniques which together can result in build-up of carbon in the soil. And emeritus professor Robert White describes some of the wider challenges in relying on our soils to hold and continue to hold carbon drawn down from the atmosphere. OAF White’s interview begins at 7.47 minutes.
Lessons to inform post COVID-19 university professional services, and, Casual university staff – not one size fits all. OAFs Janet Beard and Teresa Tija with co-author Elizabeth Baré discuss the impact of COVID-19 on transformation of Australian higher education as it attempts to deal with high levels of uncertainty, funding shortfalls and new work practices. What is likely is that Australian universities will have to teach more with less. In the second article they note that casual learning and teaching staff have been and will remain an essential part of the university workforce.
Research funding crisis: imminent and enormous. By OAF Frank Larkins and Ian Marshman. They estimate international student fee decline means $4.2bn less for research and 4 600 FTE jobs gone by 2024. Overall, they warn; “stated baldly, Australia cannot afford the loss of more than 4 600 from its R&D workforce. At a time when increased national resilience, capability and self-sufficiency have become paramount national priorities, such a loss would amount to a national tragedy.”
Is carbon farming an efficient means of offsetting Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions?By OAF Robert White and Brian Davidson. Carbon (C) farming is often promoted as a win-win practice for greenhouse gas (GHG) o sets and improving soil health. However, claims made at the national level for C sequestration potential in the landscape, and at the farm level for C in soil, cannot be substantiated when compared with scientific evidence of measured rates of C accumulation in Australia and overseas.
Does the extent of casualisation of the Australian academic workforce provide flexibility to beat the COVID-19 hit? By Elizabeth Baré and OAFs Janet Beard and Teresa Tjia. Since the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic in early March 2020 and associated restrictions, Australian universities have acted quickly to manage their budgets and focus on the ‘must-haves’, including reducing casuals, hiring freezes, executive salary cuts and deferring infrastructure projects. Further, some universities are foreshadowing redundancies and cutting courses and subjects.
Why can’t we make research grant allocation systems more consistent? A personal opinion, by Roger Cousens. Uncertainty is expected to enter into our grant allocation processes at many points, not limited to those directly involving assessment by peers. The selection of grants for funding is thus prodigiously low in statistical power and will remain so. The replacement of current systems with some form of lottery, as has been proposed, seriously risks weakening the quality of applications. Opportunities exist for agencies to encourage and reward greater clarity and innovation in research outcomes.
Modelling individual Australian universities resilience in managing overseas student revenue losses from the COVID-19 pandemic, by Ian Marshman and OAF Frank Larkins. The predicted revenue losses of 38 Australian universities to 2024, as a result of the decrease in overseas student revenues linked to the COVID-19 pandemic, are modelled in this study. A 2020 outcome and two longer term scenarios to 2023-2024 are modelled. It is demonstrated that the universities face very serious challenges with varying degrees of financial management risk.
Agriculture & Philosophy: Agricultural Science in Philosophy by Lindsay Falvey (TSU Press, Pp321) – Agriculture and philosophy have been parts of a whole across history and remain so. Philosophy informs wellbeing and contentment amidst the vagaries of existence, the primary concern of which has always been security of food. Science, once known as natural philosophy, is a major means of philosophical advance today. Agricultural science is presented as comprising all of these components. Unifying the philosophy, agriculture and agricultural science across cultures and traditions from pre-agricultural times through the European Enlightenment to today, this work builds on neglected ancient insights.
Decade Financial Performances of Five Multi-billion Dollar Australian Universities: 2009 to 2018, by Frank Larkins. Summary: This study reviews the financial performances over the decade 2009 to 2018 of five of the 39 Australian universities. Each one of these five now has annual operating revenues of more than two billion dollars. Their strong financial performance is central to the health of the Australian higher education sector. The University Five (U5), Sydney, Melbourne, New South Wales, Queensland and Monash, collectively had revenue of $11.8 billion in 2018, sourced from a total asset base of $28.8 billion. In 2018 this U5 group accounted for 34.7% of total university system revenues, highlighting their financial dominance. After correction for wages and professional service growth costs over the decade U5 group revenues grew by a remarkable 40.3% in real terms compared with 32.8% growth for the whole university sector. The U5 group and the university sector overall experienced similar decadal total assets growth at 38.6% and 40.0% respectively. The U5 group had more on-going financial liabilities so their total equity grew by 23.4%, while the growth for the whole sector was 30.8%.
Announcing 2019 Crawford Fund Medal Recipient: We are pleased to announce that Professor Lindsay Falvey FTSE, FAIAS is the 2019 Crawford Fund’s Medal awardee, after remaining practically and passionately committed for over four decades to the international contributions agricultural science makes to food security. In his address, Professor Falvey noted the proud tradition and role of Australians in the international agricultural development system, recounted some of the world’s agricultural successes and argued why engagement of a new style of ‘nextgen’ who have strong intercultural and integrated skills, including second languages, is so critical for finding lasting solutions to global challenges. More from ILRI, and youtube video.
Orthodox Soil Science versus Alternative Philosophies: A Clash of Cultures in a Modern Context, by Robert White and Martin Andrew. Abstract: In Australia, orthodox soil scientists dealing with land management and alternative practitioners who promote ‘regenerative agriculture’ have not been communicating and engaging effectively with each other. Over many years, scientists in the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), state departments and universities have made significant achievements in mapping soil distribution, describing soil behaviour and identifying key soil properties and processes that are fundamental to healthy soil function. However, many alternative practitioners are dismissive of these achievements and highly critical of orthodox soil science. Yet many of the tools of soil science are essential to conduct evidence-based research towards elucidating how and why the exceptional results claimed by some alternative practitioners are achieved. We stress the importance of effective engagement and communication among all parties to resolve this ‘clash of cultures’.
Book Review in Historical Records of Australian Science- Agricultural Education in Victoria & the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Melbourne. The Society of Old Agricultural Fellows: Melbourne, 2017. 220 þ x pp, illus., ISBN: 9780975100059 (HB), Reviewed by Andrew J. Turner Veterinarian Melbourne
Historical Records of Australian Science, Volume 30 Number 1
Anyone connected to agricultural education, or who worked in the public agricultural and veterinary fields over 1950 to 2014, will find this book an intriguing read. It is truly surprising to learn how long it took before decisive action brought about reform in the agricultural sector. Only time will tell whether century-old issues have been laid fully to rest. Perhaps universities are the source of good intrigues. There were certainly machinations aplenty in the closure of teaching at the Melbourne Veterinary School in 1927— but that is the subject for another history.
Chapter 4 Food Agriculture and Small Farmers in Asia: the nexus between food demand in an increasingly urban consumer base in Asia and population, development and the environment within the Sustainable Development Goals.
Food for Thought: … our responses to agricultural science education today may be one yardstick by which our contribution to human civilisation is judged … Opinion piece from Academy’s Focus Magazine 207: 44-45.
Male Students Remain Underrepresented in Australian Universities. Should Australia be
concerned? – Gender balance remains an issue, but not in the way that is often assumed.
International Student Enrolments in Australia by Sector in Comparison to Higher Education – Educational services are Australia’s third largest export – trends and risks are important.
Agricultural ERA – A comparison of Australian Agricultural & Veterinary Sciences Research Performance Excellence in Research: 2010, 2012 and 2015, by Frank Larkins
Adaptation of Australian Agriculture to Climate Change – Focus 1706_MagazineScreen – The four challenges for agricultural research in Australia, by Snow Barlow (note OAFS’ initiative of Food & Agriculture Award)
SoilCarbon Critique – ‘Geoderma’: A critique of the paper ‘Soil carbon 4 per mille’ by Minasny et al. (2017) by Robert White
AgriScience Tames an Alien Land. In Boundless Planes to Share: Australia’s Agribusiness Partnership with Asia – Century 21. One Mandate Group; by Lindsay Falvey
Book: History of Faculty of Agriculture & Victoria Agricultural Education: [SEE REVIEW ♥♥♥♥♥] Mentioning Burnley, Dookie, Gilbert Chandler, Glenormiston, Longerenong and McMillan; La Trobe University School of Agriculture, and Marcus Oldham College, the book presents a chronology of Agriculture at the University of Melbourne. Various sites: 1, 2, 3 etc
Society of Old Agriculture Fellows (OAFS) 