The Australian | 29 November 2012
Melbourne University’s humanitarian vice-chancellor Glyn Davis has defended funding for the humanities, arguing in an email sent to all staff that “discovery, by definition, means embracing the unknown”.
Davis says “only a fraction” of Australian Research Council funding goes to the humanities after opposition finance spokesman Andrew Robb said that in a tight fiscal environment, it is critical that Canberra put a premium on quality when it comes to supporting research. According to Davis the “principle of discovery crosses disciplines”.
As we discuss this important topic, we need to retain a sense of proportion. Only a fraction — around 1%— of total Australian government support for research and innovation goes to competitive funding for the humanities through the ARC. At the same time, governments around the world, including in cash-strapped Europe, continue to fund humanities research as well as the sciences, underlining the value of humanities research in the modern world.
