UNIVERSITY of Newcastle Vice Chancellor Alex Zelinsky has welcomed the federal government's budget boost of $1billion in new research funding for universities.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg announced the injection alongside $299 million for an additional 12,000 undergraduate places in 2021, to be prioritised according to labour market need, skills gaps and industry engagement, and $252 million to support the delivery of 50,000 higher education short courses.
"This will be important for Australia's ongoing research efforts," Professor Zelinsky said.
"It was good to hear that government recognise the role universities play and the impacts of strong research and development in the economic recovery of our country.
"We will understand how this is going to be distributed soon.
"We also welcome the focus on connecting manufacturing and research in the government's Modern Manufacturing Strategy.
"We will work closely with government on this initiative."
He said UON would "advocate strongly" for a slice of the 12,000 places.
"Our focus in response to these measures will remain on our student experience and supporting them to meet their career objectives. This will enable us to build a curriculum model that embeds work integrated learning and our graduate attributes into every program."
National Tertiary Education Newcastle branch vice president (academic) Dr Terry Summers said the funding for research would "save jobs that were going to go", but the government's budget investment in the sector may be "cancelled out" by cuts under its Job-Ready Graduates package.
Hunter Valley Training Company chief executive Sharon Smith said the government giving businesses who take on a new or recommencing apprentice or trainee a 50 per cent wage subsidy was a "win-win".
