ABSTRACT
On 2 July 2005 in The Age newspaper (p. 1), a Professor of Education at Melbourne University was cited as arguing that educational research is irrele vant. This type of criticism is not ne w. The criticism of irrelevance of educational research as a f eld replicates similar charges made in the UK during the 1990s (e.g. Hargreaves 1996, Hillage et al. 1998, Tooley and Darby 1998) and in the USA (Coalition for Evidence-based Polic y 2002). But such comments are, in 2005, recei ving signif cant attention. The restructuring (and funding) of higher education is no w the focus of signif cant debate in Australia as else where. The context is that of declining (real) government expenditure in Australian higher education generally. Furthermore, who funds and benef ts from research is no w at issue, as there is a percei ved need to harness kno wledge production and transmission to better service the national interest. As stated in the Coalition’s policy Backing Australia’s Ability, universities are now central to kno wledge production and dissemination in an ‘innovation economy’ (Nelson 2003).
