margins and mainstream paper

Croker Global innovation and creativity paradigm for CW courses 1

Presented at Margins and Mainstreams: Conference papers of the 14th Annual AAWP Conference 2009

Swinburne University of Technology

Carol-Anne Croker

Creative writing Courses in the Academy: no longer marginalised, and becoming mainstream within the global innovation and creativity paradigm for academic excellence.

Abstract In 2008 the Australian Federal Government released Venturous Australia, a report which positioned creativity central to the Innovation and Globalisation rhetoric. In 2009 the Australian Research Council (ARC) opened access to the HASS sector (humanities, arts and social science disciplines) in a two year pilot period, for the International Collaborative Grants Funding schemes previously only available to the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Medicine) discipline researchers.

Minster Carr is on record as stating that to build a knowledge economy for the twenty-first century and for Australia to improve its export position amongst comparable OECD nations, such a divide between ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ innovation, and the creativity that drives it is no longer appropriate.

For academics, researcher and practitioners in Creative writing programs, as well as for our colleagues in other arts-based or practice-led research disciplines we are now encouraged into the mainstream educational and societal discourses. We are expected to engage with the globalisation imperatives for Australian Industries, including the publishing and tertiary education industries.

In looking at research towards my postdoctoral studies, and research for authoring a chapter for a forthcoming monograph on creativity in a globalised market, I propose that we can no longer be viewed as marginalised within the Academy, nor within the economic and social dialogue about Australia’s future.

Author Declaration:

I am indebted to the collegial sharing of pre-publication research from Associate Professor James C. Kaufman, Professor of Psychology at the California State University of San Bernadino from his now published book The Dark Side of Creativity (2010).

Much of this chapter was presented as a work in progress at the Australasian Association of Writing Programs Annual Conference in Hamilton, New Zealand, December 2009. A previous version of this Chapter is forthcoming in Text Journal, 15(1) 2011 (forthcoming).



Biographical note: Carol-Anne Croker is also a PhD student at Swinburne University. She was the first student editor of the month on the AAWP’s Writing Network site in 2009. Carol-Anne is also Postgraduate Representative for 2009 for ASAL (Association for the Study of Australian Literature) and the Swinburne University Postgraduate student representative on the AAWP. In 2010 she is the Postgraduate student representative on the Swinburne (Lildale)Faculty Academic Committee , member of the Swinburne Student Consultative Network and Postgraduate member of CAPA (Council of Australia Postgraduate Associations).

Her PhD artefact is a novel, Walking with Madness. Carol-Anne’s research interests and experience include women’s popular fiction, feminist fiction, higher education policy research particularly in Creative Art Practice and teaching. As part of her doctoral studies she interned at the Melbourne Writer’s Festival She presented a paper on Chick Lit at the 5th International Conference on the Book in Madrid, Spain, as well as Conference papers for the AAWP and ASAL.

. Carol-Anne has worked as an academic teaching Professional Theatre training, Drama-in-Education, Cinema Studies and Media theory and production. Carol-Anne was also ABC Radio (774 Melbourne) theatre reviewer and worked as an actor for over ten years in Australia and the United Kingdom.

Keywords: Globalisation – Research Excellence – Creativity



For academics, researcher and practitioners in creative writing programs, as well as for our colleagues in other arts-based or practice-led research disciplines we are now encouraged into the mainstream educational and societal discourses. We are expected to engage with the globalisation imperatives for Australian Industries, including the publishing and tertiary education industries.

‘If the arts are to be valued as an integral part of Australia’s national innovation system, we must:

Develop an understanding of arts-based knowledge that connects it to innovation

Broaden commercialisation of the arts and creative outputs

Develop the argument for the arts as social inclusion

Educate an innovative workforce

Meeting these challenges requires further research, sector-wide coordination and leadership.’ (Jaaniste 2008:5)

This response to Senator Carr’s review into the National Innovation System (Cutler 2008) by Brad Haseman and Luke Jaaniste, from Queensland University of Technology outlines the political and social imperatives that will frame the educational debates within arts and humanities faculties in Australia in the coming months and years. For those of us studying and working in creative arts disciplines, especially those of us in creative writing disciplines, these imperatives signify where the academic debates need to focus within our own disciplines, sectors, departments, faculties and institutions as well as more broadly within the International tertiary education market.

I contend that we can unpack this discourse of creativity and innovation to ascertain the broader economic and social political machinations at play (Rogers 1998; Cooke 2009; Stoneman 2007). This paper calls for the de-construction of this new hegemonic tertiary educational discourse, which finds its home within the corporate managerialist policies and mission statements of our Universities.(Atkinson & Easthope 2008; May 2006; May & Perry 2006; Finkelstein 2005; Oakley 2004)

Cropley (2010) asserts that innovation and creativity associated with economic growth has been linked internationally since the Cold War era and the “so-called Sputnik shock in 1957 (Cropley, Cropley, Kaufman and Runko 2010:243). He sees the technological advances demanded by the space race as key motivation for both the US and (then) USSR investing heavily in R &D, with an emphasis on nurturing creative innovation.

However, as correctly noted by Cropley the ‘creativity question’ remained under-defined and under-researched. Until Anderson discussed the problems in ‘harnessing creativity’ the concept of the actual processes of creation and creativity were conflated with the term innovation.

‘Creativity is the gift and discipline that provides the competitive edge – in marketing, production, finance and all other aspects in an organisation. Firms and managers crave it. Awards are given for it.



Incentives encourage and cajole it. But it is still the most elusive weapon in an executive’s arsenal.’ (Anderson 1992:40)

By linking fuzzy notions of innovation with the as yet under-theorised notion of creativity, at least in an Australian context, (and to a lesser extent globally until the last few years of the twenty-first century) and to imply a direct correlation between research and excellence as drivers of national economic prosperity is problematic. (Hecq 2008; Lowrie & Wilmott 2006; Jaaniste 2009; Smart Business 2009).

As Cropley discovered through their research in 2005 by limiting creativity to the production process and marketing of a product is to greatly devalue the broader role creativity plays within society as a whole. It equates creativity and innovation with concepts such as market novelty, which in itself implies an ever decreasing importance within an ongoing development and improvement cycle. This denied some of the core aspects to creativity as identified by Barron (1969), Rhodes (1961) ‘with the focus on the product exclusively among the four Ps (Process, Person, Product and Press). (Cropley:340)

Runco (2010) took this concept further emphasising the person within the process of creativity and innovation, without whom the product and production, distribution and innovation cannot garner economic benefit for a community, company or society.

Similarly, US academic and author Lawrence Lessig delivered a key note speech at the 5th International Conference on the Book in Madrid, Spain in October 2007 (the year Madrid was named a UNESCO City of Literature). His keynote address was focused on the need for global knowledge sharing for future innovation and indeed knowledge production. His solution was to set up the Creative Commons License scheme in 2001, where knowledge workers could freely share and develop further innovative ideas and practices. For Lessig the key to innovation for both economic prosperity between developing and developed nations, and to enhance human capital for the new knowledge economy and workforce was collegial and co-operative, a sort of creativity without borders.

The importance of the role of the artist/creator/innovator was recognised within Australia after the attendance by Richard Florida in Melbourne (another UNESCO City of Literature) ,as guest speaker for the 2004 Melbourne Fashion Festival, speaking on his book The Rise of the Creative Class (2002).This appears to be the seminal moment when Australian policy makers and influential business groups ‘got on board’ with the idea of creative classes, creative cities and creative industries as drivers of globalisation and promised economic prosperity.

‘The creative individual, Florida argues, is the "newmainstream", a creature to be feted by governments and companies smart enough to realise that the age of creativity is upon us…

Cities that accept and encourage diversity - be it racial, sexual or cerebral - are the economic winners of our age, says Florida. Think San Francisco, Seattle, Boston, even Sydney and Melbourne. Gay-friendly, immigrant-friendly, creative and bohemian is the way to wealth. Or, in Florida's neat summation, it's the three Ts - tolerance,



talent and technology - that governments and business should foster.’ (Florida 2004)

Even now after the GFC Australia still features comparatively high up on globalization matrices and graphs according to Florida and his colleague Charlotta Mellander after examining data produced by the KOF Swiss Economic Institute.

[Insert Graph 1]

‘Globalization is closely associated with the level of economic development. There is a considerable correlation (.81) between the Globalization Index and economic output (GDP per capita).’ (Florida 2011)

In Australia, this discourse has taken hold and been privileged in the Rudd/Gillard Federal government’s education and training policy agenda over the last four years. A timeline showing the emergence of this discourse in the public sphere, based on a quick literature overview, demonstrates the need for Universities to engage with the broader industry globalisation initiatives.

With the Australian economy faring comparably well post GFC (Global Financial Crisis) it is no surprise that our policy and economic discourse remains tied to globalisation and gross domestic production, perhaps a coming together Barrons four P’s.

[Insert Graph 2]

Post-industrial, knowledge-based economies are also more globalized. Globalization is closely correlated with human capital levels (.73) and the percentage of the workforce in professional, knowledge-based and creative jobs (.68). (Florida 2011)

For the purpose of charting the interplay of economic discourse, government policy initiatives and global research and rhetoric I have selected what appear to be the most influential documents and papers determining Australia’s agenda for the knowledge economy; leading the Higher Education and Post-Secondary education debates on the desirability of a more highly skilled (read educated) workforce to counter Australia’s ageing population and low birth rates.

[Figure 1 thumbnail landscape required]



In overseas literature, creativity and innovation have been linked for decades.(Sasaki 2004; Swann & Birke 2005, Finkelstein 2005, May 2006; May & Perry 2006; Stoneman 2007). The difference in the in the C21st century discourse illustrates a ‘new paradigm’ with economic constructions of innovation applied to non-science-based disciplines and industries for the first time. Individual Australian state premiers now recognise the Arts sector as economic drivers, particularly in boosting tourism numbers and tourist revenue. One early example is South Australian Premier Don Dunstan labelling Adelaide ‘the Athens of the South’ in the mid-seventies when marketing the Adelaide Arts Festival. However, the reconfiguring of innovation with creativity, into the term ‘Creative Industries’, with explicit instrumental connotations, was yet to appear in the public discourse in Australia until the twenty-first century.

In a paper presented in Barcelona in 2004, Masayuki Sasaki referred to the following diagram to position the Creative Industries as drivers of cultural development and innovative thinking, which in turn drives the ‘hard’ innovations needed for turning ideas to practice.

[Figure 2 thumbnail]

However a model proposed by P Stoneman (2007) on the ‘dimensions of innovation’ has been used by NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) to exemplify the way the innovation-creativity nexus locates the relevance of ‘soft’ innovation as found in the Creative Industries for economic prosperity for creative sectors, cities and regions.


Hecq in her 2008 paper, Banking on Creativity, identified the need to place creativity at the centre of the discourse and indeed education practice within our university sector.

‘Creativity in universities is offered up as a generic skill, no longer limited to practices involving the arts. It has espoused the political agenda that drives the economy to renaissance heights. It is tied in with development, new ideas and, above all, innovation. Productivity, output, cost effectiveness are here buzz-words, not creativity. Thus neo-liberal globalisation remains a significant challenge facing universities and the creative industries increasingly need to play the game of economics in order to be included in the system.’ (Hecq 2008)



The system is conceptualised by Swann, P and Birke, D (2005) and when applied to the Australian higher education sector, with particular reference to the Creative disciplines, the model solves the dualist dilemma faced by universities.


What can be ‘sold’ in the education market as a ‘quality innovative research paradigm’ is also able to meet the needs of the local education market, identified by the Bradley Review (2009).

Extrapolating from the Bradley Review, if we allow students to study where their interest and indeed skills lie, we can address the predicted shortage of skilled labour for the knowledge workforce in the twenty-first century, whilst maintaining competitive rankings on the global quality scales of measurement.

By noting the student-demand and interests shown by Australian Government’s own statistical data, the creative arts disciplines in Australian Universities has experienced growth over a number of years.

Looking at the Australian Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations publication; Selected Higher Education Statistics: Award Course Completions between 1996 and 2007 the change in domestic student numbers in Creative arts fields of study has increased at 3.9%, the second largest increase apart from in the Health fields of study with 7.7% . If we include the field of study classified as Society and Culture there has been a further 2.2% increase in domestic student numbers across the decade. Although slowing slightly the increases have continued in both creative arts enrolments and awards into 2008.


The increase is not confined to domestic students, there is also a smaller, but substantial increase in the number of overseas students completing awards in the Creative arts; a 5.1 % increase. This increase is less than the increase in Hospitality and Personnel Services (460.5%) and 8.8 % increase for management and commerce which can be explained by Australian Government skilled trades training initiatives and priority study/immigration programs. This increase is from a traditionally low base, reflecting the fields’ recent place within University curricula. By ignoring the statistics for the problematic fields of hospitality and personal services, for overseas students, and include the increase for overseas students studying society and culture



fields of research, we can also see a 1.8% increase in these arts-related fields. creative arts undergraduate courses are popular with students, and demonstrate consistent annual increased enrolments and award completions. Therefore inevitably there has been a student driven demand for higher degree programs in the creative arts disciplines.


Thus if the university sector is seeking to educate graduates for a fluid and unpredictable employment sector and industry it seems that graduates from creative disciplines will be highly sought after ‘innovative thinkers’, and even in times of fiscal restraint and cutbacks in government funding, the student drive demand for such courses, and the training in such disciplines should be considered a core education imperative best suited to ensuring closer higher education and industry linkages. Brenner has demonstrated that it is in Australian Industry’s interest to focus on highly creative, and innovative products and designs within an increasingly mass-market global “playing field” for consumer goods.


With the current state of media convergence, content will remain key to information dissemination and knowledge production. Despite the trend towards the democratisation of publishing and the media via wiki-style web content, social networking, text, twitter and print on demand services, what will remain constant is the reader/market demand for trusted and verifiable content. As television did not eradicate the use of radios, nor will the internet and mobile technology eradicate the need for or desire for the codex.

All these new and emerging forms of mass media and publication will share one thing in common the need for content. Thus to marginalise creative writing disciplines, or even severely cut back intakes in this area will not only be financially costly (in terms of foregone revenue) but also short-sighted and lacking in vision on the part of university managements.

In the paper, Describing the creative writing thesis : a census of creative writing doctorates, 2001 -2007, Boyd (Boyd 2009) has determined that the aggregate of award course completions for creative arts doctorates by research has increased over the period from 80 in 2001 to 202 in 2007. The number considered ‘creative theses’ is 199. Thus we can extrapolate that there is an increasing demand for student places within Creative writing higher degree programs which is replicated across the broader



fields of creative arts research and practice in Australian Universities. More research is being done in this area particularly by Dr Paul Thomas at Curtin University and Ms Giselle Kett at the Victorian College of the Arts, but no definitive data is currently available.

‘In Australia, over the past decade there has been a steady increase in both the number of PhD programs in the creative arts and also in the number of candidates enrolled’. (Creative arts PhD Projects Rountable 2008:8)

Given the consensus within the creative arts disciplines, and the impetus to establish a Learned Academy for the Creative Arts, these disciplines demonstrate a significant increase in student demand within our Universities, especially in creative writing programs (Boyd, 2009; Muecke 2010).

[Figure 8 Boyd chart from Text]

If we accept (then) Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd’s imperative in his closing speech at the 2020 summit; ‘to put to bed the false dichotomy between the arts and sciences” it is increasingly important for Australian Universities to recognise the contributions to knowledge made by the Creative arts disciplines. The Government reinforces this new alignment or strategic direction for our Universities, but as yet few have taken this on board in any systematic and meaningful way. There are some attempts to position the discourse within the various University strategic plans but I contend that it is merely ‘window dressing’ to camouflage the lack of administrative will to cater for the HCA disciplines, other than as a source of “bums on seats” and EFTS dollars.

‘Critics of the creative industries idea are fearful that, by introducing into the rationale for supporting culture too great an emphasis on economics, it might marginalise the traditional arts sectors. However, the benefits of mainstreaming culture and media into policy powerhouses of industry development and innovation arguably outweigh the drawbacks.’ (Cunningham 2006: 16 as cited by Perry 2009)

Our universities are slow to respond to institutional change, particularly when it is not tied to additional sources of Government funding in this era of post GFC fiscal restraint and almost universal political agreement to return the nation’s budget to surplus. Given the time lag between implementation of higher education strategic funding initiatives and the graduation of employment-ready professionals and trained employees, it appears ludicrous to make short –term decisions and pilot schemes under the pressure of constantly changing global economic trends and labourforce demands. What the arts and humanities disciplines can deliver in this era of the knowledge economy is highly skilled and adaptable scholars able to meet Industry



demands as they arise. By thinking longer than the next electoral cycle our politicians would do well to see government temporary deficits and increased higher education investment in research and teaching, as a national imperative to remain competitive in an environment where even the experts are unable to predict the nature of jobs, careers and industries emerging in the coming decades.

Thus I agree with Howard (2008) when he identifies our creative industries and education disciplines are caught between “ a hard rock and a soft space”. Perhaps at this time of fiscal restraint and political will for budget surpluses, Perry (2009) might reconfigure this position as being between a metaphorical rock and a hard place, where very little space appears visible.

Bullen et al (2004: 14-15) suggest that the approach taken in relation to the creative industries concept must be cautious, however: The creative industries offer a vibrant, future-oriented, relevant, and, therefore, compelling alternative to many of the arguments marshalled in defence of traditional arts and humanities faculties. We argue, however, that the capacity of the creative industries to respond to the push towards the use of new technologies, commercialization, and collaborative partnerships must be approached with caution lest these become the governing imperatives for humanities education and research policy development.) Perry 2009.

For every step forward in recognition that the creative industries are crucial for the development and nurturing of creative capital, there appears a step backwards whenever the economy contracts with the creative arts and education funding shrinking accordingly. I argue that in Australia there is a disconnect between policy publication and implementation, efficient and valid assessment and critiquing of pilot programs leaving new initiatives designed to bridge the STEM/HCA divide vulnerable and under threat of dismantling at each Federal budget sitting.

Competition for scarce, government competitive grant, research funding pits discipline against discipline; with the Humanities generally fairing far worse in Australian Research Council Discovery and Linkage Grants than the more traditional STEM faculties at around a 20% success rate for applications in a ‘good year’.

The impetus for national and global knowledge creation to break down artificial disciplinary barriers intensifies under times of Higher Education Spending cutbacks, corresponds in Australia with the Corporate Mangerialist University Governance models implanted in the last decade s of the C20th, and remain beholden to quantifiable indices and matrices of ‘quality’, ‘quantity’ and the more problematic category; ‘impact measures’. Existing managerialist metrics remain inadequate for measuring the efficacy of teaching and the periods od data collation far too brief to allow for adequate assessment of impact of less traditional areas of research. This fiscal ‘bunfight’ occurs annually in Australia when the Universities strategic alliances and lobby groups speak representing their Institutional alliances in direct opposition against each others. The recent decision, March 4th 2011 to disband the Australian Teaching and Learning Council, the peak body for researching higher education teaching and promotion of innovative teaching pedagogy, demonstrates the Federal



Governments negligence in implementing pre and post election promises to ensure the quality of university teaching and research into effective teaching. This is another example of such short-term electoral cycle thinking at the expense of larger scale visions articulated in their own research documents and action plans (Cutler and Bradley Reports for example).

In Australia the most recent discussion centres around just how many ways there exist to utilise selectively the ERA (Excellence in Research,Australia) pilot scheme statistics to demonstrate supposed research funding worth and merit. Whilst the Group of Eight (G8) research intensive institutions promote their world ranked standings as predominantly five across many disciplines and fields of research (top end of the 1-5 scale). It could be argued that the quota system set in place to rank journals is skewed to the traditional research disciplines with more highly ranked world journals in the STEM disciplines.

Groups such as the ATN (Australian Technology Network) universities argue that comparisons should be based upon like for like models, taking account of geography and isolation, age of institution and the discipline spreads offered that stand them apart from the G8s, and thus there is less opportunity for publishing in A* ranked journals in their discipline areas, as they are emerging research fields. Murdoch University’s Acting Vice Chancellor, Gary Martin (2011) noted that they have identified several different methodologies to view the ERA outcomes.

Our analysis have been geared towards how we compare to other institutions of similar size and history [and] when Murdoch looked at fields of research rated as four or five as a percentage of the number of areas submitted [author emphasis], it was ranked 11th nationally. Martin (2011)

Similarly an analysis undertaken by the Australian National University, a member of the G8 identified that:

14 Universities did not receive a signle five-star rating, with six receiving neither four or five stars.(Rowbotham 2011)

With there being no similar metrics system to measure and acknowledge teaching and the place of undergraduate education within the university sector, it is unwise to assume that none of the ‘lower-ranked’universities are less than world class in academic standards. It merely points to the emphasis placed by Governmens around the world to value research over the core university function as places of education. Australia within the next two years is hoping to develop a metric based assessment of teaching quality that will provide recognition for the world class education being offered particularly at under and early post-graduate levels of study.

With more and more workplace training being performed within universities (nursing, childcare, primary and secondary education, drafting and design) and the smoothing of pathways between Australia’s two sectors of tertiary education, Technical and Further Education (TAFE) and higher education (degree programs and above) a radical re-evaluation of the (re-envigoured) publish or perish mantra is critical for the



viability of the sector and its ability to stem the flow of highly qualified academics and researchers leaving Australia for more secure tenured postings in other countries.

Regulatory authorities audit the practices of our Universities are currently in a state of flux with the AQF (Australian Quality Frameworks Agency) being replaced by TEQSA (Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency) there exists no consensus as to how Universities will be held responsible for beaches of quality and standards and dispute as to the most effective way such measurement can be achieved. Under the guise of ensuring global competitiveness for our Universities in an increasingly market-driven era, promoted through perceived research excellence and productivity, Australia like many nations developed a pilot scheme to assess and measure research excellence to enable compliance with regulatory frameworks. The Excellence in Research Australia pilot scheme has generated more questions than answers as to how it fits within the larger quality auditing processes.

Whilst learning some lessons from the UK’s RAE (Research Assessment Exercise) and other European Schemes, we in creative writing celebrated the fact that creative output was finally recognised and allocated ERA points, as indicators of research, however this was not mandated under the AQF (nor at this stage under TEQSA). The result was that many universities preferred to market themselves and their research profiles (and scores) as indicated by the Shanghai Jiao Tong index. The creative arts disciplines are virtually invisible on this index as it is reliant upon citation scores and matrices designed to suit STEM disciplines and traditional research methodologies.

So whilst we in creative arts faculties celebrate our artistic output as professional research practice, these same ERA generating publications, installations and performances, do not attract high or even numerous citation indices, under the many bibliometric scheme operating globally. In the case of the creative arts disciplines (including creative writing), there is no policy imperative to recognise academic staff’s creative work as research output or research equivalency even within the newly defined Excellence in Research Australia. Some Universities have moved their bibliometrics to include these works but some have not.

There still exist no formal sanctions for non-compliance in this area. The current educational debates focus on how precisely the ERA scores and metrics will be encompassed within or represented within the TEQSA regulations and sanctions if at all. If academic–practitioners’ creative work in the creative arts remain unrecognised and undervalued, how can the disciplines ensure that students are taken seriously, despite Cutler’s determination that “Australia’s innovation policy needs to acknowledge and incorporate the role of the creative and liberal arts”(Cutler 2008:48) for the National benefit?

Similar difficulties have been identified by Boyd points out in her article even identifying and measuring our higher degree completion rates and creative output, including post-graduation publication remains virtually impossible to collate.

There is no universal classification of creative writing PhDs on the Australian Digital Theses Program website and many are missing altogether to be found only on university school websites or library



catalogues, albeit with often limited information. Also, classification criteria for theses ranges from: which supervisor the candidate worked with, to the form of the thesis or the type of award. The records are cryptic and incomplete and I mapped my journey, metaphorically speaking, through the research process by marching down dead end roads, finding new routes and peering at broken street signs. There is no central place where all creative writing PhDs can be found and no sure way of searching them all out. (Boyd 2009)

Luke Jaaniste, Research Fellow in Queensland University of Technology’s Creative Industries Faculty, states, “This response holds the perspective that the creative arts and broader humanities (HASS sector) can drive, produce, apply and diffuse innovation, in different but equally useful ways to the STEM sector... it does not adequately follow this through in the substance of its discussions and recommendations.” (Jaaniste 2008)

Late in 2008 the Australian Academy of Humanities organised a travelling roadshow to target the research success rates of HASS discipline competitive grant applications. Based upon the Federal Governments innovation agenda to bridge artificial disciplinary boundaries between STEM and HASS, and even across disciplinary silos within each research division, a two year pilot scheme was launched to encourage the HASS disciplines to look broadly at what could be conceptualised as ‘scientific research’away from predominantly quantitative studies towards more humanistis qualitative studies suited to the disciplines. Universities were actively encouraged to engage with emerging research nations in co-operative research collaborations under the existing International Science Linkage Scheme.

These “new” destinations, particularly collaboration with the ‘emerging’ research nations, (India, China and South America) together with a re-invigourated discourse with interdisciplinary focus between Arts disciplines was viewed as the most effective way forward to achieve the Governements innovation policy agenda. This seemed implicit within the pilot ERA field of research codes for the HCA sector (humanities and creative arts sector) encouraging ‘cross, intra, and multi-disciplinary research between humanities, social sciences and arts disciplines. Suddenly a new source of funding was opened up for the HASS sector to boost their research output and rankings.

This new research initiative underpinned by the Government’s rhetoric of globalisation was administered by the Australian Academy of Humanities. At the time of writing this paper the pilot programs have concluded or are concluding within the coming months but as yet there is no written reporting available to examine the efficacy of this pilot funding scheme.

Unfortunately changes in the Higher Education sector are at the behest of the Federal government and with Labour holding a tenuous position in a hung parliament reliant on independents and the minority party for the passage of legislation through both lower and upper houses, such radical shifts in higher education funding becomes lost within the more conservative calls for ALL Industries to be increasingly positioned as product driven with export earning capacity. It is the contention of this paper that



within changing global political and economic cycles such bold and new inclusive education paradigms should be kept at the forefront of the national political debate.

In creative arts disciplines, particularly in creative writing, it is critical that Universities heed these shifts in educational policy, as the future Government funding initiatives demand a broadening of the education being provided and indeed marketed to both the domestic and international students. It is the contention of this paper that the HCA (Humanities and Creative Arts ERA cluster) disciplines are well suited to capitalise on the development of niche education markets, both at home and abroad. To quote Deakin University’s Douglas Kirsner “…journal rankings, part of the ERA measures, had created an “aura of false objectivity”.” (as reported by Rowbotham 2011)

Universities are being forced to second-guess the Government funding moves and foci as expressed by Murdoch University Vice Chancellor Gary Martin stating publically that

‘…among his strategic priorities for this year and “arguably the most important one of those” was positioning, re-positioning and consolidating research activites as a result of ERA’ (as reported by Rowbotham 2011)

This form of manageralist game playing makes those in the HASS sector even more vulnerable of substantial funding cuts, restrictions to research grants and even loss of program offerings should our student popularity wain, at the time when longer term strategic thinking and recognition of transferrable skills and humanities recognised as the science it remains. Professor Martin goes on to say, in the same newspaper feature article that, “in some instances we will look to disinvest in areas of research which have not met international standards” when the very metrics employed and classification system surrounding it remains clouded in obscurity and inbuilt discrimination against the HASS disciplines.

As one of the few nations to have weathered the GFC, Australian Higher Education Policy has no rational reason to discontinue the positive movements, (especially for the HCA ERA fields of research) of the past ten years.

It is the contention of this paper that the imperative is even stronger now for Australia to engage globally with universities, research institutes and centres of excellence to move to the prototype university servicing ‘knowledge without borders’ with the tyranny of distance for us in the southern hemisphere being confined to history. We are educating a new generation, through new technologies at a time of expanding knowledge demands and provision, both of content (ideas) and skills (creative thinking and innovation).

The international and global education agenda as outlined in the policy document from the Australian Federal Government’s Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research; Powering Ideas: An Innovation Agenda for the Twenty First Century, value is now to be recognised for research proposals and projects that enhance international co-operation and collaboration between individual researchers and discipline clusters across like-minded global partners.i These global partners are



located in worlds rapidly growing economies of Asia where there already existi models for research collaboration in place under the Science Division’s Co-operative Research Centres. These CRC’s charter is to:

‘To deliver significant economic, environmental and social benefits to Australia by supporting end-user driven research partnerships between publicly funded researchers and end-users to address clearly articulated, major challenges that require medium to long term collaborative efforts.

The CRC Program links researchers with industry to focus R&D efforts on progress towards utilisation and commercialisation. The close interaction between researchers and the users of research is a key feature of the Program. Another feature is industry contribution to CRC education programs to produce industry-ready graduates. To date there have been a total of 168 CRCs.

There are currently 48 CRCs operating in 6 sectors: environment (10), agriculture and rural-based manufacturing (14), information and communication technology (5), mining and energy (4), medical science and technology (8) and manufacturing technology (7)’. (Government of Australia 2009)(Government of Australia 2009)

Despite the apparent primary target being the existing six CRC sectors and generally seeking research relationships across the emerging economic giants of the world economy, there is also the imperative to continue Australian involvement in developing collaborations and alliances with our Asia Pacific Partners. Japan, Indonesia. Chile and Brazil were recently identified at a meeting between ‘interested’ academic members of the Australian Academy of Humanities and the DIIR National roadshow at Melbourne University in May 2009.

Dr Jon Lewis, Manager of the Asia, Pacific and Africa International Science Branch of the Science and Research Division (of the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) encouraged all researchers from all disciplines within the HCA sector to investigate and take advantage of these grant schemes as the Minister Kim Carr has publicly indicated that the “false dichotomy” between the Arts and Sciences serves no purpose under Federal Government’s notion of innovation and research. The old privileging of the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) disciplines in the academy cannot meet the Nations needs for innovation. The idea of ‘hard’ innovation constrains and ignores the ‘soft’ innovation found in non STEM disciplines, ‘as if creativity is somehow this thing that only applies to the arts, and innovation is this thing over here which applies uniquely to the sciences, or technology, or design.’ (Cutler 2008:47)

The ramification of this shift in focus challenges ‘the ‘great cultural divide’ that needs rethinking, between the realm of the conceptual, the intellectual [on the one hand] and the artisan and craftsman [on the other]’ (Jaaniste citing Venturous Australia 2008:48)



Therefore, Universities must reconfigure their own disciplinary structures and search out new research synergies.

[ Figure 9 thumbnail]

Cooke, P 2009, ‘Inside the ‘Black Box’ of Innovation: New Metrics for New Models’

Phil Cooke’s 2009 presentation to the Research Workshop on ‘Innovation and Learning in Global and Local Economies: the Importance of Explicit and Tacit Knowledge Flows’ at the Basque Institute of Competitiveness in San Sebastian, Spain clearly articulates the economic value and policy imperatives to position ‘soft innovation’ as situated in the Creative arts Industries and education disciplines.

The opportunities for exploring uncharted research terrain and pedagogy within the creative writing discipline has never been more encouraged or supported under a [life] raft of new funding schemes and additional openings within previously limited and targeted schemes (Croker & Carthew 2010). We now have an imperative to expand our existing national and international collaborative research linkages. We are encouraged to launch cross and interdisciplinary research to enhance both academic credibility for the discipline and to ensure direct practical applications within our Industry sector and communities.

For Australia’s dual sector universities (Technical and Further Education & Higher Education), the opportunity is present to position themselves as Australia’s, and indeed the world leaders in Creative Industry-linked education, by using the now accepted, (academically and structurally), and highly sought after (by students), practice-led research pedagogy and theorising.

Powering Ideas: an innovation agenda for the Twenty-first century, (Senator Kim Carr 2009), correctly links Australia’s economic prosperity with the development of an educated and highly skilled workforce. This skilled workforce is aspired to by all OECD nations in the current quest to build ‘knowledge economies’ more adaptable to technological and scientific change than previous workforces.

By challenging traditional conceptions of what constitutes ‘academic knowledge’, the ‘innovation agenda’ stresses the importance of the synergies between education (particularly tertiary education), culture, arts, science and technology.

It is within this conceptual framework that Australia is pushing ahead with reforms to all levels of education; early childhood, pre-school, primary, secondary and tertiary, articulated in the 2009 budget response found in the Cutler Review into the National Innovation System (Venturous Australia); the subsequent Powering Ideas report, and finally, the Bradley Review into Higher Education. These three policy documents tie together Industry, Education and Social policy agendas for C21st.

Each Government document stresses:

the need for dismantling false disciplinary boundaries, especially those that form the science/humanities divide,



the need to view education as an Industry (from cradle to grave or as is the favoured buzz words; “life-long learning”) ,

the need to provide skilled knowledge workers for growth export industries, and positions education as an export commodity especially throughout the Asia Pacific region.

At the same time as pointing towards new economic alliances in the Asia-Pacific, these reports also look towards the ‘old world’, as represented by the OECD and UNESCO. The OECD reports on Higher Education and indeed, into the education sector more generally, there exists a common master discourse driving policy formulations and government interventions. Whilst attempting to reconceptualise the imperatives for economic development and sustainability by seeking answers from the education sector and its research experts there is a space created where culture, nation and region can be identified.

The Humanities and Social Sciences must have their research work judged alongside the research generated by ‘hard sciences’. In Australia with the ERA (Excellence in Research Australia), in the UK’s RAE (Research Assessment Exercise) and in Asia with the Taiwan Humanities Index, creative works are allowed ‘research points’ and recognition . The nexus between innovation and practice as driven by both ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ research/innovation cannot ignore the role played by our non-science based disciplines in mapping human history, social change and cultural development.

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margins and mainstream paper

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creative writing thesis