Plan to claw back savings by cutting research funds

The Australian government intends to reduce research grants and freeze funding for university enrolments at 2017 levels in a bid to find savings of around $2.6 billion in its education budget.

Education minister Simon Birmingham has suggested that he will target spending on programmes that can be cut without government approval.

The move follows a lack of progress on his $2.8bn higher education reform package, which remains stalled in the Senate until parliament resumes in February.