ANU has Western civilisation more than covered, academics say

A review has found the ANU already offers more than 150 humanities courses, including a strong focus on Western history.

ANU college of arts and social sciences dean Rea Frances.

Senior academics from the Australian National University ­recently compiled a list of more than 150 humanities courses now offered by the university to add weight to a proposed expression of interest in the Ramsay Centre’s contentious Western civilisation course.

College of arts and social sciences dean Rea Frances said she and her colleagues had made a long list of relevant courses, from classics through to contemporary politics.

The university has since withdrawn from negotiations with the Ramsay Centre, citing difficulties with academic freedom, but some academics have questioned why ANU would even consider hosting the Ramsay Centre’s course, considering the depth and strength of the courses already on offer at the university.

“Our thinking was that we ­already have fabulous depth in this area, but if we had additional resources we could do it even better,” Professor Frances said.

ANU humanities courses were consistently ranked among the best in Australia, and they regularly ranked among the best in the world.

The Times Higher Education rankings last year concluded ANU had the best humanities course offerings in Australia, and ANU humanities were ranked at No 33 in the world’s top 400 universities.

Professor Frances said most of ANU’s humanities disciplines were now ranked in the top 20 in the world and many were in the top 10.

“In the broad category of humanities and social sciences, international relations is No 7 this year; anthropology is six or seven; history is 14,” she said.

Unlike most universities, ANU has two arts faculties: the college of arts and social sciences and the college of Asia and the Pacific.

The university offered several dozen degrees in humanities and the social sciences, Professor Frances said, and most humanities students were taking two degrees at once, making the most of the university’s flexible double degree plans.

ANU arts and social science students can choose from 50 major subjects and 80 minor subject offerings.

With the current nationwide emphasis on science, technology, engineering and maths, where there is a shortage of skills and a shortage of student interest in Australia, humanities academics could feel marginalised.

Yet Professor Frances said that although the humanities didn’t get nearly as much airtime as the science, technology, engineering and mathematics subjects, there was deep interest where it counted: among students and employers.

“Employers really appreciate the value of the skills that students learn in the humanities, arts and social sciences disciplines,” she said.

“Employers are now saying that they want people who have these broad-based skills of critical thinking, research, adaptability and communications. These are all things that are integral to HASS courses at all universities and particularly at the ANU.”

The ANU’s Humanities Research Centre, again an internationally highly regarded centre, had a vibrant visitor program and ran conferences open to students and often the public, Professor Frances said.

Frank Bongiorno, from the ANU’s school of history, said the quality and depth of the university’s humanities courses was unrivalled in Australia, and it was patently ridiculous to say the Ramsay Centre’s course on Western civilisation would fill gaping holes.

“My own department teaches almost nothing but Western history,” Professor Bongiorno said.

“As I look down the course offerings in my own school, it’s dominated by Western histories of one kind or another, whether it’s the French revolution, Nazi Germany, Russian history or modern European history: we teach all of those sorts of histories.

“The line that we’re somehow shunning Western civilisation in favour of something else … it just doesn’t hold at all.”

He wished ANU had the capacity to teach even more history, such as African histories, or medieval studies, but the university had genuinely solid coverage of the core humanities courses.

“There’s some very deep expertise here,” he said.