Curriculum designed to broaden minds

Students will imbibe Western history and traditions — not in a restrictive bubble but as a foundation stone.

The University of Wollongong has released a detailed description of its Ramsay Centre-­sponsored bachelor of arts degree in Western civilisation, and it looks good. It’s a solid curriculum following the model of universit­ies and colleges internationally that specialise in the liberal arts.

The university has also issued documents that reveal the philosophy and motivation behind the design of the curriculum, which gives us a window into the way its new school of liberal arts plans to teach the degree. This also gets high marks. It will be a degree that broadens students’ minds, encour­agi­ng open inquiry.

Students will imbibe Western history and its intellectual trad­ition — not in a restrictive bubble but as a foundation stone upon which to look more widely.

Based on what Wollongong released on its website last night, the new degree fits the demands of our age, in which the Western economic, cultural and political dominance of the past 500 years has been weakened.

Students will be encouraged to do the essential delving into the roots of Western civilisation, and then use their learning as a point of reference to view the world through different lenses — all the time questioning, comparing and contrasting. This is important.

It is also a good thing that the University of Wollongong has ­released the memorandum of understanding it has signed with the Ramsay Centre, which will form the basis for a final contract to be completed later this year.

Transparency in the arrangement between the university and the centre is essential given the strong opposition among some academic staff, and the National Tertiary Education Union, to Ramsay-funded courses.

But there remains a troubling aspect. The Australian National University ended its Ramsay negotiati­ons last year after the centre, according to the ANU, would not commit itself to the principle of academic freedom.

We might have hoped that the Wollongong MoU would offer clarity on this point. Unfortun­ately it does not. In fact, it doesn’t even mention academic freedom.

Wollongong vice-chancellor Paul Wellings says it doesn’t need to. However, many people in universi­ties who do have doubts about Ramsay funding would be reassured if the MoU clearly guaranteed that the Ramsay Centre­ would not have inapprop­riate influence on course content or academic hires.

I don’t draw any inferences from the fact that the guarantee isn’t in the Wollongong MoU.

But as a matter of sensible policy, to ease the genuine concerns of some academic staff, I suggest the centre include it in future agreements with universities.