ANU vice chancellor Brian Schmidt open to restarting negotiations with the Ramsay Centre

Brian Schmidt says he is open to restarting negotiations with the Ramsay Centre on a course — subject to some conditions.

ANU chancellor Gareth Evans. Picture: Kym Smith

The vice chancellor of the Australian National University says he would be open to restarting negotiations with the Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation on a course if they “completely rethink how they approach” an agreement with the university.

Brian Schmidt said while he believes the Ramsay Centre’s goal — to fund a western civilisation-themed degree — is “a great thing for Australia”, the board of the Centre sought too much influence over the course and its teaching.

“I don’t mind controversy, universities are open to ideas — that is our whole point. But, if the Ramsay Centre wants to say, ‘you will teach a class or degree in this way’, then that is a breach of academic autonomy,” Professor Schmidt told ABC Radio’s AM.

“We do not hold grudges, we take every donor on their merit. We’re happy to work with almost anyone provided they respect the university’s autonomy. If the Ramsay Centre is prepared to completely rethink how they approach this, absolutely.”

Professor Schmidt’s comments come as ANU for the first time provides ­detailed reasons for its decision to walk away from negotiations with the Ramsay Centre, painting the would-be benefactor as a micro­manager that sought to veto curriculum decisions and check on lecturers hired to deliver a proposed course.

Professor Schmidt conceded it was an article in The Weekend Australian by celebrated historian Geoffrey Blainey that prompted him and ANU Chancellor Gareth Evans to explain the university’s decision.

“Nothing has done so much to transform the world in the past 400 years as Western civilisation. It is a main cause of the rise of democracy, the spread of education, the dissemination of Christianity to new continents and the flowering of various fine arts,” Professor Blainey wrote. “This is the problem facing the leading university in Canberra. Its leaders have so far been unable “to explain themselves in the public square”.”

Professor Schmidt told the ABC today: “Professor Blainey wrote a cogent argument why it was time to get out, and so we have been circumspect to allow the Ramsay Centre to get on with its business, we really do think what they want to do on the larger scale is a great thing for Australia.”

Breaking his public ­silence over the collapse of the multimillion-dollar deal, ANU chancellor Mr Evans has also accused the philanthropic group of removing “academic freedom” from a list of shared objectives that were to underwrite the course — a claim that is at odds with the Ramsay’s Centre’s public comments about ­respecting academic freedom and university autonomy.

The disclosure, made by Mr Evans and Professor Schmidt in an opinion article published in The Australian today, will provide further ­ammunition to opponents of the John Howard-chaired Ramsay Centre as it seeks alternative university partners to ­establish courses and scholarship programs to advance the study of Western civilisation.

Professor Brian Schmidt, vice chancellor of the Australian National University. Picture: Aaron Francis

The ANU has weathered ­extensive criticism over its June 1 decision to walk away from talks with the centre, citing concerns over academic autonomy but ­declining to provide further ­details. The academics’ union and students had also ­lobbied the university to dump the proposed course.

The latest political attack on the university came from Australian Conservatives leader Cory Bernardi, who sought to move a motion in the Senate yesterday, calling on the university to reconsider its opposition to hosting the Ramsay Centre course “in the interests of celebrating Western civilisation’s foundational contributions to Australia”. The motion was ­narrowly defeated.

The centre was established with a bequest from the ­estate of the late healthcare mogul Paul Ramsay as a “huge opportunity” to enrich the study of the humanities in Australia.

According to Mr Evans and Professor Schmidt, the univer­sity was initially willing to accept the centre having a voice in curriculum design and staffing ­appointments, “but only a voice, not a controlling ­influence”.

“From the outset … the centre has been locked into an extraordinary prescriptive micromanagement approach to the proposed program, unprecedented in our experience, ­embodied in a draft ­mem­or­an­dum of understanding (MOU) for some 30 pages with another 40 pages of detailed ­annexures,” they write.

“It has insisted on a partnership management committee, with equal numbers from both the Ramsay Centre and ANU, and as such holding an effective veto over ANU decisions.”

According to Mr Evans and Professor Schmidt, the Ramsay Centre had rejected the university’s draft curriculum, quibbled over the proposed name of the degree — Western Civilisation Studies — and insisted on having its representatives sit in on classes to conduct so-called “health checks” on lecturers and the course.

They also detail the damage done by articles that appeared in Quadrant magazine, in which Ramsay board member and federal Liberal backbencher Tony Abbott described the centre as being ­“in favour” of Western civilisation and claimed that Ramsay staff would be making curriculum and staffing decisions.

Mr Evans and Professor Schmidt reveal the comments “compounded our anxiety” and the university repeatedly asked ­Mr Howard for “public assurances that Mr ­Abbott had mis­represented the centre’s posi­tion”. “But no reply we have received has given us any cause to believe that the MOU, with all its overreach, would be fundamentally revised,” they write.

“It was simply impossible on our side to believe that there was sufficient trust and confidence for the project to proceed without ­inevitable tears.

“The truth is that the Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation simply did not trust ANU — one of the world’s most highly ranked universities — to deliver a program acceptable to it, and consequently asked for unacceptable controls on the university’s delivery of the degree.”

Mr Howard, who is currently in London, has previously said he was blindsided by ANU’s decision and that negotiations had been progressing well.

A spokeswoman for the former prime minister yesterday said he had informed Professor Schmidt that any concerns about Mr Abbott’s comments could be dealt with in a joint statement ­announcing the conclusion of the MOU.

She said that in a letter to the vice-chancellor Mr Howard expressed strong support for the core academic value of freedom of inquiry.