Howard warns identity politics will leave history students in the dark

John Howard says the rise of identity politics in history courses at Australian universities is damaging education.

Former prime minister John Howard. Picture: James Croucher

Former prime minister John Howard says the rise of identity politics in history courses at Australian universities is placing issues such as gender and race “centre stage” at the expense of students’ basic understanding of modern society.

Mr Howard said he was not surprised by research released yesterday that suggested identity politics had become a dominating force in university history courses, with undergraduates more likely to take classes that focus on race, gender or sexuality than on the core elements of the ­origins of Western civilisation.

“I think the report is a reminder of how much identity politics has encroached upon Australia’s universities. I don’t argue that such things as gender and race are irrelevant — of course they are not irrelevant — but they have assumed centre stage, according to that report, to the detriment of understanding and knowledge,” he said.

“I don’t know how you can understand modern society without, for example, having proper and full understanding of the Enlightenment. And the Western world without a proper understanding of the influence of ­Judaeo-Christian ethics.

“It’s precisely the drift towards identity politics identified in the report (that) the late Paul Ramsay had in mind when he decided that he wanted to establish a centre for Western civilisation,” Mr Howard said.

The former prime minister is the chairman of the Centre for Western Civilisation, established at the request of healthcare and media entrepreneur Paul Ramsay, who died in 2014.

Education Minister Simon Birmingham weighed in on the debate yesterday, saying universities “should be places that facilitate debate and challenge ideas, but that shouldn’t come at the expense of learning about historical facts.”

Australian Catholic University senior research fellow and the co-chairman of the national curriculum review Kevin Donnelly said the audit, conducted by the Institute of Public Affairs, was a “shocking indictment” on the tertiary education sector.

“I’d also argue it’s happening in other subjects like literature and sociology, it’s not just history,” he said.

The Centre for Western Civilisation is working with two universities in NSW and the ACT to deliver a three-to-four-year undergraduate course, which they hope to roll out at the beginning of 2019, called the bachelor of arts (Western civilisation).

Centre chief executive Simon Haines said he hoped the course would promote the study of the establishment and development of Western civilisation and could combat the notion that the West was “barbaric and decadent”.

Lecturers and historians yesterday defended their courses.

Australian National University history professor Frank Bongiorno said the courses he had taught throughout his career were wide in scope and not ideologically driven. “I don’t think courses slot so easily into the categories (report author) Bella D’Abrera thinks they do,” he said.

Professional Historians Australia president Jill Barnard said: “It’s the skills and the scholarly sort of methods that are important in university history courses.”