Attacks on universities are not in accord with the facts

Universities should respond to attacks with the best tools they have at their disposal: rigour, evidence and the capacity to contest.

University bashing, it seems, is back in vogue. The lightning rod for the latest attack has been a decision by the Australian National University not to proceed with the establishment of a Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation.

This judgment call has provoked a barrage of criticism from some who are offended by what they portray as Western civilisation not receiving due recognition in program and course offerings across Australian universities.

Yet the Ramsay case has provided a pretext to launch a broader charge against the university sector as a whole, the hallmarks of which have been blunt caricatures that at times have veered into ad hominem.

A prominent example of this was senator James Paterson’s call for the government to withhold funding for universities unless they maintained the values of intellectual freedom and free speech.

Similarly, in a recent column, Janet Albrechtsen slammed what she portrayed as the moral shortcomings of modern universities in failing to defend Western civilisation, pivoting from specific outrage over the Ramsay case to diagnosing a generic “state of rottenness in our universities”.

In a sweeping assessment, The Australian’s foreign editor Greg Sheridan has condemned the much-maligned humanities as being “on an ideological path of narrowness and anti-intellectualism, and they are getting worse”.

These analyses deride Australian universities as institutions that actively stifle freedom of expression and diversity of views while insinuating that universities have a parasitical relationship with taxpayer funding.

It is tempting to ignore these attacks as the latest wave of invective directed against institutions of higher learning. After all, like Western civilisation itself, universities have copped their fair share of criticism since they set up shop in the 11th century. They have been targeted especially during periods where parochialism and populism are ascendant. This isn’t the first time universities and the people who work within them have been denigrated, and it surely won’t be the last.

Still, universities must consistently push back whenever their standing and reputation within society are traduced.

Put another way, universities cannot take it for granted that their longevity as institutions of higher learning will necessarily safeguard them against sustained ideological assault.

This vigilance is particularly important in the present global context, where anti-intellectual tropes — typically cloaked in attacks on “elites” — are gaining traction. Indeed, many of the recent criticisms of universities in Australia bear an uncanny resemblance to those featuring in polemical outlets such as Breitbart and Fox News.

In the Australian context, it’s instructive to consider the twin themes underlying the current assault on universities.

Of all the accusations levelled against Australian universities, the claim they inhibit freedom of expression is without doubt the most puzzling.

Universities quite literally embody a kaleidoscope of cultural, political and social views. Anyone who interacts regularly on a modern university campus knows that diversity of opinion is not only encouraged, it is expected. Academics are the most refractory of all when it comes to defending their positions, which reflect a mosaic of perspectives.

The assertion that Australian universities are run by a politically correct academic guard enforcing groupthink betrays a basic misunderstanding of how these institutions work as ecosystems of contestation and debate.

Likewise, the insinuation that universities are bastions of taxpayer-funded entitlement delivering little of value does not accord with the facts. In the face of a highly capricious funding environment, universities punch well above their weight when it comes to contributing to society and the economy. This includes the non-STEM disciplines in humanities and social sciences.

In addition to providing educated and well-rounded citizens as graduates, universities make a significant contribution to the economy in many ways.

Graduates earn above-average salaries that deliver higher tax receipts for governments, and modelling by Deloitte shows that the knowledge value generated by universities is equivalent to almost 10 per cent of Australia’s gross domestic product. Cutting-edge university research is a key driver of discovery and innovation that underpins our economy. This is over and above the huge export contribution international education makes to the Australian economy. By any measure, universities yield outstanding return on investment for taxpayers.

Yet, for all of this, sustained attacks on universities by a determined few has the potential across time to erode public confidence in one of this country’s most successful institutions.

It’s time to call out the polemical nature of these attacks with the best tools universities have at their disposal: rigour, evidence and the capacity to contest.

Andrew O’Neil is professor of political science at Griffith University.