Ramsay Centre commits to academic freedom

The Ramsay Centre will include a commitment to academic freedom in any future agreements to fund courses.

Ramsay Centre chief executive Simon Haines. Picture: Hollie Adams

The Ramsay Centre will include a commitment to academic freedom in any future agreements to fund courses in Western civilisation, if the university involved requests it.

Ramsay Centre chief executive Simon Haines said academic freedom was a pillar of Western civilisation.

“We have no hesitation about including an express commitment to academic freedom in ­future agreements with any universities we partner with,” he said.

Academic freedom was not mentioned in the centre’s only completed memorandum of understanding with a university, which was signed with the University of Wollongong last month.

If offered last year, the centre’s new commitment could have made a difference in its negoti­ations with the Australian Nat­ional University.

ANU chancellor Gareth Evans and vice-chancellor Brian Schmidt said one of the stumbling blocks that caused the university to pull out of talks was the centre’s refusal to commit to the “principles of academic freedom”.

However, Professor Haines said yesterday the Ramsay Centre had now decided to specifically include a commitment to academic freedom in its partnership with the University of Wollongong. “In relation to Wollon­gong, academic freedom is not mentioned in the MoU because the commitment to academic freedom was always agreed upon in discussions and clearly implied through the agreement: it is clear the university has control of curriculum, hires, admissions and ­selection of scholarships holders,” Professor Haines said.

“However, the Ramsay Centre together with the University of Wollongong will make an explicit commitment to academic freedom in the final legally binding contract.”

The Ramsay Centre is still in negotiations with the University of Queensland and the University of Sydney. The University of Queensland senate — its highest governing body — will discuss a proposed partnership next Monday. However, the UQ executive dean of humanities and social sciences, Heather Zwicker, has told the university’s academic board that she “cannot report” her staff are in favour of the course.

A leading authority on academic governance has questioned Wollongong’s decis­ion to fast-track the academic approval of its Ramsay degree, bypassing the academic senate and instead relying on direct approval by vice-chancellor Paul Wellings.

Hilary Winchester, a former chairwoman of the academic board at two universities, said she was concerned the process might not be in accord with the Higher Education Standards Framework, which is the set of rules for university regulation.

The University of Wollongong rejected this.