Right pans Queensland University for anti-Ramsay Centre history tutorial

A top Australian university has been criticised for singling out the Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation in a tutorial.

Ramsay Centre chairman John Howard. Picture: AAP

A top Australian university has been slated for singling out the Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation in a tutorial about the long-running “History Wars”, asking students to consider the “dangers of too much emphasis upon such histories”.

Undergraduates enrolled this year in the University of Queensland history course, The Australian Experience, were also asked whether the study of history should focus on “the West” and to consider “conservative fears and anxieties” that arise in debates over how history is taught.

A detailed run-down of the course, which is offered by the School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, reveals the John Howard-chaired Ramsay Centre was the subject of a semester two tutorial titled “The History Wars”.

Established in 2017 with an endowment from the estate of healthcare billionaire Paul Ramsay, the centre’s aim is to advance education through the study of Western civilisation. It has recently signed a deal with the University of Wollongong to establish a degree and scholarship program, after the Australian National University withdrew from negotiations amid a staff and student backlash.

According to the tutorial outline, available on the university’s website, political debate around Australia’s history recently reignited over “whether the Australian National University was right to pull out of negotiations with the Ramsay Centre, which offered to fund the study of Western civilisation, albeit with many strings attached”.

Details of the course, which is billed as a broad introduction to Australian history, have emerged in the wake of a report by the Institute of Public Affairs decrying the influence of identity politics in the study of Australian history.

Until this year, the same course ran a tutorial titled Race Under Howard, which explored Mr Howard’s 11 years as prime minister through the lens of “race and citizenship”.

The tutorial, which ran in 2016 and 2017 but not in 2018, ­described the Liberal leader’s ­“defining — and most controversial — legacy” to be his contribution to “race relations”, and how he “was able to capitalise on public anxieties around race, ­nation and Australia’s place in the world”.

Institute of Public Affairs Foundations of Western Civilisation Program head Bella d’Abrera said the outline of the course, The Australian Experience, was concerning.

“Not only is John Howard misrepresented but students have spent an entire ­tutorial attacking and critiquing conservatives,” she said.

University of Wollongong historian Greg Melleuish said it was unclear what the study of Western civilisation had to do with debates about Australian history.

“Its inclusion here just seems to be gratuitous. West versus non-West would be a discussion more appropriate to a consideration of the national history curriculum,” Professor Melleuish said.

Course co-ordinator Martin Crotty defended the tutorial and the inclusion of the Ramsay ­Centre, saying it had been designed to help students understand “there isn’t one political take on history”. “It had been in the news at the time the course was being put together and was a great way to show that history can be debatable,” he said.

“(Students) were free to argue the importance of studying the West or not, and why some ­people might be anxious about the West not being taught.”

The Ramsay Centre and Mr Howard declined to comment.