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The correct decision on academic freedom

At last the Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation is willing to include a commitment to the principle in agreements.

It’s a mystery why it has taken so long. At last the Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation has announce­d that it is willing to include a commitment to academic freedom in agreements that it makes with universities.

Those with long memories will recall that last year, when the Australian National University pulled out of talks with the Ramsay centre­ about offering a bachelor degree in Western civilisation, both chancellor Gareth Evans and vice-chancellor Brian Schmidt said a key reason for the decision was that the centre was not willing to commit itself, in the proposed memorandum of understanding, to “the principles of academic freedom”.

Then, last week, in the MoU released­ by the University of Wollongo­ng for its Ramsay-sponsored degree, there was still no commitment to the principles academic freedom.

The university said it thought it unnecessary, that MoUs did not usually contain such things.

But then most MoUs do not involv­e tens of millions of dollars’ worth of support for a controversial academic program where there is intense speculation about whether academic interference is likely to take place.

And what was the problem in committing to academic freedom, one of the pillars of Western civil­isation? It made the Ramsay centre look like a Christian who didn’t believe in God, or a Marxist who denied historical determinism.

But now at last, as reported exclusive­ly in The Australian today, Ramsay centre chief executive Simon Haines has committed to including a commitment to academic freedom in the final contract with the University of Wollongong, and in any agreements with other universities, should the university request it.

It is a good move. Although there is a hard core of academics in universities who will always be implacably opposed to Ramsay-sponsored Western civilisation courses, others with more reasonable views nevertheless hold reasonable doubts about whether the Ramsay centre will respect academic primacy.

Putting a commitment to acade­mic freedom into Ramsay agreements with universities can only be helpful in persuading them to accept Ramsay funding.

Building more support among academics is important if the Ramsay-sponsored courses in Western civilisation are to succeed­ in the long term.

It is not a good look for the University of Wollongong that it was apparently only able to get internal approval for its Ramsay course by using a fast-track procedure to avoid going to the academic senate­, which usually has carriage of course approval decisions.

At the University of Queensland, its proposed Ramsay deg­rees have been discussed (but not yet voted on) at its academic board. There was noisy opposition and one academic is reported to have argued against the Ramsay courses because it would lead to Young Liberals enrolling in them.

Really? Is there a political test to be a university student?

I’m confident that UQ’s acad­emic board is not influenced by such thinking. It would otherwise be devastating to the university.

But now that the Ramsay centre­ has clearly defined its position­ on academic freedom and said it will formally commit to it in legal agreements, individual academics and university academic boards need to respond with equal seriousness. Both sides might find they have more common­ ground than they think.

Tim Dodd
Tim DoddHigher Education Editor

Tim Dodd is The Australian's higher education editor. He has over 25 years experience as a journalist covering a wide variety of areas in public policy, economics, politics and foreign policy, including reporting from the Canberra press gallery and four years based in Jakarta as South East Asia correspondent for The Australian Financial Review. He was named 2014 Higher Education Journalist of the Year by the National Press Club.

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Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/the-correct-decision-on-academic-freedom/news-story/fdf0a7e6f46e183eef2cdbaf362ff8cd