University ‘echo chambers’ condemned by vice-chancellor Bill Shorten
Bill Shorten has broken ranks with the academic establishment to demand universities become ‘safe spaces for disagreement’ rather than bastions of left-wing thinking.
Former Labor and union leader Bill Shorten has used his university vice-chancellorship to condemn extremist “echo chambers’’ and identity politics in academia.
Calling for conservative voices to be heard, the University of Canberra vice-chancellor said universities should be a “safe space for disagreement’’.
“I want universities to be a safe place, not just for progressive ideas but for conservative and progressive ideas to be contested,’’ he told The Australian.
“I think the bulk of university staff vote more Left than Right, but they can’t just be bastions for the Left.
“You’ve got to create places of academic debate where evidence is welcome, and that has to necessarily involve all the sectors, not just the extremists. I don’t want to start bagging everyone in the new world I’ve moved into, but it is OK to disagree.’’
Mr Shorten – a former Australian Workers Union secretary, Labor Party leader and the government minister who launched the National Disability Insurance Scheme – retired from politics to become the University of Canberra’s seventh vice-chancellor, starting in February this year.
He praised Deakin University vice-chancellor Iain Martin for speaking out against woke cancel culture in universities.
Writing in The Australian on Wednesday, Professor Martin – a former surgeon – said universities should focus on quality teaching as much as research.
Calling for respectful and rigorous debate, he said universities had a duty to “make students ready for challenging ideas, not to make those ideas safe for students’’.
Mr Shorten said he had phoned Professor Martin to congratulate him for speaking out.
“I said ‘Good on you.’ I was impressed that he did it.’’
Mr Shorten also suggested that politics has become a kill zone for new ideas. “I think politics goes too far – it’s moved the politics of adversarial debate to the politics of destruction,’’ he said. “I don’t think politics is necessarily providing a safe place to discuss long-term ideas.
“The problem with politics is that everything gets reduced into a ‘no’ campaign, and there’s certainly more polarisation happening.’’
Mr Shorten said universities should be places where people could debate “long-term thinking based on evidence’’.
“I know it’s a woke term but it’s got to be a safe place where well-intentioned people can genuinely disagree without the characterisation of moral turpitude, that if a person disagrees with me that makes them a bad person,’’ he said.
Mr Shorten said the problems in academia and politics went beyond “identity politics”.
“I don’t think identity really captures enough of the problem,’’ he said. “There’s polarisation where people sit in their own echo chambers talking to each other.
“There’s not enough meeting in the middle, where people can actually debate out their ideas.’’
Mr Shorten also backed Professor Martin’s call on universities to value teaching just as much as research. “Academics love research,’’ Mr Shorten said.
“But specialising in teaching shouldn’t be viewed as inferior to research – they’re twin; one’s not better than the other.
“Research is important to every university, and your teaching should be informed by research, but there’s nothing wrong with having universities that are really well-known and rewarded for being really good at teaching.’’
Mr Shorten said universities needed to specialise in offering different degrees. “The problem in Australia is we’ve got 40 quasi-comprehensive universities all trying to do everything,’’ he said.
The University of Canberra, he said, excelled in degrees in health, government administration, the care economy and information technology.
He flagged the development of more short courses – known as micro-credentials – to upskill trades workers and bolster Australia’s construction sector. “I’m interested in how with tertiary harmonisation (between universities and vocational training), we provide a university overlay into the construction sector,’’ he said.
“We teach project management and architecture but it’s a lot easier to teach someone, I would submit, who’s been on the tools for 10 years.’’
Mr Shorten also apologised for $1.5m in wage and superannuation underpayments to 1421 current and former casual staff since 2019, uncovered in a payroll review he ordered this year.
He said the underpayments averaged $406 a staff member, and they were already being backpaid. “I personally felt it was important to inform all our staff and to apologise on behalf of the university,’’ he said.
“Remediation will commence immediately.’’
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