Wollongong Uni intervenes to green light Western Civilisation degree

University of Wollongong’s top governing body intervenes to thwart union bid to stop new Western Civilisation degree.

Jillian Broadbent, University of Wollongong chancellor.

In an bid to thwart a union court challenge to its Western Civilisation course that is due to start next year, the University of Wollongong’s top governing body has intervened to green light the new degree.

The university’s council decided to use its ultimate authority to approve the degree, which is sponsored by the Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation, independently of the university’s regular processes.

In a statement this morning the university said the decision, taken at a meeting on Friday, was intended to remove any uncertainty about whether the Bachelor of Arts in Western Civilisation would begin in 2020 as planned.

The university called on the National Tertiary Education Union, which launched NSW Supreme Court action in April this year in an attempt to stop the degree’s rollout, to end its court challenge.

NTEU national president Alison Barnes responded by condemning the council’s Friday decision, saying it was “another example of the university not following its normal processes, at the expense of academic governance”.

She said the union would consider the impact of the university’s move on its legal case and “decide next steps as soon as we are in a position to do so”.

The council said it took its decision under NSW legislation governing the University of Wollongong which says the council has powers to “act in all matters concerning the university”, and to “provide such courses, and confer such degrees … as it thinks fit”.

The NTEU’s court action challenged the decision by University of Wollongong vice-chancellor Paul Wellings, announced in February, to use his fast-track power to speed the formal approval of the Western civilisation degree, meaning that it was not considered and approved in the normal way by the university’s academic senate which represents academics across all faculties of the university.

The NTEU lodged a claim in the NSW Supreme Court on April 10 to have Professor Wellings’ decision declared invalid and to halt its preparations to offer the degree.

University of Wollongong chancellor Jillian Broadbent, who chairs the university’s council, said today that the council had full respect for the university’s academic process, particularly the role of the academic senate.

“By approving the degree the council has acted in the best interests of the university. It will enable progress to continue despite any continuing legal challenge to the vice-chancellor’s earlier approval decision,” she said.

“The council remains prepared to continue with its legal defence of the vice-chancellor’s exercise of his delegated authority.”

Ms Barnes said today that the NTEU’S case against the University of Wollongong centred on the by-passing of normal academic governance processes which “play a vital role in quality control and are fundamental to ensuring academic integrity and quality”.

“The NTEU is again disappointed at UOW’s disregard for its academic staff and the broader university community,” she said.

Ms Broadbent said that, in taking the action to approve the degree, the council took into account the tight timetable the university faced to launch the bachelor of Western civilisation in 2020 and the potential impact of any uncertainty about the status of the course.

“Following this decision our way forward is clear. I encourage the whole university community to unite in a shared commitment to our legislative objectives of encouraging ‘the dissemination, advancement, development and application of knowledge informed by free inquiry’ and ‘the provision of courses of study … across a range of fields’,” the chancellor said.