Symptoms of the problem include:
1. The dozen or score of economically illiterate books purporting to critique economic rationality, one of them edited by a man who is widely regarded as the leading public intellectual in the land.
2. A collection of papers, workshopped through the Academy of the Social Sciences, that emerged rather like a set of anti-Liberal Party political pamphlets.
3. Widespread incomprehension of the idea of Hayek and classical liberalism. So the leader of the opposition (later the Prime Minister) could launch a public attack on a crude caricature of Hayek without arousing widespread hoots of mirth or gasps of horror from opponents and supporters respectively.
What everyone should know
The point is that nobody can consider themselves broadly educated at present without the same grasp of Hayek’s ideas (in outline, not in detail) that we expect people with tertiary education to have on things like Darwinian evolution; Mendelian genetics; the way that the Copernican revolution and Einstein advanced physics.
Similarly everyone in the relevant fields should be familiar with work of Jacques Barzun on education and cultural studies, Rene Wellek on literary studies, Karl Buhler and Ian D Suttie on language studies, psychology and psychoanalysis, Bill Hutt on industrial relations, Peter Bauer on third world development, Stanislav Andresky on the methods of the social sciences, Ludwig von Mises and the Austrian school of economics.
A Bill of Rights?
The push for the Bill of Rights will generate a great deal of angst without any guarantee of achieving either the Bill or the desired improvements, even if the bureaucratic systems are put in place to support it. Top down intervention is most likely to generate resistance and resentment, to politicise and personalise the problems in a divisive manner.
A “bottom-up” alternative
A non-bureaucratic, “bottom up” alternative is proposed. At the very least this could run in parallel to the proposed Liberal initiative and it should enlist the support of people of good will of all political persuasions. Investigation and discussion should proceed on two fronts; one is the question of course contents, the other is the broad issue of what tertiary education is supposed to achieve.
Taking the second issue first. “Back to school” (Unleashed 2 May 08) revealed, yet again, a great deal of disappointment and dismay over the university experience for many students. The simple fact of the matter is that Australia followed the US experience, learning nothing from it, despite the clear warning in Barzun’s 1968 book on the American universities. The sector expanded too rapidly for the process of education to keep up: that is, the discovery of the disciplines and rewards of serious, though not pedantic, teaching, learning and scholarship. But that is a topic for another day.
Course contents and reading lists
On course contents, there is a need for a data base on what is being taught, a survey of course outlines and reading lists to identify courses that are not providing students with an introduction to the best thinkers and ideas in the field. This should lead to suggestions for improvements. This may be done in a manner that is contentious and divisive, but it should be possible to proceed in way that is illuminating and educational in its own right. The aim is to recruit the spirit of cooperative scholarship, using a base of evidence to advance the cause of learning and scholarship. There is no need to deny university teachers their own interests, their points of view and their politics. The question is how the courses stack up when they are examined in a climate of civil and robust debate.
The Liberal initiative has been smeared as an attempt to restrict freedom of speech. On the evidence in hand, it is no such thing. It is better described as a long overdue reaction to the radicalisation of the campuses in the aftermath of the Vietnam debate in the 1960s and 1970s.
The task of investigation, reporting and suggestions for improvements can start in a modest way, wherever people with time and energy are prepared to start the process. There was a small beginning a couple of decades ago, with a survey of courses in politics at the 21 universities at the time. It was very hard to find any reference to Hayek and his work. What is the situation today, how much has changed in two decades?
The process needs to be sustained and it needs to generate debate on campus and beyond, wherever there are people with an interest in the life of the mind, in education, in ideas, in maintaining good order in “the house of intellect” (as Barzun called it).
Tinkering with course curricula will have a minimal impact. Universities don’t merely have a bit of a problem with left-wing bias. They’re central control for left wing ideas.
This won’t change under the current university model. It might change, however, if the university model was reformed.
dd
6 Sep 12 at 8:13 am
Interesting thought DD. Last night dining with friends the topic of Australian Aborigonals came up and how to solve the problem.
The problem actually is changing the minds of those who populate the Aboriginal Industry, activists and lefties, rather than the attitudes of the Aborigines themselves.
This is no different to the curriculum tinkering or change Rafe suggests – there has to be a sea-change in the leftist mindset to change matters.
The political left are the problem and until their dominance is substantially reduced in academe, nothing will change.
Hayek erred in one respect, in that the slide to serfdom is unstoppable, just as termite infestation of a house is, for once the mob discover they can vote themselves entitlements, the slide is permanent. Changing the curriculum then becomes like moving the deckchairs on the Titanic – too little, too late.
Louis Hissink
6 Sep 12 at 8:53 am
The high ground is the link between universities and government funding.
Scott
6 Sep 12 at 9:01 am
I agree, but moreover, universities are vastly overfunded and have collossal waste, on a scale that almost defies comprehension. They periodically complain about cuts but they are still inefficient with their gigantic bureaucracies, froth-and-bubble research activities, sponsoring football clubs, and so on.
dd
6 Sep 12 at 9:10 am
Sounds like a substantial and substantive undertaking.
Would it be easier to ‘capture’ an existing university or start a fresh one?
Driftforge
6 Sep 12 at 9:59 am
While companies in Australia continue to hire socialist university graduates nothing will change.
Forester
6 Sep 12 at 10:13 am
Apart from not hiring, are there other options?
Driftforge
6 Sep 12 at 11:56 am
…but of course they endorse it. Socialised universities basically allow them to get fully trained analyst level employees for free, net of taxes.
They get a far better deal then HECS paying students.
.
6 Sep 12 at 12:02 pm
Rafe, your making me more attracted to the idea of an old style Oxford type degree, you know Latin, Greek and the works of Xenophon and all that. Harder to spin into progressive indoctrination. The perspective that a uni degree wasn’t so much about skills as learning to think and problem solve has much going for it in the current academic climate.
Unfortunately try telling this to industry HR types as they administer their latest psychometric testing to job applicants.
Bruce
6 Sep 12 at 1:02 pm
Right.
The fact that employees prefer graduates is often used as evidence of the value of universities but this is a straw man.
University doesn’t have to add much value in order to give graduates an edge in the marketplace.
dd
6 Sep 12 at 1:06 pm
bruce,
I am in two minds about that. I like the classical education and what it has to offer (merely as a basis for higher maths and a few languages), but I have a friend who is a pissed off ex teacher and has come full circle on everything about education. He thinks the “modern school” is best as everything has an explicit purpose. He also reckons the Finns have it right, one teacher only in primary and no exams until HSC equivalent basically.
.
6 Sep 12 at 1:18 pm
dd,
The value may be low, but they aren’t paying explicitly.
.
6 Sep 12 at 1:18 pm
I know, that’s why it’s an invalid argument. If it operates as nothing but an inefficient, free sorting system for potential employees, then employers would still make use of it.
dd
6 Sep 12 at 1:21 pm
Companies could train their own, take on apprentices?
As Lady Bracknell said:
I do not approve of anything that tampers with natural ignorance. Ignorance is like a delicate, exotic fruit. Touch it, and the bloom is gone. The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever. If it did it would prove a serious threat to the upper classes, and probably lead ot acts of violence in Grosvenor Square.
Forester
6 Sep 12 at 2:21 pm
Rafe, speaking of liberalism, what you’re complaining about is such a small part of universities (basically, a few humanities courses), I really can’t see why you would even care about it. Most courses in most universities have nothing to do with politics. Given this, I would just forget about it.
conrad
6 Sep 12 at 2:24 pm
Thanks Conrad, it is not especially about politics, it is about having a decent general education. The point is that people cannot claim to be educated unless they understand the leading ideas of the likes of von Humboldt, Mill, Lord Acton, von Mises, Popper and Hayek.
If people are not exposed to these idea at uni they had better get them at school. Just something for the politicians of both parties to think about if they are serious about education and civics.
Poor Old Rafe
6 Sep 12 at 2:38 pm
http://pjmedia.com/blog/zombies-how-the-left-captured-academia-the-media-and-other-organizations/?singlepage=true
Mother Hubbard's Dog
6 Sep 12 at 3:00 pm
Dot – Therein is the problem. If the ‘explicit purpose’ is indoctrination then you’re stuck. From Bishop Hill today:
There goes Scotland’s reputation for engineers and scientists. At least if you have a curriculum which teaches you to learn, question and problem solve you won’t be so vulnerable to the current political fad.
Bruce
6 Sep 12 at 3:12 pm
My friend was well aware that it was set up by a Marxist (and he finds it humorous that Gillard has driven him away from the ALP forever). He said that it is easier to teach and learn under such a purpositivist system. His view is education reform is a crock – just let educators do their job, stop getting out of the way. His view is the curricula should be as vague as possible. Specifics lead to indoctrination. He says the English system for primary IIRC was so regimented the whole country operates as a giant school with branch offices.
To my mind, we will only get decent education reform (that is, more dollar per student at a lower cost with teachers doing their job as professionals with minimal interference) from the private sector being innovative. The problem is the dollars are locked up at the ballot box.
I (presume that I) agree with DD. The funding model needs to change first.
.
6 Sep 12 at 3:55 pm
Maybe we shouldn’t be so worried.
http://www.quadrant.org.au/magazine/issue/2012/9/the-end-of-the-age-of-reform/
Mother Hubbard's Dog
6 Sep 12 at 5:34 pm
MHD – Oooh, that’s heady stuff from a Prof of Creative Arts and Social Aesthetics no less. He and Prof Lewandowski must have interesting discussions when they meet.
JCU and Townsville seem to swim against the rising tide, since Bob Carter is at JCU and the AIMS people are the very nemesis of Prof Ove and his merry crew of reef catastropharians at UQ.
I don’t agree with his surmise that Julia “may be the last of her kind”. I thought the fall of the Soviet Union would put paid to all that nonsense, but no it migrated intact into all the ivory towers, and morphed into Fabianism. If Reagan couldn’t exorcise it I doubt it’ll decompose even if staked through the heart with pure osmium.
Bruce
7 Sep 12 at 8:32 am
Private Universities are the way to go if you want to achíeve that goal
Why hasn’t this idea been more popular??
Languages open the mind up otherwise you get that dumb MBA graduate from the U.S who is ignorant in European culture and history
yep met a couple of those
lol!!
selen234
10 Sep 12 at 8:48 pm