By late April it was clear: I needed legal advice. No response from Marginson. No headway with Hare. And no progress with the Journal. Locked down in my collegial dungeon of low regard and high dudgeon, I felt as weary, stale and flat as a rat on a tilted treadmill. Alas, poor Sharrock! My infinite…
Diary of an academic infidel – Chapter 10
One quote Hare had got right was my paper's conclusion: For funding advocates, Education at a Glance has been a cherry-picker's picnic ... the more deeply we probe to tell apples from oranges, the more fruit salad we find ... Despite many claims of a serious funding problem for Australian universities based on international comparisons,…
Diary of an academic infidel – Chapter 9
By the end of my own long March at the University that year, one thing was clear. Hare didn't share my concern with her "misuse" headline. And didn't care what I said my paper actually said. Re-reading her report (Chapter 4), I saw that it misquoted from the text of my paper as well: Geoff…
Diary of an academic infidel – Chapter 8
In any normal academic debate, a reply in the Journal later that year could have noted that one of my paper's assumptions was wrong. In the OECD report it drew on, the Australian rate of spending had risen. But in the next OECD report, later that year, it fell back. While my case didn't rely…
Diary of an academic infidel – Chapter 7
As Voltaire said when a fellow philosopher's book was burned by the Paris authorities: "What a fuss about an omelette!" But this was 2016, not 1758. Then again, it wasn't 2019 either. That was the year the French Review reminded universities that academic freedom and free exchange are crucial to their work - even if…
Diary of an academic infidel – Chapter 6
So far, gentle reader, I've been telling my story with the "2020 hindsight" that a spell of unemployment can afford. Now let me pause in this (cleansingly forensic) account of The Year My Career Broke, way back in 2016 - for a 2020 COVID-19 performing arts update... Our first and second waves that year, in…
Diary of an academic infidel – Chapter 5
Refutation, refutation, refutation! In the days and weeks that followed the Canberra conference, my paper didn't prompt any public comment at all. No-one on the "attacked" list came out to rebut its case in The Australian. But privately, the first complaints had landed within hours. By the end of Day 3 in University House, I…
Diary of an academic infidel – Chapter 4
I woke up one day in early 2017, feeling terrible. Like Lucky Jim after a hard night's drinking. Picking up my phone, I used it to peruse the bruising. My face was a plausible match for the way my head felt. As if at some point during the night, I'd been beaten by secret police.…
Diary of an academic infidel – Chapter 3
Even with 2020 hindsight it's hard to explain exactly how the events of 2016 spiralled so far out of anyone's control, from that early storm in an academic teacup. A media story in March drew ripples of concern in Canberra and Melbourne. And in London there was umbrage. Which then morphed into a complaint. Which…
Diary of an academic infidel – Chapter 2
In 2016 my career went bung at the University of Melbourne. The academic year began with a bang of bad publicity. And ended with a whimper of exhaustion and despair. Not the end of anyone's world, by any stretch. Trivial compared to your Trumps. A bagatelle compared to your Brexits. Infinitesimally piffling, compared to your…
