Big Little Thought Crimes in Melbourne

This month I began work on a new engagement project funded by the Heterodox Academy. In the coming weeks and months I'll be speaking with - and working with - higher education scholars and stakeholders on how to make viewpoint diversity more visible on Australian university campuses. On many questions, scholars will always differ on…

"Very sorry to bother you ... but I was wondering if you could please send me a copy of your article 'Beautiful lies, damned statistics..." To judge from the sounds of silence about any need to review the decision, those in the know at the Journal had decided to keep their heads down, and let…

"The extensive quote from Kafka makes an eloquent point – as does the long enumerated list of incidents..." Indeed, I mused. As a teacher of higher education policy and management, I found it bizarre that our own academic journal, where scholars examined university leadership and governance, had managed to pursue such an unfathomable process to…

"The decision to withdraw your paper was based on advice from the publisher, which in turn was based on advice it had received...." In August, gentle reader, the going got woefully weird. It took weeks to discover who was behind the retraction decision. Then months to confirm what a ham-fisted, mealy-mouthed, chicken-livered dog's breakfast they'd…

"Simon, your reinforcement of Julie's misrepresentation of my paper's analysis, and its author's views, has been most unfortunate..." On a weekend in late June, sick in bed at home, I reflected that I'd had a good week. My new Conversation piece was on track to reach 2000 readers. And the substance had been discussed online by experts who'd…

"We all know what happens to heretics, even when they're right: they are denounced and isolated..." It was Wednesday. On Tuesday morning my Conversation piece had appeared, as planned. I'd spend time that day and the next - with one sick kid at home, then two - replying to readers as their comments trickled in.…

"You are never going to win against either The Australian or Marginson who are far too powerful, whatever the merits in this matter." This candid dose of Realpolitik had landed a week after my Dantean detour in the Mad Max car park (Chapter 16). It made sense. Not least in that it matched what others, closer to…

Last month's High Court ruling on Peter Ridd versus James Cook University concludes a third deep dive by judges into a Kafka-Down-Under policy maze about academic freedom and its lawful limits. Should sharp, dismissive criticism of other scholars' research be sanctioned as misconduct, if university managers find it uncollegial or disrespectful? In this case, complaints…

The day after my detour through the Mad Max carpark, I sent Leo a copy of my second letter to The Australian. I didn't expect him to be happy. After all, the Centre's April memo on its Communications Strategy was clear (Chapter 8): The Melbourne CSHE and LH Martin Institute maintain good relations with a…

"They're bastards." I was standing in the Vice-Chancellor's office on a Tuesday afternoon in late May. On the way up to Level 9, I'd reflected that it had been a decade since I'd worked in the Raymond Priestley Building. Back in 2005, I'd been part of a small group that the VC had enlisted to…