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…
Diary of an academic infidel – Chapter 1
Unemployed at last! Who can forget that feeling of freedom you get when, finally resigned, you clear your desk and walk out the door? Secure in the knowledge - or at least sustained by the hope - that (whoever's banishing whom) there is a world elsewhere? But that was then. Now it's 2020, and I'm…
Reforming Australian tertiary education: what did Clark Kerr do?
Back in November 2016, I posted a review of a new book about higher education in California in the 1960s. At the time it seemed relevant to Australia's own problems with growing demand for access, funding pressures and system-level reform. But the Australian tertiary system has not seen any comprehensive reform, then or since. So…
Debate quality in the university: how bad can it be?
Last month I looked at the uses and limits of academic freedom in Australia, taking the Peter Ridd affair at James Cook University as a case study. And also at how last year's French Review balanced two aspects of the work of universities: promoting free exchange as a way of exploring ideas, testing claims, exposing…
Let’s Glance: new OECD metrics on Australian tertiary spending
The 2020 edition of the OECD's Education at a Glance report landed on 8 September. In Australia it caused barely a ripple of public interest. With past editions, university sector press releases and media commentary usually appear within a few days. Typically, these highlight how low we look in the latest OECD "ranking" of tertiary…
