Letter to the editors of Woroni Magazine, ANU

I just sent this to the editors of Woroni. If I could find some damn time I would write something for them on the current situation in Australian higher education.

Dear Editors

I was very disappointed with the quality of the front page article for the issue of October 17 ('Young and the Restless: The Year That Was'). Professor Young's management style is an extremely important issue for the university and the article did little to engage with the complexities of the matter. While I am glad the author exposes the extent of Young's restructuring at the top end of the university there is no discussion of whether this might actually be for the best.

 

As I hope you are aware Australia's tertiary education sector is currently experiencing a wave of discontent centred on excessive administration and a lack of emphasis on research and teaching. Professor Young is depicted as yet another 'managerial' executive when that may well not be the case. Many academics across Australia are calling for the trimming of executive positions and the cutting of various non-academic support, marketing, administrative and evaluative bodies from universities that do little more than inhibit the research and teaching of traditional academic staff. For a broad but simplistic synopsis of the situation I refer you to Donald Meyers’ free ebook ‘Australian Universities: a portrait of decline’.

I am not convinced that Professor Young’s extensive restructuring of the ANU unaligned with these desires for a more traditionally focussed university. For example, his office has recently announced the closure of CHELT (Centre for Higher Education, Teaching and Learning) which is precisely an entity of managerialism and not of teaching and research. My understanding is that the music school was also in need of sensible restructuring, though obviously the manner of the announcement was appalling.

Woroni does not seem interested in investigating whether or not Professor Young is a manager or an academic, and appears content to make assumptions and run with them. I assume that the author of said article did not even attempt to consult Professor Young given that there is no ‘Professor Young was not available for comment’ line in the article. Surely this is journalism 101?

The ongoing battle between the corporatisation of Australian universities and the push for traditional university values (e.g. independent critical comment, high standards) has not featured sufficiently in Woroni in recent times (if at all). Rather than getting on its pinko high-horse (I vote Labor/Greens before you jump to conclusions) I would appreciate it if Woroni availed itself of the broader and more complex situation. I accept that you are not professional journalists but my understanding is that Woroni aspires to a high standard. Actually doing some research would be step 1. I also acknowledge that I am not across all the facts and may very well be wrong in my suspicions of Professor Young. But that is precisely why I turn to Woroni for help. I’m left disappointed.