vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 Special Issue Published by NTEU ISSN 0818–8068 Academic freedom’s precarious future

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Editor Editorial Board Dr Ian R. Dobson, Monash University Dr Alison Barnes, NTEU National President Guest Editor Professor Timo Aarrevaara, University of Lapland Professor Jamie Doughney, Victoria University Professor Kristen Lyons, University of Queensland Professor Leo Goedegebuure, University of Melbourne AUR is available online as an Production Professor Jeff Goldsworthy, Monash University e-book and PDF download. Visit aur.org.au for details. Design & layout: Paul Clifton Dr Mary Leahy, University of Melbourne In accordance with NTEU Editorial Assistance: Anastasia Kotaidis Professor Kristen Lyons, University of Queensland policy to reduce our impact Cover photograph: Faculty of Economics and Professor Dr Simon Marginson, University of Oxford on the natural environment, Business, University of Melbourne. Photograph by this magazine is printed Ashley Rambukwella. Used with permission. Matthew McGowan, NTEU General Secretary using vegetable-based inks Dr Alex Millmow, Federation University Australia Contact with alcohol-free printing Dr Neil Mudford, University of Queensland initiatives on FSC® certified Australian Universities’ Review, Jeannie Rea, Victoria University paper by Printgraphics under PO Box 1323, South Melbourne VIC 3205 Australia ISO 14001 Environmental Cathy Rytmeister, Macquarie University Phone: +613 9254 1910 Certification. Errol Phuah, CAPA National President Email: [email protected] Post packaging is 100% degradable biowrap. Website: www.aur.org.au

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2 Letter to the editor 45 Slippery beasts: Why academic freedom and media freedom are so difficult to protect 3 Letter from the guest editor Fred D’Agostino & Peter Greste Kristen Lyons Through an analysis of both academic freedom and freedom of the press, Fred D’Agostino and Peter Greste explore a diversity of 4 Introduction to the Special Issue: Academic threats that bear down upon the search for ‘truth’. freedom’s precarious future. Why it matters and what’s at stake 53 Beyond the usual debates: Creating the Kristen Lyons conditions for academic freedom to flourish Sharon Stein ARTICLES & OPINION In the afterword to the special issue section of this issue of AUR, Sharon Stein explores some of the intellectual, affective and 8 What crisis of academic freedom? Australian relational conditions that might foster a vision for academic universities after French freedom that is also within the context of our ‘complex, Rob Watts uncertain and unequal world’. This paper is an exploration of a series of themes related to Hon. Robert French AC’s recent review of freedom of speech 57 ATARs, Zombie ideas & Sir Robert Menzies in Australian universities, and critically explores whether Robert Lewis universities face a ‘crisis in academic free speech’. BOOK REVIEWS 19 Corporate power and academic freedom Andrew G. Bonnell 65 The Idea of the University – A review essay In this critical appraisal of corporate influence across universities, The Idea of the University: Histories and Contexts by Andrew Bonnell examines the impact of corporate power for Debaditya Bhattacharya (ed.) academic freedom and argues for the urgent need for transparent Public Universities, Managerialism and the Value of and accountable governance and oversight. Higher Education by Rob Watts Politics, Managerialism, and University Governance: 26 Precarious work and funding make academic Lessons from Hong Kong under China’s Rule since freedom precarious 1997 by Wing-Wah Law Jeannie Rea Reviewed by Thomas Klikauer & Catherine Link In her opinion piece, Jeannie Rea describes how university staff and students who speak out against state, military, religious and 75 The peasants are revolting other powers face an increasing threat of attack, and reports on No Platform – A History of Anti-Fascism, Universities and the vital work of Scholars at Risk (SAR) in defending rights and the Limits of Free Speech by E. Smith interests. Reviewed by Neil Mudford

31 Freedom in the university fiefdom 78 And the students are revolting, too Richard Hil Berkeley: The Student Revolt by Hal Draper (Author), Richard Hil is a scholar widely known for his erudite opinions. In Mario Savio (Introduction) this piece, he explains how constraints on academic freedom are Reviewed by Neil Mudford built into governance structures of universities, as well as arguing that academics’ acquiescence to certain constraints upon their 83 The tower of pong freedom is part of the slow violence of the managerial university. Bullshit Towers – Neoliberalism and Managerialism in Universities by Margaret Sims 34 A self-selection mechanism for appointed Reviewed by Thomas Klikauer and Norman Simms external members of WA University Councils Gerd E. Schröder-Turk 87 Downhill for universities since Menzies? Through his careful analysis of university governance and Australian Universities: A History of Common Cause by legislation in Western Australia, Gerd Schröder-Turk exposes Gwilym Croucher and James Waghorne the enabling environment for a concentration of power and the Reviewed by Paul Rodan maintenance of governance echo-chambers and argues that good governance is the basis for academic freedom. vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 1 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES’ REVIEW

Letter to the Editor

Dear Editor, The vast majority of HRM is dedicated to what Habermas calls an empirical-analytical understanding of work. Here, Thanks to Paul Rodan for his thoughtful comments on my HRM wants to control workers by using performance review of David Graeber’s Bullshit Jobs (AUR, 62(2), p. 2). management (KPIs, etc.). A minor part of HRM’s teaching Sadly, unexpectedly, and as widely reported in the international and research portfolio is dedicated to an historical- press, David Graeber passed away on 2 September 2020. I hermeneutical understanding. Mostly, this is what critical agree wholeheartedly with Graeber’s book and Paul Rodan’s management studies (CMS) does (e.g. Klikauer, CMS comments, particularly on the issue of human resource & Critical Theory, 2015). Finally, there is a truly critical- management (HRM) that falls into Graeber’s category of emancipatory understanding dedicated to ending domination being ‘bullshit’. Just three items might be mentioned in and working towards emancipation. support of this commonly agreed notion: Placed in Graeber’s framework, one might say, HRM’s first 1. In her 2006 book, Shelley Gare singled out HRM as a approach (control) is bullshit – albeit very dangerous bullshit; particularly good example of what she calls The Triumph the second one (interpretation) is semi-bullshit; while the of the Airheads (Media21 Publishing). third one (emancipation) is a worthwhile enterprise. As 2. Research by the Tasmanian author Rob Macklin found someone once said, I am a pessimist 80 per cent of the time and that one of the most important things for HR managers an optimist 20 per cent of the time and I live and work for these is to remember the lies they told yesterday (HRM – 20%. One might be inclined to argue that David Graeber, Ethics and Employment, Oxford); and finally, Jürgen Habermas, Paul Rodan, myself and many readers of 3. Perhaps the best illustration of a workplace under HRM AUR are working for these 20 per cent and have an interest in remains Schrijvers’s The Way of the Rat (Cyan Books). ending domination and enabling emancipation. All three paint a pretty grim picture of HRM, but it is not all bad in the land of HRM. Thomas Klikauer, Western Sydney University In his book Knowledge and Human Interests (1987), German philosopher Jürgen Habermas developed three knowledge- creating interests which guide not only knowledge and research but also the teaching of HRM. In my 2007 book (Communication & Management at Work), I applied Habermas’ theory to management – and by inference to HRM.

vol. 63, no. 1, 2021   2 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES’ REVIEW Letter from the guest editor

Kristen Lyons

As guest editor, it is my pleasure to introduce this issue of Book reviews are an important part of AUR’s agenda, and Australian Universities’ Review. Most of the issue is ‘special’, this issue has several such reviews from ‘hardy perennial’ book on the extremely important topic of academic freedom and reviewers Neil Mudford, Paul Rodan and Thomas Klikauer. its precarious future. My introduction to the special issue All in all, this issue of Australian Universities’ Review is a introduces the papers and their eight authors. These papers ‘must read’ in the challenging times in which universities and have been written from a range of perspectives, which cover their workforces find themselves. the topic in detail. Of course, AUR is AUR, and it is a journal that preaches to Kristen Lyons, Guest Editor a broad church. There is also a timely article on the low entry scores required to get into education programs at Australian Kristen Lyons is a Professor of Environment and universities. Robert Lewis describes how the Australian Development Sociology in the School of Social Science at the Tertiary Admissions Rankings system works (ATARs), and University of Queensland. his stated aim is to highlight the profound systemic problems of falling standards in school student outcomes; in part due to lowered ATARs as well as problematic standards in teacher education.

vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 Letter from the guest editor Kristen Lyons 3 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES’ REVIEW

Academic freedom’s precarious future. Why it matters and what’s at stake

Kristen Lyons University of Queensland

Introduction What’s at Stake – engages with these, and other issues and questions. In strident and lucid ways, each of the authors Academic freedom – however elusive – is widely championed that have brought this special issue to life offers analysis and as the foundation of a good university. Academic freedom is opinion that is set to shape the contours of contemporary and held up as vital, to borrow from Hannah Arendt, in speaking future debates and thinking on academic freedom. ‘truth to power’, and axiomatic in the pursuit of the public, A special issue on this topic is indeed timely, given or common good. More broadly, it is understood as being amendments to the Higher Education Support Act were vital for ensuring a healthy functioning democracy, and as an made in March 2021, just weeks prior to finalising this special antidote to the contemporary dis-ease of post truth politics. issue. The insertion of definitions of ‘freedom of speech’ and But just what is meant by ‘academic freedom’, and why has ‘academic freedom’ – a dream realised for Queensland Senator its defence – or at least some critical exploration of its politics Pauline Hanson as quid pro quo for lending her support – become so important? What forces threaten that freedom to the Government’s steep fee increases for humanities from both within and without the university sector, how degrees – (again) illustrates how acutely politicised academic have debates about academic freedom become fodder in the freedom, and universities, have become. Similarly, the recent culture wars, and with outcomes that continue to drive the politically fuelled freedom of speech furore – demonstrated weaponisation and politicisation of universities? In guarding via protests on university campuses in response to a number against the assault on academic freedom and its ripple effects, of ‘reactionary speakers’, including widely disgraced men’s including the erosion of democratic systems of knowledge activist, Bettina Arndt – exposes how intertwined universities production, what forms of collective organising are being are in the culture wars (Funnell & Graham, 2020; Napier- marshalled? More broadly, how might critical debates about Raman, 2021). academic freedom open up opportunities for a revitalised Each of the contributing authors to this special issue – in university that is equipped to grapple with the contemporary rich and diverse ways – showcases the contestations related challenges that shape our ‘uncertain and unequal world’ (see to discourses of academic freedom, as well as the right/ Sharon Stein, this volume)? left ideological schisms and culture wars these ignite. In so This special issue of Australian Universities’ Review – doing, they locate academic freedom – and its curtailment Academic Freedom’s Precarious Future? Why it Matters and – within broader structural processes and dynamics that are

4 Academic freedom’s precarious future. Why it matters and what’s at stake Kristen Lyons vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES’ REVIEW

reimagining universities, both in Australia, and worldwide. denying salary supplements via its national JobKeeper scheme Corporatisation, neoliberalisation and managerialism, as for the sector’s 130,000 staff (Garnaut, 2021). Its hostility was examples (themes well documented by critical university further unmasked via skyrocketing fees to study humanities studies scholars, and previous articles in AUR), are each (as named above), while at the same time reducing the variously situated as bearing down upon the freedoms costs for science, technology, engineering and mathematics of individual academics, research agendas, institutional (STEM) degrees. These reforms have added to the Federal governance structures, and more. Coalition Government’s sustained use of its arsenal against the Various contributors also tease out the interconnections humanities (Brett, 2021) and its politicisation of universities, between defence of academic freedom and the capacity of with outcomes that fuel a climate of anti-intellectualism. universities to play a part in building solidarities, relations and But it is women of all ages who continue to be responsibilities to diverse peoples and ecologies. This includes disproportionality affected by the global health pandemic, the responsibilities of universities in the context of the global and the Federal Government’s responses to it, including climate crisis, structural racism – as rendered bare via the global across the university sector (Wenham et al., 2020). Black Lives Matter movement – and the culture of misogyny Demonstrating this, women are amongst those most affected and sexual violence that pervades contemporary societies, by the haemorrhaging of appointments across universities; including in the highest offices of the Australian Parliament. conditions tied to our high representation as casual employees, In the midst of these where the largest staff cuts have multiple and intersecting to date occurred (Wenham crises (Lyons et al., 2021), ... it is women of all ages who continue et al., 2020). Additionally, contributors to this special to be disproportionality affected by the the COVID-19 global health issue provoke thinking about global health pandemic, and the Federal pandemic has exposed the ways what the purpose of universities Government’s responses to it, including in which women’s academic could be, and whose rights (if across the university sector work is systematically any) and interests they might rendered invisible; evidenced, support? Similarly, they invite for example, via the consideration of the ways academic freedom is intertwined disproportionate citing of men as experts on COVID-19 with opportunities for fostering forms of teaching, research, quoted in the media in 2020-21 (Moodley & Gouws, 2020). advocacy and service that respond – with purpose, care, and Gendered structural forces have also driven the decrease in even love – in the face of current inequalities and injustices. women’s publications, a set of dynamics that – despite our best The hope, in some small way, is that this special issue will efforts otherwise – have persisted in this special issue. further move academics, policy makers and others, towards This special issue aims to draw attention to some of the engagement with these ideas. particular vulnerabilities facing women, alongside early career and First Nations researchers, and the intersectionality of Academic freedom and the COVID-19 these impacts for academic freedom. However, as editor of global health pandemic this volume I must provide a caveat for the analysis presented. Despite a commitment to create space for the inclusion of The impetus for this special issue was sparked just months diverse voices to ground this special issue, the COVID- before the onset of the COVID-19 global health pandemic 19 global health pandemic had other plans. A number of turned all our worlds, including our universities, upside down. potential authors had intended to submit to this special issue, Australian universities, alongside universities worldwide, have but multiple pressing commitments – exacerbated in the been pounded by the shock waves of this pandemic. But the context of COVID-19 – meant they were unable to do so. aftershocks are expected to reverberate long after the onset of Future collaborations on this topic will no doubt be enriched this crisis, with implications that will likely bear down upon via the inclusion of additional perspectives – including academic freedoms for many years to come. showcasing the lived experiences of more women, Indigenous In Australia, the Federal Coalition Government’s response scholars and early career researchers – who can be expected to to the dire challenges facing the higher education sector have different experiences of academic freedom compared to because of the COVID-19 crisis is one of a number of those in this special issue, myself included. triggers for these aftershocks. In the face of haemorrhaging revenues tied to the loss of international students (estimated Contributions to this Special Issue at up to $7.6 billion nationally between 2020-2024 (Larkins & Marshman, 2020), the Federal Government repeatedly In the face of sustained structural inequalities across the refused to back the higher education sector, including by university sector – including as exposed in the context of the vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 Academic freedom’s precarious future. Why it matters and what’s at stake Kristen Lyons 5 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES’ REVIEW

COVID-19 global health pandemic – academic freedom tangible ways this bears down upon the bodies of academic remains an urgent priority. The contributors to this special staff and teachers, has come at great cost for some. As part issue take up an array of themes related to this. of this inquiry, educators described various consequences Starting in Australia, the growing appetite for answers to of speaking ‘truth to power’; including being removed from questions related to academic freedom was signalled via the internal communications and email lists, and losing work commission, in 2018, of Hon Robert French AC to report (Zhou, 2021a). Speaking up, and speaking out, is arguably on the state of academic freedom in Australian universities. even more risky in the current university sector, in which over The outcome of this led to French’s (2019) Review of 17,000 staff have already lost their jobs, with more job losses Freedom of Speech in Australian Higher Education Providers, expected (Zhou, 2021b). which recommended the adoption of a Model Code to In addition to these macro-level structural constraints ‘ensure a culture of free speech and academic freedom is upon academic freedom, Richard Hil describes the various strongly embedded in institutions across the Australian pernicious small ways in which university staff experience higher education sector’ (Department of Education, Skills the erosion and/or denial of freedoms, with outcomes that and Employment, 2020). Rob Watts (this volume) takes leave staff with barely space to breath. He sets out the ways up a series of issues related to this review, including how constraints to academic freedom are built into governance French understood ‘academic freedom’, and whether, in fact, structures of the so-called ‘modern university’, with graduate universities face a ‘crisis in academic free speech’, as a ‘small attributes and e-portfolios each turning critical thinking into but noisy claque of neoliberal commentators would have us commodified products, while performance reviews demand believe’. academics ‘sell’ themselves and their products. In this hyper- Andrew Bonnell then examines the impact of corporate individualised work environment, stopping ‘productive work’ power on academic freedom, through a critical appraisal to share a cup of tea with a colleague – who, heaven forbid, of corporate influence across universities. He singles out might be a friend or ally – has become a radical act. That big tobacco, big sugar and big pharma as each wielding academics acquiesce to constraints upon their freedom is, power and influence across universities via funding, gag as Rob Watts also explores, part of the slow violence of the clauses and ghost writing, amongst other means. He also managerial university. carefully traces some of the ways big philanthropy has been So how might we gesture towards the conditions of weaponised to advance the cause of particular commercial possibility for a freedom of inquiry that these contributors interests, including Rupert Murdoch, the Koch Brothers and variously call for? the John M. Olin Foundation in the United States, and the Gerd Schröder-Turk potently makes the case for good Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation in Australia. In the governance as the basis for academic freedom. In its simplest face of such incursions across universities, Andrew Bonnell form, this should include governing bodies and structures that reminds us that ‘sunlight is a good disinfectant’, pointing to ensure a diversity of views, including – not surprisingly – the the urgent need for transparent and accountable governance perspectives from the academic body itself. Yet in his careful and oversight. analysis of university governance and legislation in Western Yet bringing the dark corners of the university into the Australia, he describes how a self-selecting mechanism sets light requires ‘freedom of inquiry, and a safe and peaceful the conditions for a concentration of power and, somewhat environment’ (Jeannie Rae, this volume). As she sets out, ironically, the maintenance of governance echo-chambers university staff and students who are engaged in teaching, that exclude those with firsthand experience of working in researching and speaking out against state, military, religious universities. and other powers, face increasing threat of attack. Reporting Fred D’Agostino and Peter Greste then invite us to move on the internationally significant work of Scholars at Risk beyond the boundaries of the academy to explore the slippery (SAR) in defending the rights and interests of staff and beasts of academic and media freedoms. By anchoring their students worldwide, Jeannie Rae makes interconnections analysis of academic freedom in relation to consideration of between the erosion of academic freedoms and the demise of journalistic freedom, they provoke thinking about academic democracies. freedom that moves beyond the current line-of-sight, to Such risks are brought to life in diverse ways across understand the diversity of threats that bear down upon the international settings. It is also exposed in the Australian search for ‘truth’ better. They conclude that the battles that context. A recent Senate inquiry into underpayment and journalists have fought in defence of press freedom are only casualisation in Australian workplaces, for example, was told marginally removed from those the academy continues to that underpayment was ‘embedded in the business model of struggle with. In bringing these diverse perspectives together, Australian universities’ (Zhou, 2021a). The consequences of they offer new pathways and opportunities for considering calling out this structural inequality, however, including the academic freedom.

6 Academic freedom’s precarious future. Why it matters and what’s at stake Kristen Lyons vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES’ REVIEW

In an afterword to this special issue, Sharon Stein then References shifts our focus by asking what the necessary conditions might Brett, J. (2021). The bin fire of the humanities. The Monthly. March. be for academic freedom to flourish? Alongside reflecting upon the contributions of each of the authors to this special Department of Education, Skills and Employment. (2020). Independent Review of Adoption of the Model Code on Freedom issue, she explores some of the intellectual, affective and of Speech and Academic Freedom’. Retrieved from https://www. relational conditions that might foster academic freedom. education.gov.au/independent-review-freedom-speech-australian- In so doing, she centres approaches that: embrace ecologies higher-education-providers of knowledges and intellectual humility; lean into difficult French, R. (2019). Review of Freedom of Speech in Australian conversations without compromising collegial relationships Higher Education Providers. Canberra: Department of Education and acknowledge the interdependencies (between humans and Training. Retrieved from https://www.dese.gov.au/ uncategorised/resources/report-independent-review-freedom- and the non-human world) as the basis for building speech-australian-higher-education-providers-march-2019 meaningful relationships. These approaches, she posits, may Funnell, N. & Graham, C. (2020) Psychologist, clinical psychologist, provide a vision for academic freedom within the context of doctor or none of the above? Will the real Bettina Arndt AM our ‘complex, uncertain and unequal world’. please Stand up! New Matilda. (Jan 28). Retrieved from https:// Overall, the hope is that this special issue of Australian newmatilda.com/2020/01/28/psychologist-clinical-psychologist- doctor-or-none-of-the-above-will-the-real-bettina-arndt-am-please- Universities’ Review – Academic Freedom’s Precarious Future. stand-up/ Why it Matters and What’s at Stake will feed national – and Garnaut, R. (2021). Reset: Restoring Australia After the Pandemic international – curiosity and debate related to academic Recession. Melbourne: La Trobe University Press. freedom, as well as critical thinking in regard to the Larkins, F. & Marshman, I. (2020). $7.6 billion and 11% of researchers: responsibilities of universities for the common good. our estimate of how much Australian university research stands to lose by 2024. The Conversation. (Sept 22). Acknowledgement Lyons, K., Esposito, A. & Johnson, M. (2021 submitted December 2020) ‘The Pangolin and the Coal Mine: Challenging the Forces of I acknowledge the Traditional Custodians and Elders past, Extractivism, Human Rights Abuse and Planetary Calamity’, Antipode present and emerging, of the lands upon which we live and Intervention. Retrieved from https://antipodeonline.org/2021/02/01/ the-pangolin-and-the-coal-mine/ work, and recognise these lands and the sovereignty of the First Nations have never been ceded. Moodley, K. & Gouws, A. (2020). How women in academia are feeling the brunt of COVID-19. The Conversation. (August 7). Retrieved I wish to thank each of the anonymous peer reviewers who from https://theconversation.com/how-women-in-academia-are- gave generously to the process in ensuring the timely publication feeling-the-brunt-of-covid-19-144087 of this special issue, as well as all contributors, including those Napier-Raman, K. (2021) Tudge introduces uni free speech laws, a who considered submitting papers, but for various reasons were throwback to forgotten culture wars. Crikey. (March 17). unable to do so. AUR will welcome your papers at a future time Wenham, C., Smith, J. & Morgan, R. (2020). COVID-19: The so that we might continue this dialogue, including in ways that gendered impacts of the outbreak. The Lancet. 395(10227), 846-848. expand the diversity of issues and themes discussed. Sincere Zhou, N. (2021a). Australian University Staff Say They were Blacklisted thanks to Ian Dobson, for careful editing and review of all after speaking out on underpayment. The Guardian (10 March). papers in this special issue: we would be three full stops short of Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/ mar/10/australian-university-staff-say-they-were-blacklisted-after- a picnic if not for you, so many thanks. Thank you to the entire speaking-out-on-underpayment?fbclid=IwAR2_xk_RnHnxiW_ editorial board of Australian Universities’ Review for supporting ci-ixk_ziciRHsUXJANHqV8BlSd7IH2yeoXmenskrekg this special issue and crafting the contours of its brief; like all Zhou, N. (2021b). More than 17,000 jobs lost at Australian universities good ideas, this special issue is a reflection of a collective of during Covid Pandemic. The Guardian, (3 February). Retrieved from energies and efforts. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/feb/03/more- than-17000-jobs-lost-at-australian-universities-during-covid-pandemic Kristen Lyons is a Professor of Environment and Development Sociology in the School of Social Science at the University of Queensland. She has over 20 years’ experience in research, teaching and service that delivers national and international impacts on issues that sit at the intersection of sustainability and development, as well as the future of higher education. Kristen works regularly in Uganda, Solomon Islands and Australia, and is also a Senior Research Fellow with the Oakland Institute. Contact: [email protected] vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 Academic freedom’s precarious future. Why it matters and what’s at stake Kristen Lyons 7 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES’ REVIEW

What crisis of academic freedom? Australian universities after French

Rob Watts RMIT University

They [the young] are asking for the truth. If we respond correctly, can’t we perhaps interest them in freedom? (Arendt & Jaspers, 1993, p. 451).

In 1988 hundreds of universities world-wide signed onto the If we accept, as readers of crime fiction understand, that Magna Charta Universitatum (1988). The Charter declared there is no such thing as a coincidence, we have a puzzle. in stirring tones that ‘to meet the needs of the world around How are we to make sense of the coincidence of a global it, [a university’s] research and teaching must be morally discourse of academic freedom and the rise of what some call and intellectually independent of all political authority and the ‘neoliberal university’ triggering persistent and serious economic power’. In the same year this declaration of academic concerns about the relationship between neoliberalism and freedom was issued, the Hawke-Keating Labor Government ‘academic freedom’? Given that relationship, how should we published a White Paper called ‘Higher Education: A Policy respond to the proposition that we face a crisis of ‘free speech’ Statement’. This paper launched the ‘Dawkins reforms’, a in our universities? program of neoliberal policy changes that among many The idea that our universities are now caught in a crisis of effects would render Australia’s public universities, including freedom of speech, has been tirelessly repeated by spokespeople the nine Australian universities that had signed the Charter, from the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA), the Centre for more accountable to the Australian government than ever Independent Studies, journalists associated with Murdoch’s before (Bessant, 1995; Thornton, 2014; Connell, 2019). News Ltd., such as Andrew Bolt and Janet Albrechtsen, and The line of neoliberal policies unfolding since the late 1980s by the weirdly ‘conservative’ journal Quadrant (Bolt, 2016; has been accompanied by persistent expressions of concern Albrechtsen, 2020). Oddly enough most of those propagating about the negative impact of these policies on academic this idea have been non-academics. That said, a small number freedom, affecting everything – the identity of universities of ‘conservative’ academics such as Kevin Donnelly, Mervyn (Considine, 2006; Gare, 2006), academic identity (Parker Bendle, and Sinclair Davidson unsuccessfully tried in 2008 & Jary, 1995), academic teaching (Thornton, 2014; Hil, to persuade the Senate inquiry into allegations of academic 2015), and academic research (Sardesai et al., 2017). Finally, bias that there was a hegemonic project in universities to and three decades on, a small but noisy claque of neoliberal promote a Marxist, postmodernist, and feminist worldview and conservative commentators has been busily fabricating a (Senate Standing Committee on Education, Employment and furore around the notion that Australian universities are now Workplace Relations, 2008). By 2018, this idea had morphed caught up in a ‘crisis of academic free speech’. into the defence of free speech. The IPA had released no fewer

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than three audits of ‘free speech’, relying on a mixture of anecdote High Court, that there is no absolute ‘right to free speech’ either and a spurious quantitative audit of ‘free speech’ in Australian in Australia or in its universities. That said, he also reminded universities (Lesh, 2016; 2017; 2018). Displaying a talent for everybody that Australia’s Higher Education Support Act (at graphic misrepresentation that should have earned him a job in S.19‑115) (Commonwealth, 2003) requires all universities the Trump White House, Lesh claimed that he had given thirty- to have a policy upholding ‘free intellectual inquiry’ making five of Australia’s 42 universities (83 per cent) a ‘Red rating’ for ‘free intellectual inquiry in relation to learning, teaching and their policies or actions that were hostile to ‘freedom of speech’. research’ a condition of being registered as a university (French This claim relied on Haidt’s (2017) unwarranted assertion that 2018; French 2019). Instead, French recommended that universities cannot be simultaneously ‘social justice institutions’ ‘academic freedom’ be protected by the voluntary adoption of and be committed to practising free intellectual inquiry. Lesh a Model Code to be embedded in higher education providers’ and Haidt relied on the all or nothing fallacy that there are only institutional regulations or policies – a draft version of which two choices which, in this instance, relies on the non-credible he duly provided. Since then, many universities have adopted assumption that when university X, for example, declares it this framework. supports actions to mitigate Unlike some of the global warming, no member of Unlike some of the protagonists, French protagonists, French refused the university may thereafter to conflate ‘academic freedom’ either criticise this policy or refused to conflate ‘academic freedom’ and and ‘freedom of speech’. French the scientific basis of the policy. ‘freedom of speech’. French well understood well understood the conceptual A preliminary observation is the conceptual issues at stake in these issues at stake in these warranted here: like so many categories. categories. French carefully of his fellow defenders of free distinguished between speech, Lesh conflates ‘free ‘freedom of speech’, ‘academic speech’ with ‘academic freedom’. freedom’ and ‘free intellectual inquiry’. He acknowledged On one reading, this confection was just another minor initially that he had been asked to carry out an independent skirmish in the so-called ‘culture wars’. Yet the fabricated review of ‘freedom of speech’ in Australian higher education furore elicited a sympathetic hearing from the Morrison providers. In the second paragraph of his report, French Government. In November 2018, the Australian Government acknowledged that ‘contention about freedom of speech and commissioned Robert French, a former Chief Justice of academic freedom – what they mean and what are their limits – the High Court, an active scholar and Chancellor of the has varied in content and intensity from time to time’ (French, University of Western Australia, to report on the state of 2019, p.13). French also observed that the Higher Education academic freedom in Australian universities. In particular, Framework (Threshold Standards) 2015 (HE, 2015) also French was also asked to assess the effectiveness of university referred to something called ‘free intellectual inquiry’. policies and practices to address ‘the requirements of the French offered a thoroughly scholarly discussion in which Higher Education Standards Framework to promote and he distanced himself from the advocacy by right-wing think- protect freedom of expression and intellectual inquiry on tanks, commentators, and MPs like Senator James Patterson, Australian campuses’. all busily trying to weaponise a certain conception of free In this essay I address several questions. How did French speech (French 2019, p. 30-2). This may explain why his (2019) understand ‘academic freedom’? Does the impact of Model Code did not engage with ‘freedom of speech’. This neoliberal policies on Australia’s universities raise questions does not mean French ignored freedom of speech. French about academic freedom? How then should we understand observed that every member of the staff and every student at academic freedom? the university has the same freedom of speech in connection with activities conducted on university land or otherwise, French on ‘academic freedom’ in connection with the university, as any other person in Australia subject only to the constraints imposed by: The French report was released in April 2019. Unsurprisingly, • The reasonable and proportionate regulation of conduct French found there was no ‘freedom of speech crisis’ on necessary to the discharge of the university’s teaching and Australian campuses (French, 2019). Equally predictably, research activities. like most of his former High Court colleagues who • The right and freedom of all to express themselves and to uphold Australia’s legal positivist tradition, French did not hear and receive information and opinions. recommend introducing legislation guaranteeing a right to • The reasonable and proportionate regulation of conduct to ‘academic freedom’ or ‘freedom of speech’. This reflected his enable the university to fulfil its duty to foster the wellbeing understanding-cum-doxa acquired during his years on the of students and staff (French 2019, p. 297-98) vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 What crisis of academic freedom? Australian universities after French Rob Watts 9 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES’ REVIEW

French observed that ‘free intellectual inquiry’ was a term ‘globalisation of universities’ (Orr, 2006; Marginson & van de of uncertain meaning but seemed to cover ‘some elements of Wende, 2006; Dagen & Fink-Hafner, 2019). Others highlight “academic freedom”’. While allowing that ‘academic freedom’ the ‘internationalisation’ of universities (Knight, 2006; Brooks ‘had a complex history and apparently no settled definition’, & Waters, 2014). The most recent trend has been to represent French treated ‘freedom of speech’ as an aspect of ‘academic universities as somehow being subjected to neoliberal policy- freedom’ (French, 2019). making, while some even talk about universities becoming Apart from allowing that ‘freedom of speech’ is a necessary, neoliberal institutions. There is now a sizeable literature on i.e., essential, element of ‘academic freedom’ (French, 2019), the ‘neoliberal effect’ in Australian higher education – some French simply declined to enlarge on his understanding of of it benign (Marginson & Considine 2000), much of it more ‘freedom of speech’ in his Model Draft. Most of his attention critical (Bessant 2002; Thornton 2014; Weller & O’Neill was given to ‘academic freedom’. Without clarifying the 2014; Hil 2012, 2015; Watts, 2016; Sims, 2019; and Connell, specific practices and evaluative criteria conceived e.g., in 2019). terms of the possibly different goods the practice of ‘academic It can be agreed safely that Australia’s universities were freedom’ (and ‘free speech’) might give rise to, his Model Code subjected to a full-scale neoliberal policy assault after 1988- simply offers an omnibus conception of academic freedom. 89. Until then, Australian governments had fully funded French (2019) understands ‘academic freedom’ as the universities while leaving them largely to manage their own freedom of academic staff to teach, discuss, and research and affairs (Forsyth, 2014). The ‘Dawkins revolution’ initiated a to disseminate and publish the results of their research without policy process that inflicted purposeful and often deep cuts restriction by established scholarly consensus or institutional in government-funding to universities in parallel with the policy, in ways constrained only by scholarly standards: expectation that universities would increase their student • The freedom of academic staff and students to engage in intakes and fund that increase by reintroducing tuition intellectual inquiry, to express their opinions and beliefs, fees backed up by a student loan scheme. There were also and to contribute to public debate, in relation to their government-led exhortations that universities needed to subjects of study and research. produce more employment-ready graduates. This neoliberal • The freedom of academic staff and students to express their project was essentially a ‘performative discourse’. By reducing opinions in relation to the university in which they work or public funding, the expectation was that this would trigger a are enrolled free from institutional censorship or sanction. wave of ‘market reforms’ in higher education (Bessant 2002). • The freedom of academic staff and students to make public However, there are many basic conceptual and empirical comment on any issue in their personal capacities, not problems when trying to work out what has happened. (For speaking either on behalf of the university or as an officer the long version of this discussion, see Watts, 2016). The short of the university. version goes like this. Many observers including academics and • The freedom of academic staff to participate in professional policy-makers are now convinced that neoliberal polices have or representative academic bodies. created a ‘higher education market’ that has ‘commodified’ • The freedom of students to participate in student societies higher education (Dill et al., 2004; Chau, 2010). Even and associations. critics like Ronald Barnett (2000) argue that ‘marketisation’ • The autonomy of the university which resides in its promoted a trend towards the commodification of teaching governors, executive and academic staff in relation to the and research (Noble, 1998; Foskett, 2011; Ball, 2012). choice of academic courses and offerings, the ways in which Others even talk up the idea of the ‘McDonaldised university’ they are taught and the choices of research activities and the (Nadolny & Ryan, 2015). Others sensibly hedged their bets ways in which they are conducted (French, 2019 p.226). and preferred to talk about ‘quasi-higher education markets’ How then might we think about academic freedom in a (Le Grand & Bartlett, 1993; Marginson, 2007) time when many argue our universities have been subjected to Yet, as writers like Roger Brown (2011; 2015) and Nick a neoliberal makeover? Foskett (2011) insist, even though policy-makers, university managers, and many academics talk about a ‘higher education The neoliberal university? market’, or the ‘commodification of knowledge’ this does not mean there is a real higher education market. For example, There is now consensus that ‘something happened’ to Kirp (2003, p. 2) says that ‘the notion that higher education universities in countries like Australia to say nothing of is a “market” needs to be unpacked, because the system universities in Europe, Africa and South America over the past doesn’t look like the market portrayed in any Economics few decades (Altbach et al., 2009; Evans & Nixon, 2015; Curaj 101 textbook’. So too does the claim that, in ‘neoliberal et al., 2018). There is less agreement about how this should be universities’, knowledge and/or education have been described, explained or evaluated. Some have pointed to the commodified. This involves an elementary category mistake.

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As Stiglitz (1999) has argued, even under the conditions of adoption of the ethos, behaviours and language of business a fully functioning capitalist economy, knowledge remains as and competitive markets has also produced plenty of glossy, close to being a pure public good as possible, and definitely albeit meaningless, corporate strategies and big advertising not a commodity. budgets contributing to what Alvesson calls a ‘culture of Then there is the argument that many universities have grandiosity’ (Alvesson, 2014; Courtois & O’Keefe, 2015). As been corporatised. This has introduced novel elements such a result, our universities now are caught between as a ‘culture of audit’, a preoccupation with marketing, and …two narratives; one that prizes academic freedom, independ- attracting ever increasing numbers of fee-paying students, ence of thought and expression, heterodoxy and exploration especially international students (Apple 2007; Giroux, 2002, to create new knowledge frontiers, [and] on the other hand, 2009. In Australia, Margaret Thornton makes the case that an increasingly intrusive series of regulatory regimes that seek the forms and functions of the modern university have to manage, steer and control the sector in ways that serve the altered as ‘the model of the for-profit corporation began to interests of the state and the economy by applying specific take over from the not-for-profit corporation as the primary ideational motifs about efficiency, value, performance, and meaning of the incorporated university’ (Thornton 2012, p. thus the economic worth of the university to the economy (Jervis, 2014, p. 156) 7). See also Thornton (2014); Weller and O’Neill (2014); Hil (2012, 2015); Sims (2019); and Connell (2019). One Without denying the impact of neoliberal policies, or the obvious concern was raised early by Kayrooz et al. (2001) effect of the corporatisation ethos, and if we follow the line and dramatised by the sacking of Ted Steele by the University of inquiry initiated by William Clark (2006), our universities of Wollongong when he made public comments about ‘soft today are best represented as palimpsests of three ideal-typical marking’, involving the awarding of undeservedly high grades institutional forms: scholarly institutions, bureaucracies, and to students (Martin, 2002). corporations. Each of these forms has its own distinctive Though there is not the space to make the case here, practices and logics and each will be found within the one a judicious view is that Australia’s universities have been organisational frame, to a greater or lesser extent depending subjected to a neoliberal policy make-over, driven by real on the university being examined. budget cuts imposed by governments especially since 1999, This makes it important to acknowledge that academics along with a real shift to mass enrolments that has remade can orient to one or other of these logics of practice. Angelika these universities. However, this has not resulted in anything Papadopoulous argues that any conflicts or ‘tensions in deserving of being called a neoliberal university operating in a strategy and practice can be understood as conflicts between higher education market. Rather we need to acknowledge the bureaucratic, corporate and scholarly logics’ (Papadopoulous many often contradictory effects. 2017, p. 515). Equally, as Henry Giroux (2012) notes, academic One result has been the massification of many traditionally workers can elect to become bureaucratic clerks administering small universities, funded by student debt: aggregate domestic or managing various systems. Some may become corporate student debt was heading towards $69 billion by 2020. As boosters tirelessly engaging in self-promotion, pursuing career the advent of COVID-19 has shown, the increasing reliance advancement in universities where research is now measured on international fee-paying students after 1997 has left many in terms of research dollars earned. universities hostage to fortune, while unleashing significant Of particular interest here is this question: what are the levels of corruption in source countries like India and concerns options for those who elect to take the scholarly path and about the quality of the education being offered in Australia. what does the idea of academic freedom look like in our time The pursuit of budget surpluses and the diversion of teaching- for those who do this? It is to this question that I now turn. based revenue to research outputs so as to boost the research output thereby enabling Vice-Chancellors to indulge in Academic freedom: a revisionist account bragging about their university’s position in some global league ladder of ‘Great Universities’, has eroded ‘academic Sharon Andrews (2007) notes usefully that a conception of tenure’ and encouraged the increasing use of cheap, casualised ‘academic freedom’ continues to be an important part of the academic teaching labour. For all the talk of freeing universities modern Australian academic’s self-portrait. It seems that many to compete in a market, universities have been subjected via a academics still aspire to be understood as people committed ‘culture of audit’ to a significant level of government scrutiny: to ‘nurturing critical thought’ and ‘advancing knowledge’ and in 2019 two universities (Charles Sturt and the University of believe that a conception of ‘academic freedom’ is still central Tasmania) were given only provisional registration status by to any defensible idea of the university. This conception the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency after of ‘academic freedom’ still refers to aspects of the ‘public failing to satisfy the national regulator on a number of issues. university’ such as the claim that it serves a role as ‘critic and The corporatisation of public universities, involving the conscience of society’ or as a site of ‘public scholarship’. What vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 What crisis of academic freedom? Australian universities after French Rob Watts 11 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES’ REVIEW

is less clear is whether these conceptions are aspirational, While the concept of ‘freedom’ (freiheit) is acknowledged, descriptive, or something else altogether. the idea that academic work should take place ‘in loneliness’ Sometimes this idea is wrapped up in elaborate, and usually (Einsamkeit) is possibly puzzling. That puzzle has been nostalgic defences of the ‘traditional university’ understood addressed by Elton (2008) who suggest that Einsamkeit refers as small, elite, self-governing institutions, a form which, by to the apparently purposeless activity of universities (at least and large, no longer exists (e.g., Coady, 2000; Gaita, 2012). as far as the state is concerned). This is activity that leads More worryingly, as Andrews notes, there is the much larger indirectly, but constructively, to the well-being of the state and question of whether those who profess a commitment to the formation of citizens committed to the ‘common good’. As academic freedom have the courage to do it. Humboldt (1970, p. 3) put it ‘the inner organisation of these So firstly, what is meant by academic freedom? Secondly, institutions must bring about and maintain an uninterrupted, how do modern academics give effect to any, or all of these always revitalising, but unforced and intentionless practices said to be constitutive of academic freedom? collaboration’. Humboldt’s prescription suggests that the best One immediate answer to the first question and based on way for universities to serve the community and the university a selective survey of the large literature on academic freedom, is to be left free from any interference from the state while is that it refers to any or all of three quite different ideas engaging in public scholarship. (Moodie, 1996). The first idea is that individual academics As for the modern idea of academic freedom, contemporary ought to be free to take their own decisions and be free to scholars like Fuller (2010) argue that it is only by preserving pursue and present their ideas as teachers and researchers the autonomy of universities, that any university’s capacity to without interference, externally imposed penalties or restraint. translate research into teaching will continue to promote the The second idea is that universities should be free to operate good that is knowledge itself. As Fuller sees it, the university is autonomously and without undue external interference from a universalising agent explicitly dedicated to ‘manufacturing’ governments, or special interests, in determining what should knowledge as ‘a public good’ rather than promoting the more be taught or researched. The third idea is that academic ambiguous idea of ‘knowledge’ for ‘the public good’. freedom involves academics as a group or groups having the Fuller spells out what he means when he says it is only by capacity to engage in decision-making about such matters as: making research and teaching an integrated activity, that this public good can flourish. The production of that knowledge … the syllabus of a course, individual staff appointments, the admission or graduation of individual students, stand- itself is produced according to the principle of public ards of academic performance, and the detailed allocation reasoning to a universal audience. Likewise, the teaching of resources between competing uses within a department practices found in the university need also to be conducted or faculty--should be taken by or on the virtually mandatory on the ‘as-if ’ principle that all knowledge claims are directed advice of academics (Moodie, 1996, p. 131). to a universal audience that can check or criticise those claims. Equally, by linking teaching and research, the currency of From their origins and well into the late twentieth century, unresolved issues, continued controversies and new discoveries Australia’s universities enjoyed a significant measure of and inventions are not allowed to spread randomly like a corporate autonomy. It was accepted that universities should virus i.e., both widely and haphazardly. Rather, the currency enjoy autonomy as institutions, governing their own affairs of controversies and new discoveries and inventions are internally and making their own decisions on academic incorporated into a regularly reproduced body of collective matters. As for what that meant it implied a link between knowledge as represented by the university’s curriculum. teaching and research, a link I take still to be of the utmost It was long seen as a virtue that, like the professions, importance. universities stood outside the system of market relations, and In 1810, Wilhelm Humboldt, the great German reformer cultivated both the higher values and ‘objective knowledge’ and creator of the first modern research university (now of a permanent kind. This sort of autonomy has been called the Humboldt University of Berlin) emphasised ‘the discursively represented in the language of classic Anglo- union of teaching and research in the work of the individual American liberalism, which saw in a ‘civil society’ constituted scholar or scientist’ (Anderson, 2010, p. 2). Humboldt argued out of self-governing institutions, the best protection of that universities did their work best, and were most useful to liberty (Anderson, 2010, p. 2). society and the state, when they were freed from excessive Closely related to this story about institutional autonomy external surveillance or control (Nybom, 2003). Let me is the idea that academics as teachers, scholars and researchers briefly focus on Humboldt’s famous memorandum in which should be free to pursue the truth, and to teach and publish he proposed that universities in which research and teaching what they researched as they saw fit, constrained only by the were carried out should take place in Einsamkeit und Freiheit requirements of truth. The very conception of ‘objective (‘in loneliness and freedom’). knowledge’, based on rigorous intellectual criteria and subject

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to ‘peer review’, promised to protect universities from political is to be treated as a description, a normative prescription or interference. In most democracies, academic freedom came some sort of ‘as-if ’ justification. to include the right of academics to be active citizens, and This imaginary has a genealogy going back at least to to pronounce on political questions, making universities the Kant (1784). Kant made a distinction between ‘public’ and home of public intellectuals, and a creative and independent ‘private’ to defend the normative practice of scholars engaging cultural force. As Gappa et al., (2007, p. 226-7) note, this has in untrammelled ‘public deliberation’. In our time there are meant that academic freedom has been understood to include still many prepared to defend this position. The idea has the freedom of teachers to discuss their subject in classrooms, been tirelessly adumbrated in the USA from Arendt (1967; freedom to conduct research and publish its results and 2006) to Cohen and Yapa (2005) and Mitchell (2008). freedom to speak and write Habermas (1991; 1992; 1996) as citizens. This also includes treats universities as a crucial the idea that academics have What too many academics do is conceive part of the modern ‘public the autonomy to plan their of ‘academic freedom’ as ‘freedom from’ sphere’. Menand (1996, courses, select the materials excessive intervention by governments or p. 4) likewise emphasises they will use, and decide the outside interests, while actively, sometimes that: … academic freedom is best methods to use to teach even enthusiastically, complying with the not simply a kind of bonus the materials to their students. enjoyed by workers within the Similarly, they can decide the sometimes bizarre requirements of policy- system, a philosophical luxury best methods to examine their makers and managers. universities could function just topics and exercise discretion as effectively, and much more in searching out funding efficiently, without. It is the key sources for their research. legitimating concept of the entire enterprise. In each instance, substantial autonomy is required in Recently Docherty (2011, p. 4) inverted Newman’s defence defining and structuring the core elements of their work. As of the university when proposing the ‘university of the idea’: Andrews (2007) points out, ‘public scholarship’ and ‘academic The university is above all governed by action of discovery freedom’ are frequently linked because of the commendable … such discovery and inventiveness – the adventure that is a impulse to regard the work of teachers and students ‘not as university – is shaped by an ongoing openness to possibility. the isolated, self-indulgent actions of a campus segregated The word that we usually give to such openness to possibility from society, but as the contributions of scholar-citizens with is just freedom … it is through the search for what we call true membership in a larger community’. In this light, writers like (in science), for that which we call good (in social sciences) Cohen and Yapa (2005) claim ‘public scholarship’ involves, or and for that which we call beautiful (in aesthetics, arts and ought to involve, scholarly and creative work which produces humanities) that we practise this fundamental activity of extending freedom in a just democracy. ‘public goods’ like accessible and valuable research and transformative teaching. Barnett (1997) goes much further again when he claims that academic freedom is essentially a So, what is actually happening? ‘critical’ activity: Though there are many ways we might now ‘skin the cat’, if By subjecting the curriculum content of higher education to criticism, we subject much of society’s cognitive structure we were to ask how well the actual practices of Australian (and thereby much of modern society itself ) to criticism. This academics conform with this imaginary, I suggest we will find … is a condition of the maintenance of an open society in the an academic culture that has little connection with that idea. modern age. Rather, there is a gap between the imaginary and practice, a gap well characterised by Andrews (2007) in terms of a failure University academics’ discussion about ‘academic freedom’ to develop a practice of ‘public scholarship’. as part of a distinctive ‘imaginary’. Cornelius Castoriadis What too many academics do is conceive of ‘academic (1998) used this category to point to what John Thompson freedom’ as ‘freedom from’ excessive intervention by called ‘the creative and symbolic dimension of the social governments or outside interests, while actively, sometimes world, the dimension through which human beings create even enthusiastically, complying with the sometimes bizarre their ways of living together and their ways of representing requirements of policy-makers and managers. The evidence for their collective life’ (Thompson, 1984, p. 6). The category of this is to be found e.g., in the widespread use of ‘instruments’ the ‘imaginary’ also decisively reinstates a proper regard for such as the Course Experience Survey ostensibly used to the irrational and the undecidable into any theoretical frame assess the quality of teaching and learning in a unit of study while leaving open the question of whether this imaginary or the Course Evaluation Questionnaire (later the University vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 What crisis of academic freedom? Australian universities after French Rob Watts 13 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES’ REVIEW

Experience Survey) which works like the National Student mass instrumental institution working in servitude to the Survey in the UK, to evaluate a whole program of study such market. as a degree (Yorke, 2009). These ‘instruments’ work like many Defining the options in this restrictive way depends on a customer satisfaction surveys to establish whether students are narrow conception of the university, the roles that it can and satisfied with a module of study. should play, and the public to whom it might properly relate. The passage in 2011 of the Tertiary Education Quality and A thinned out conception of academic freedom constructs Standards Agency Act 2011 brought into existence Australia’s real academic work as an activity that occurs in ‘splendid first sector wide higher education quality assurance regulator, isolation’(i.e. Humboldt’s Einsamkeit) and is removed from the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency. This any engagement with a public outside the university. Academic set in place what Roger King called the ‘higher education teaching or research is treated as if these were private matters, regulatory state’ and the elaboration of numerous measures best conducted ‘outside of the public gaze and at a distance of research quality and research performance (King, 2007). from public affairs’: The introduction of digital academic management systems [Any] conversation is private in that it is restricted to the ini- like Blackboard or Canvas to ‘deliver’ education, has further tiated. On this account, freedom is constructed in negative normalised new modes of surveillance and regulation courtesy terms i.e., freedom from interference in the form of demands of data analytics. Any cognitive dissonance elicited by pointing to be useful or an assertion of authority by someone outside the out how these signal a dramatic subversion of academic institution. This model provides an intensely privatised kind of professionalism and autonomy is resolved by elaborating a scholarship obligated only to preserve a regard for some ‘great culture of anguished, albeit ineffectual whingeing. For too tradition’ of intellectual effort (Andrews 2007, p. 61). many academics, academic freedom is understood in terms of In constructing this binary what has gone missing is what Isaiah Berlin called the ‘negative conception’ of liberty, another option, namely ‘public scholarship’ which discharges as distinct from a conception of ‘positive liberty’. Let me an obligation framed in terms of the positive freedom enjoyed creatively adapt this famous distinction. by academics who contribute to the public good. Public scholarship which links teaching and research is Positive and negative academic freedom precisely what Humboldt had in mind. It is what Jurgen Habermas understands to happen when intellectuals use: Berlin defined negative liberty as the absence of constraints … arguments sharpened by rhetoric, [to] intervene on behalf on a person imposed by other people. Positive liberty he of rights that have been violated and truths that have been defined both as freedom to, that is, the ability (not just the suppressed, reforms that are overdue and progress that has opportunity) to pursue and achieve willed goals but also as been delayed [to] … address themselves to a public sphere that autonomy or self-rule, as opposed to dependence on others. is capable of response, alert and informed (1991, p. 73). Berlin says negative freedom consists in ‘not being interfered with by others’, whereas the positive sense ‘derives from the Bohman (2005) too speaks to the democratic character of wish on the part of the individual to be his own master’. Berlin this conception of public scholarship: understood both concepts of liberty as advancing valid claims In a democracy all must be able to exercise their reason ‘with- about what is necessary and good for human beings (e.g., out let or hindrance’ and not simply appeal as subjects to Berlin, 1958, pp. 136–44). Both negative and positive liberty authorised agents who respond in light of their own criteria were, for him, genuine values, which might in some cases and grant entitlements in exchange for cooperation within clash, but in other cases could be combined and might even be existing practices. In some cases, it is necessary not only to mutually interdependent. criticise such norms but also to change the practices them- As Andrews (2007) noted, claims by defenders of the selves. (Also, Docherty, 2011) traditional, i.e., elitist model of the university, such as And it is this conception of public scholarship that Alasdair Coady (2000) and Gaita (2012) that once we had ‘real’ MacIntyre spoke to when he identified universities as places: universities and now we don’t, constructs an ‘as-if ’ binary. … where conceptions of, and standards of rational justifica- Once upon a time our universities were small, filled with tion are elaborated, put to work in the detailed practices of free scholars engaging in pure and unfettered scholarship, enquiry, and themselves rationally evaluated, so that only and teaching small numbers of students who were enrolled from a university can the wider society learn how to conduct as students because they loved knowledge. Now we have its own debates, theoretical or practical in a rationally defen- instrumentalised, vocationally-oriented training institutes sible way (MacIntyre 1990, p. 222). teaching intellectual philistines who just want a job. The result is an idea of ‘academic freedom’ characterised by It is not enough to imagine academic freedom as the elitism and social irrelevance threatened by its nemesis, a thoughtful, critical articulation of ideas, the demonstration

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of proof based on rigorous examination of evidence, the hardest thing we can ever do. For Arendt, thinking became distinction between true and false, between careful and an engaged activity motivated by an ethos of care and by sloppy work, the exercise of reasoned judgment and so forth, amor mundi (love of the world). As her conversation with all activities carried out in a private way. We need to imagine Karl Jaspers noted, there is an obligation that older academics and practise a more expansive kind of academic freedom have to their mostly younger students for that obligation conceived less in terms of being free from interference that comes with the conception of freedom as a public act (i.e., freedom from) and much more in a terms of being to promote the pursuit of truth (Arendt & Jaspers 1993, p. ‘free to’ pursue various public goods by engaging in 451). Like Heidegger, Arendt understood thinking as a mode those practices constitutive of rational and critical inquiry of connection in which ‘thinking is thanking’ (denken ist which involve in Hannah Arendt and Michel Foucault’s danken): both instantiate a freely chosen activity of care and terms, speaking ‘truth to power’. engagement in pursuit of truth. We need to remember that Arendt was horrified when in Without for a moment equating the ‘dark times’ Arendt the ‘dark times’ of the 1930s she saw a generation of German experienced in the 1930s with the ‘dark times’ we now face, academics embrace the Nazi regime. As she put it, ‘the problem, Stephen Ball (1995) reminds us how many contemporary the personal problem, was not what our enemies did but what academics have dealt with our version of the ‘dark times’. Ball our friends did’ (Arendt, 2006, p. 11). As for Foucault he highlighted the tendency of many academics to take refuge had been accused of being silent and unwilling to defend the in various forms of ‘academic quietism’ and ‘intellectual ideas and the deeds of the new socialist government in power isolationism’ (Ball 1995, p. 256) which he suggests are best criticised for being a ‘silent intellectual’ (Tamboukou 2012, p. understood as symptoms of the problem. Tamboukou agrees 855). At stake for both Arendt and Foucault was truth telling. when she notes how ‘academic “resistance” has been translated This is a practice informed not by a conventional conception into withdrawal from public academic spaces into archives, of truth as correspondence, but one framed in Heideggerian libraries and private studies: this is a strategy of hiding from terms as αλήhєια [Alethia] as ‘unhiddeness’ or ‘unforgetting’. the world and from each other’ (Tamboukou 2012, p. 860). This was something to be achieved for Foucault by the This is best understood as the exercise of negative freedom. practice of parrhesia, and by Arendt in the act of thinking, As Tamboukou argues, active thinking is a highly engaged itself a dangerous act. form of thinking that prepares one to act in the real world For Foucault (2011) parrhesia was ‘the courage of truth’ (Tamboukou 2012, p. 857). Like Arendt, Tamboukou agrees manifested when speaking the truth in extremely risky that while thinking is too often conceived of as a form of situations and defying any kinds of risk, including death. For retreat from the world and into silent introspection, active Foucault it is in the act of parrhesia that a person assumes thinking involves a commitment to think responsibly: to her right to speak, making this practice a quintessential move away from the comfortable bystander perspective and precondition of positive freedom. As Tamboukou (2012, understand that it is only through engagement that we can p. 853) notes there are four essential themes constitutive of rightly judge. Reframed as a positive freedom, our freedom parrhesia. First there is speaking the truth; then there is the as academics needs to combine parrhesia and thinking what courage to speak the truth in situations where there is a risk we do and doing this in our academic practice understood as or danger for the truth-teller. Secondly, parrhesia is a form occurring in a public space. of criticism, either towards another or towards oneself that This is why theorists such as Gutmann argue that, uniquely, comes from below, from the less powerful. Finally, parrhesia as academics can play a crucial role in linking education and the telling of truth, is a duty freely embraced. democracy. This presupposes that they engage in their When Arendt saw in 1933 what the kind of disinterested teaching as an ethical and political practice, and that it is value-free (wertfrei) style of academic scholarship common tied to a mode of authority in which the ‘… democratic state among German intellectuals led to, she was dismayed: recognises the value of political education in predisposing [students] to accept those ways of life that are consistent This wave of cooperation made you feel surrounded by an empty space, isolated. I lived in an intellectual milieu… and with sharing the rights and responsibilities of citizenship in a I came to the conclusion that cooperation was, so to speak, democratic society’ (Gutmann, 1998, p. 42; also 1983). the rule among intellectuals … I left Germany guided by the On the face of it, the affordances of the new digital resolution that ‘Never again!’ I will never have anything to do technologies should surely enhance the public qualities of this with ‘the history of ideas’ again. I didn’t, indeed, want to have practice. Yet, as Bernard Stiegler (2015) has argued, the digital anything to do with this sort of society again (Bruehl-Young technologies have transformed the very conditions assumed 1982, p. 108) to be indispensable to autonomous university education and Arendt slowly came to conceive of a different kind of research, thereby rendering suspect such traditional normative active thinking. For Arendt, ‘thinking what we do’ was the practices as reading, writing, reasoning and thinking critically vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 What crisis of academic freedom? Australian universities after French Rob Watts 15 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES’ REVIEW

(Stiegler 2015, p. 203-220). This points minimally to the References need to discuss Stiegler’s argument. Albrechtsen, J. (2020). Intellectual freedom? Only if your values are ‘aligned’. The Australian. 20 February. Retrieved from https://www. Conclusion theaustralian.com.au/inquirer/intellectual-freedom-only-if-your- values-are-aligned/news-story/6665eedc434bc01622e80b2b8859ef9a] The kind of academic freedom at stake here is not to be confused Altbach, O., Reisberg, L., & Rumbley, L. (2009). Trends in Global either with normal scholarly critique or with overt dissent. Higher Education: Tracking an Academic Revolution: A Report A small number of academics have been active in reflecting Prepared for the UNESCO 2009 World Conference on Higher Education, Paris: UNESCO. upon, analysing and writing about matters such as academic performativity, audit cultures and the McDonaldisation of the Alvesson, M. (2014). The Triumph of Emptiness: Consumption, Higher Education, and Work Organisation. Oxford: Oxford university university. Nor is it to deny that in spite of dire warnings about Press. the negative impact of the neoliberal cascade (e.g., Brown, 2015), Anderson, G., (2008). Mapping Academic Resistance in the Managerial what can be called the capacity for ‘academic dissent’ has never University. Organisation, 15(2), 246-259. been entirely or effectively stifled in Australia (e.g., Anderson, Anderson, R. (2010). History & Policy. Retrieved from http://www. 2008; Carmody, 2013; Heath & Burdon, 2013; Rhodes et al., historyandpolicy.org/policy-papers/papers/the-idea-of-a-university- 2018). There have been high profile cases involving academics today who resisted managerialist power (e,g., Judith Bessant), or who Andrews, S. (2007). Compromising positions: Relations of Power became courageous whistle blowers (Gerd Schröder-Turk at and Freedom in the Australian University. Unpublished PhD Thesis. Murdoch University), or who simply carried on expressing Melbourne: RMIT University. unpopular views and publicly criticising the work of their Apple, M. (2007). Education, markets, and an ‘audit culture’. colleagues (Peter Ridd at James Cook University). These cases International Journal of Educational Policies, 1 (1), 4-19. are significant because in each case, the academic involved was Arendt, H. (1967). Truth and Politics. The New Yorker, February: subjected to serious and sustained attempts to silence them 49-58. Retrieved from http://www.hannaharendt..org/?page_id=2178 by dismissal, or by taking disciplinary measures against them. Arendt, H. (2006). Thinking and moral considerations. In: Arendt, H. (ed.) Responsibility and Judgment. New York: Schocken Books: In the first two examples, the cases ended up in the Federal 97–134. Arendt, H., & Jaspers, K. (1993). Correspondence, 1926– Court and were resolved in favour of the academics concerned 1969. (Trans. R. Kimbe) (eds. Köhler,L., & Saner, H.,) New York: (Bessant, 2014). There are also cases of effective collective Harcourt Brace. academic resistance such as industrial action by academics at Ball, S. (1995). Intellectuals or technicians: The urgent role of theory Sydney University attest. in educational studies. British Journal of Educational Studies 43 (3), Rather, I have emphasised a long-standing-crisis of 255-71. academic freedom, one best understood as the absence of Ball, S. (2012). Performativity, Commodification and Commitment: positive academic freedom. This does not have much to do An I-Spy Guide to the Neoliberal University. British Journal of Educational Studies 60 (1), 17-28. with the confected crisis that conservative and neoliberal commentators allege is now a reality on our campuses. Barnett, R. (1997). The Idea of Higher Education. Buckingham: Open University Press and the Society for Research into Higher Education. Likewise, this doesn’t have anything to do with the nostalgic Barnett, R. (2000). sustained by defenders of the ‘traditional’ university. Realising the University in an Age of mythos Supercomplexity. Buckingham: Open University Press and Society for As Henry Giroux (2009) says, to speak truth to power is Research into Higher Education. not ‘a temporary and unfortunate lapse into politics on the Berlin, I. (1958). Two Concepts of Liberty, Oxford: Clarendon Press. part of academics’. Rather, ‘it is central to opposing all those Bessant, B. (1995). Corporate management and its penetration of modes of ignorance, market-based or otherwise instrumental university administration and government. Australian Universities’ rationalities, and fundamentalist ideologies that make Review. 38 (1), 59-62. judgments difficult and democracy dysfunctional’. Absent a Bessant, J. (2002). Dawkins’ Higher Education Reforms and How detailed empirical study that I have yet to complete, I must Metaphors Work in Policy Making. Journal of Higher Education Policy leave it to the reader to ask themselves how often they see and Management.24 (1), 87-99. this kind of academic freedom practised in our universities Bessant, J. (2014). Smoking Guns: Reflections on Truth and Politics in e.g., in staff meetings, or in Academic Boards and Senates, or the University’ in M. Thornton, (ed). Through A Glass Darkly: The Canberra ANU Press. what happens when academics are asked to fill out the next Neoliberal University and the Social Sciences. management survey of staff morale or comment on the next Bolt, A. (2016). BOLT: Worth Fighting For: Insights & Reflection. Melbourne: Wilkinson. meaningless university strategy plan. Bohman, J. (2005). We, Heirs of the Enlightenment: Critical Theory, Democracy and Social Science. International Journal of Philosophical Rob Watts is Professor of Social Policy at RMIT University. Studies, 13(3), p. 253-267. Contact: [email protected]

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Corporate power and academic freedom

Andrew G. Bonnell University of Queensland

Traditionally, threats to academic freedom are associated with repressive government actions, and sometimes also with compliant university managers. In democracies, academic freedom can be undermined in more subtle ways. Where public funding for university research and teaching has diminished, universities have increasingly pursued relationships with, and money from, the private sector. Private funding can come with expectations that have the potential to limit academic freedom. There is a body of literature that documents ways in which some pharmaceutical companies, in particular, have sought to exercise undue influence on research and publications by academics. So-called ‘philanthropic’ funding can also function as a Trojan Horse for corporate influence and the business or ideological objectives of donors. This paper examines the problem of corporate power on campus and considers possible remedies, including binding codes of conduct for universities’ relations with external partners. Keywords: academic freedom; academic autonomy; research integrity; corporate influence; sponsored research

In 2016, a €100 million funding agreement between the to grant them access to the documents (Fokken, 2016). The Boehringer Ingelheim Stiftung (Foundation), a research President of the University of Mainz, Georg Krausch (who funding body sponsored by the pharmaceutical company had signed the cooperation agreement with the Boehringer Boehringer, and the University of Mainz gave rise to a Foundation) conceded that the agreement contained ‘errors’ scandal over the potential extent of corporate control over and did in fact allow a ‘right of veto’ to the Boehringer firm’s university research. Under the University’s agreement with research entity (Feldwisch-Drentrup, 2016). the Boehringer Foundation (which had been made in 2012, Critics such as Professor Christine Godt, Professor of and which was projected to be worth €150 million by 2023), European and International Economic Law at Carl von the Boehringer Foundation was given a say in professorial Ossietzky University Oldenburg, characterised the contract appointments in the University’s Institute for Molecular between the Mainz university and the Boehringer Foundation Biology – with a representative of the Boehringer Foundation as illegal because of its breach of university autonomy, and forming part of the selection committee, involvement in even in breach of the constitution, because of the limitation writing the job advertisements, and being able to effectively on the freedom of publication of scientific findings, which veto an appointment. contravened the constitution’s guarantee of the freedom The Boehringer Foundation was also given an effective of scientific research (Feldwisch-Drentrup, 2016). It was right of veto over publications based on the funded research. subsequently also revealed that another secret agreement The Boehringer Foundation also had the irrevocable right ‘to between the clinic of the University of Mainz and Boehringer appoint a representative on the scientific board of the Institute Ingelheim, relating to a longitudinal study of the health data of for Molecular Biology and exercised detailed rights of oversight 15,000 people examined between 2007 and 2012, contained over operational matters (Kooperationsvertrag, 2012, clauses a clause stating that: ‘Further, it is contractually agreed with 1.21-1.22, 1.5, 5.4, 7.2). The University of Mainz sought to the principal sponsor of the study, Boehringer Ingelheim (BI), keep the agreement with the Boehringer Ingelheim Stiftung that all manuscripts must be approved by BI prior to their secret, but journalists were successful in getting a court decision publication’ (Spiegel, 2016). vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 Corporate power and academic freedom Andrew G. Bonnell 19 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES’ REVIEW

In Australia, there have recently been intense debates about (as opposed to ‘me-too’ drugs designed to extend the patent academic freedom and freedom of speech in universities. life of existing, already profitable drugs) have been made in These debates have not always been framed with care or publicly funded research institutes and universities. Angell precision and have often been highly selective in their focus. also traced how the relationship between pharmaceutical Conservative media have focussed on students’ rights to defy companies and universities and research institutes has evolved supposed conventions of ‘political correctness’, the Morrison since the 1980s (a change turbo-charged in the United States Government has campaigned against ‘foreign interference’ by the 1980 Bayh-Dole Act, which facilitated commercial and has proposed highly intrusive regulatory procedures partnerships between universities and drug companies, as well to free universities from the threat of interference by other as the pro-business, deregulatory environment of the Reagan countries’ governments, and right-wing think tanks have administration, and subsequent US administrations). championed the right to advance heterodox scientific views, Prior to the 1980s, relations between university researchers especially in relation to climate change. and the drug companies were generally at arms-length, Most of the public debate, and indeed most of the discussion with researchers ‘largely independent of the companies that within universities around academic freedom has been sponsored their work’ (Angell, 2005, p. 100). By the early conspicuously silent about the huge pachyderm at the back of 2000s, however, ‘companies are involved in every detail the lab, or in the classroom: the power and influence of private of the research – from design of the study through analysis corporations in universities. On the contrary, governments of the data to the decision whether to publish the results’ have increasingly pushed universities to go to ever greater (Angell, 2005, p. 100). Not only do universities and research lengths to work for business and do the bidding of corporate institutes receive large sums in direct research funding from ‘stakeholders’ and ‘clients’, and universities themselves are drug companies, but individual researchers also receive large increasingly internalising this imperative and passing it on to amounts in consultancy arrangements, and it has become not their staff. Staff who were originally hired to conduct teaching uncommon for researchers and institutes to hold equity in and research are increasingly evaluated on such nebulous firms that sponsor research. There is often a revolving door metrics as ‘engagement’ and ‘impact’, which increasingly between the private sector and universities and research refer to working with and for the private sector, and the institutes, leading to researchers’ closer identification with the growing scarcity of public research funding increasingly interests of the pharmaceutical companies. renders universities dependent on private funding for this Considering the increasing ‘alignment’ between researchers core function. And yet, there has not been enough attention and corporate interests, it is worth noting the findings of a to the protocols that are needed to safeguard universities’ study cited by Angell that undertook a meta-analysis of the institutional autonomy, and academic freedom and integrity. available English-language literature on industry-funded Elementary transparency is lacking, with agreements with biomedical research that ‘assessed the relation between private third parties typically cloaked in secrecy. industry sponsorship and outcome in original research’ It is not being alleged here that the Boehringer Ingelheim (Bekelman et al., 2003, p. 454). By ‘combining data from Foundation chose (or vetoed) specific professors, nor that it articles examining 1140 studies’, Bekelman et al. found that suppressed specific research findings. The point is that Mainz ‘industry-sponsored studies were significantly more likely University and the Foundation concluded an agreement that to reach conclusions that were favourable to the sponsor expressly permitted such breaches of institutional autonomy than were non-industry studies’ (2003, p. 463). In Angell’s and academic freedom. Defenders of the pharmaceutical summary of the findings, industry-sponsored research was industry justify confidentiality agreements based on the four times as likely to result in outcomes favourable to the need to protect valuable patented or patentable intellectual sponsor than studies conducted by the National Institute of property, but the relevant clauses are not confined to this, Health (Angell, 2005). meaning that any research findings that Boehringer considered A 1998 analysis of studies on passive smoking found an even to be commercially disadvantageous could potentially be greater difference between the findings of industry-sponsored withheld from publication. research and other, independent studies, with industry-funded The pharmaceutical industry, to persist with this research seven times as likely to find no evidence of harm from example, justifies its astronomical profits by reference to passive smoking than other studies (Barnes & Bero, 1998, also its commitment to research and development expenditure. cited by Bekelman et al.). Such differences could result from However, as Marcia Angell (2005), who edited the New a combination of conscious or unconscious bias in the design England Journal of Medicine for twenty years, showed in her of studies and publication bias. Findings unfavourable to the book The Truth About Drug Companies, ‘Big Pharma’ tends sponsor’s products may not make it into published articles. to exaggerate the proportion of its revenue actually spent on Also, favourable findings might be disseminated in multiple researching new drugs, and most genuinely new discoveries journals, and the fact that companies sometimes commission

20 Corporate power and academic freedom Andrew G. Bonnell vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES’ REVIEW

off-prints of favourable studies for promotional purposes has authors attributed this statistical decline to increased vigilance even given some journals a financial incentive to publish such on the part of journals and increased awareness of the issue work. Bekelman et al. (2003) also found that the literature more generally, but the figure is still significant, especially showed that ‘industry ties are associated with both publication as the study relied on voluntary self-reporting, and it may delays and data withholding. These restrictions, often also be the case that individuals involved in ghost-written contractual in nature, serve to compound bias in biomedical publications are now more wary of admitting to the practice, research’ (Bekelman et al., 2003, p. 463). Bekelman et al.’s even anonymously (Wislar et al., 2011). analysis has been widely cited and corroborated by other The large trove of documents relating to ghost-writing on subsequent studies (Sismondo, 2008). The fact that the the Drug Industry Document Archive, hosted by the Library stream of citations to Bekelman et al. continues to the present of the University of California, San Francisco, testifies to year indicates that the relevance of the issues they identified the persistence and prevalence of the practice (University of has not abated. California, San Francisco). Even if the trend is favourable, the In addition to the structural pressures that result in study by Wislar et al. shows that it is still possible for a great researchers seeking closer ‘strategic alignment’ with deal of corporate propaganda to be passed off as legitimate ‘stakeholders and industry partners’ (as the jargon of the neo- academic research. Indeed, in 2009 a number of ostensibly liberal managerial university would put it), in the interest peer-reviewed academic journals published by the world’s of maximising ‘engagement and impact’, and perhaps also biggest and most profitable publisher of scholarly journals, return on equity, there have Elsevier, were found to be been cases of more direct sponsored compilations largely attempts by industry to exercise The practice of drug companies hiring of reprinted articles dedicated an influence on research people to ghost-write articles to which to the promotion of one drug outcomes. academics, keen to meet quantitative company’s products (Merck’s) One strategy drug benchmarks to demonstrate their ‘research- (Goldacre, 2012; Singer, companies have used to expand active’ status, and doctors ... will append 2009). the market for their products is Ghost-writing is only by procuring and even ghost- their names, is not confined to a few one issue that has arisen in writing articles on ‘Phase IV’, notorious but isolated cases. researchers’ collaborations post-approval studies, which with industry. A 2005 study push the idea that a drug can be by Australian researchers effective for uses other than those for which it was originally found that: ‘Examples of possibly serious research misconduct approved. In 2004, the drug companies Warner-Lambert and were reported by 8.6% of respondents, equivalent to 21% Pfizer had to pay a settlement of US $420 million to resolve of those with an active research relationship with industry’ charges under the False Claims by their subsidiary Parke-Davis (Henry et al., 2005, p. 557). Apart from company personnel relating to that company’s breaches of the False Claims Act drafting reports (which some researchers apparently viewed as in relation to its promotion of the epilepsy drug Neurontin, unproblematic), other undesirable outcomes and/or potential which included the ghost-writing of numerous articles which integrity breaches included: premature termination of studies were then published under the names of physicians and (which might have sound reasons, such as adverse clinical researchers (Angell, 2005). symptoms, but also included commercial considerations); The practice of drug companies hiring people to ghost- ‘“unreasonable delay” in presentation or publication of results’, write articles to which academics, keen to meet quantitative and ‘failure to publish key research findings’: benchmarks to demonstrate their ‘research-active’ status, and In one case, a negative outcome (increased mortality) was doctors (keen to be opinion-leaders in their field, which can reported as a factor. One respondent noted that unpublished lead to lucrative consultancy and conference engagements) data were omitted from the company’s literature on the drug, will append their names, is not confined to a few notorious and another reported being discouraged from presenting but isolated cases. It has been widely prevalent (Goldacre, adverse reaction data from an unpublished study. 2012; Bosch et al. 2012). Academics who have put their Editing of a report to make a drug look better, concealment names to ghost-written articles include professors from a of findings relevant to the study’s conclusions, and alteration number of leading universities. A 2008 survey of contributors of patient data or statistics were also reported. Respondents to six leading general medical journals discovered that at least provided additional detail, describing omission of findings 21% of articles published in these journals featured ghost or from company literature, a favourable report being written ‘honorary’ authors. This was a lower figure than a previous about a drug that ‘didn’t work’ and under-reporting of adverse survey conducted in 1996, when the figure was 29%. The events. One respondent wrote: ‘It is common for adverse vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 Corporate power and academic freedom Andrew G. Bonnell 21 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES’ REVIEW

event data to be favourably analysed and selectively reported’ or otherwise, and pervasive bias, is the soft-drink industry. A (Henry et al., 2005, p. 559). 2016 review of the research literature on artificially sweetened Sometimes researchers push back against corporate beverages came to the conclusions: interference in sponsored research. Marcia Angell recounts Artificial sweetener industry sponsored reviews were more the case of Dr James O. Kahn (University of California, San likely to have favourable results (3/4) than non-indus- Francisco) and Dr Stephen W. Lagakos (Harvard), who in try sponsored reviews (1/23), RR: 17.25 (95% CI: 2.34 to 1996 conducted research on a drug intended to treat AIDS. 127.29), as well as favourable conclusions (4/4 vs. 15/23), RR: When they discovered that the drug was ineffective, the 1.52 (95% CI: 1.14 to 2.06). All reviews funded by competitor company sponsoring the research, a bio-tech company called industries reported unfavourable conclusions (4/4). In 42% Immune Research Corporation, sought to prevent them of the reviews (13/31), authors’ financial conflicts of interest from publishing a paper reporting their negative finding, were not disclosed. Reviews performed by authors that had a financial conflict of interest with the food industry (disclosed withholding some of the data (which were the property of the in the article or not) were more likely to have favourable con- company under the contract) and sued Kahn and UCSF for clusions (18/22) than reviews performed by authors without millions of dollars (fortunately, unsuccessfully). The reaction conflicts of interest (4/9), RR: 7.36 (95% CI: 1.15 to 47.22). of the company CEO was telling: ‘Just put yourself in my Risk of bias was similar and high in most of the reviews (Man- position. I spent over $30 million. I would think I have certain drioli et al., 2016, pp. 1-2). rights’ (Angell, 2005, p. 111). Encroachment by industry on academic freedom The food and beverage industry has been responsible for and academic integrity has not been restricted to the research into many kinds of products that invariably find pharmaceutical industry. The tobacco industry pioneered beneficial, or at least no harmful, effects of its products, while some of the methods used by industry to undermine the non-sponsored, independent research has come to negative independence and integrity of scientific research, in ways that or at least more differentiated conclusions (Nestle, 2016). have been documented in great detail. In 1953, American Sometimes sponsored researchers don’t even need to bias tobacco leaders enlisted the aid of the public relations firm their research to suit their sponsors’ agendas: when scientists Hill & Knowlton to develop a strategy to deal with the studying the benefits of exercise are paid by the makers mounting scientific evidence of the lethality of their product. of sugar-laden soft drinks, they may be reporting genuine Allan Brandt has characterised the strategy as follows: ‘what health benefits from exercise, but still be part of a strategy of was radical about Hill’s proposed strategy was the desire to misdirection by the industry, designed to shift the focus away manipulate scientific research, debate, and outcomes’ (Brandt, from the health risks of excessive sugar consumption. 2012, p. 64). Rather than trying to discredit science in a frontal Private money and influence do not always come in the form attack, the industry recruited sympathetic collaborators who of industry-sponsored research. There is also the influence presented themselves as ‘sceptics’ regarding the mounting of philanthropy, in all its guises. Philanthropy is generally expert consensus on the health risks of tobacco, sowing doubts seen as an unqualified good – after all the word means ‘love about the evidence with the argument that there were always of humankind’. Often philanthropy justifies its name, when two sides to a scientific debate. individuals donate money to advance knowledge, or to fund The industry and its PR people also set about creating ‘an scholarships for disadvantaged students, or to fund research industry-sponsored research entity’, reasoning that ‘offering that has the potential to alleviate human suffering. funds directly to university-based scientists would enlist their However, sometimes, donors’ love of humanity can be support and dependence. Moreover, it would have the added highly selective. As early as 1910, the railroad heiress Mary benefit of making academic institutions ‘partners’ with the Harriman, believed to be the wealthiest woman in the United tobacco industry in its moment of crisis’ (Brandt, 2012, p. 65). States, or perhaps the world at that time, funded the Eugenics For this strategy to work, the industry not only had to recruit Record Office, run by Charles Davenport, which was willing collaborators among the research community, it also dedicated to preventing the ‘decay of the American race’ by had to keep a tight rein on the sponsored research enterprise: propaganda and lobbying for both eugenics and immigration ‘From the outset, Hill & Knowlton exerted full control over restriction. It also sought to offer training courses in the the industry’s collaborative research program’ (Brandt, 2012, science of eugenics to recent graduates from elite colleges p.65). The Big Tobacco/ Hill & Knowlton strategy has been (Okrent, 2019). widely viewed as providing a template for other corporate Since Mary Harriman’s efforts at promoting eugenics and disinformation campaigns, notably those of the fossil fuels immigration restriction, the reach of wealthy individuals industry. and corporations into university campuses has increased Another industry in which industry-sponsored research has significantly. One of the features of the neo-liberal political been found to be accompanied by conflicts of interest, declared hegemony from the 1980s to its current crisis has been the

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engineering of public opinion in a pro-big business, ‘right- the money, giving conservatives the resources to train a new libertarian’ direction through media empires such as that of generation of scholars, who would also be generously nurtured Rupert Murdoch and privately funded ‘think-tanks’, which, with lucrative grants and fellowships. usually with completely non-transparent corporate backing Beneficiaries of the Olin Foundation’s largesse included have endlessly waged a war of ideas and influence to drag the Harvard politics professor Samuel P. Huntington, who politics further to the right (Mayer, 2017; MacLean, 2017). headed the generously funded Olin Institute at Harvard. Jane Mayer (2017) has described the way in which the wealthy Huntington was well-known for his thesis of the ‘clash of Koch brothers (Charles and David)‚ and other like-minded civilisations’ in which a reified version of ‘Western civilisation’ figures, ‘weaponised philanthropy’ to advance their campaign contended with rival cultural-religious formations for against welfare spending, taxation of the rich, regulation of hegemony in a new version of the Cold War. Huntington business, public education, and many other bêtes noires of the (2004) also wrote a book called Who Are We? The Challenges New Right. This war of ideas and influence, and the capital to American National Identity, which was viewed by many that fuels it, have not stopped at the gates of universities. critics as a proto-Trumpian polemical assertion of an essential One such ideological enterprise was the conservative ‘Anglo-Protestant’ American Identity, under threat from alien John M. Olin Foundation, set up by the eponymous arms Catholic-Hispanic and Islamic influences. and chemical manufacturer J.M. Olin, which between In addition to this ‘beachhead’ strategy for infiltrating elite 1973 and 2005 spent approximately half of its capital (of universities by giving selected conservatives the resources to about US $370 million) on recruit a new generation of what one analyst has dubbed like-minded researchers, the ‘movement philanthropy’ More recently, the Koch brothers set up Olin Foundation was also – the strategic donation of ‘free enterprise’ research centres at George successful in sponsoring ‘Law money for overtly ideological Mason University and West Virginia and Economics’ academic aims, seeking to build cadres University, institutes that came with programs in several leading US of right-leaning pro-business ‘strings attached’ including influence in higher education institutions activists in leading US higher in the mid- to late-1980s, education institutions (Mayer, professorial appointments. which Mayer describes as a 2017, p.94). William Simon, ‘stealth political attack’, citing a former Treasury secretary Olin Foundation executive under the Nixon and Ford administrations, became head of and neo-conservative James Piereson as stating: ‘I saw it [Law the Olin Foundation in 1977 and articulated a strategy of and Economics] as a way into the law schools – I probably creating a ‘counter-intelligentsia’ which would oppose the shouldn’t confess that’. While the program sounded politically alleged left/liberal (in the US American sense) domination of neutral, Piereson characterised it as having ‘a philosophical public and elite higher education institutions. Simon argued thrust in the direction of free markets and limited government’ that: ‘Capitalism has no duty to subsidise its enemies’, and (Mayer, 2017, p. 108; MacLean, 2017). that philanthropic foundations needed to stop ‘the mindless More recently, the Koch brothers set up ‘free enterprise’ subsidising of colleges and universities whose departments research centres at George Mason University and West of politics, economics and history are hostile to capitalism’. Virginia University, institutes that came with ‘strings attached’ Instead, private funding bodies had to seek out those scholars including influence in professorial appointments (Mayer, and writers who ‘understood the relationship between 2017, p. 155; MacLean, 2017). The exposure of details of the political and economic liberty’ and ply them with ‘grants, Kochs’ funding arrangements at George Mason University grants, and more grants in exchange for books, books, and caused a major scandal in 2018, after student activists sued more books’ (Mayer, 2017, p. 102). the university to get greater transparency on its relations with The Olin Foundation developed the ‘beachhead theory’, donors. It was revealed that the Kochs nominated two out of i.e., the strategy of seeking to gain influence in elite universities five positions on selection committees for professorships in (such as Princeton or Harvard) by seeking out conservative the University’s pro-free market Mercatus Center, and that professors and endowing them with large grants that would the sponsors also played a role in the evaluation of professors enable them to wield more influence in their institutions and through their representation on advisory boards (Flaherty, attract disciples to their research programs (Mayer, 2017). 2018). Wary of being seen to be openly attacking academic freedom That these issues are not confined to the United States and academic integrity by advertising for ideological warriors, has been shown by the recent history of the Ramsay Centre the Olin Foundation applied neutral-sounding names to for Western Civilisation in Australia (Bonnell, 2019). their funding programs, while nonetheless carefully targeting The Ramsay Centre has precisely followed the American vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 Corporate power and academic freedom Andrew G. Bonnell 23 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES’ REVIEW

neo-conservative template of ‘movement philanthropy’, to safeguard university autonomy and academic freedom with its emphasis on conservative cadre recruitment and under these conditions of late neo-liberalism? targeting funding at conservatives, at the same time as public One response to the 2016 Mainz-Boehringer scandal in universities’ humanities and social science schools are largely Germany was to call for the University to adopt a clear code de-funded by the Liberal-National Party federal government. of conduct to govern its relationships with outside bodies. While the Memorandum of Understanding between the Such codes exist at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, University of Queensland (UQ) and the Ramsay Centre Frankfurt am Main (Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, pledges support for the principles of academic freedom 2008), and several other German universities. A code of and institutional autonomy, the agreement also allows conduct should include explicit commitments to academic the Ramsay Centre a seat on the selection committee for freedom and institutional autonomy. These commitments academic appointments – a blatant breach of institutional should include clear statements of the right to publish – and autonomy in itself. duty to publish – research findings, regardless of the wishes With notable lack of transparency, the full agreement of outside parties, and should explicitly prohibit any external between UQ and the Ramsay Centre is secret, and requests interference in selection and staff appraisal processes. by the National Tertiary Education Union under Right to They should also guarantee full transparency, with Information legislation for a copy of the agreement have agreements between universities and outside funding bodies been denied on the grounds that the parties to the agreement being published on university websites. As the adage goes, signed a confidentiality agreement, meaning that a university sunlight is a good disinfectant. Improved public funding and a donor can collude to avoid transparency obligations and is also essential to strengthen universities’ independence, to keep aspects of an agreement secret by the simple expedient autonomy, and backbones. Finally, governance reform of a confidentiality clause. There is therefore currently no way is needed. Australian vice-chancellors’ remuneration is of knowing what other commitments UQ may have made that excessive by international standards, and has served to make might compromise its autonomy, other than already giving VCs more aligned in their habitus and outlook with the the Ramsay Centre a voice in appointments. corporate executives and company directors, with which Elsewhere in Australia, in a recent enterprise bargaining university senates are now stacked, than with the community round, a couple of universities – including the University of of scholars from which most VCs originally came. While Melbourne (under Vice-Chancellor Glyn Davis) – sought governing bodies need access to financial and business to limit academic freedom by including the University’s expertise, they need to be more representative of staff and ‘commercial interests’ as a factor that needed to be weighed students, both to hold managers genuinely accountable against the exercise of academic freedom, wording that was and to ensure that governing bodies have access to enough successfully resisted by the National Tertiary Education knowledge and expertise in higher education and on the Union. specific institutions. Rebuilding academic self-governance In summary, declining public funding and government and rolling back the managerial and corporate capture policy aimed at making universities more responsive to the of universities, is also an important measure to safeguard demands of the private sector are both pushing universities academic freedom. into ever greater dependence on corporate and private money. There are, of course, plenty of cases in which private Andrew G. Bonnell is Associate Professor of History at the sponsorship of research is beneficial. Most private citizens University of Queensland, Australia. He is the author of who donate to medical research do so to address genuine several books about Germany. public needs, and most such donors would not dream of Contact: [email protected] trying to bias selection committees for professorships in medicine, for example, relying instead on the professional References expertise of university medical schools. Genuinely arms- Angell, M. (2005). The Truth About the Drug Companies. New York: length philanthropy can be a very positive thing. Random House. However, the (recent) historical record shows that Barnes, D. & Bero, L. (1998). Why review articles on the health effects corporations of great wealth have often sought to use of passive smoking reach different conclusions. JAMA: Journal of the their funding of research in ways that will maximise their American Medical Association, May 20; 279 (19): 1566-70. doi: 10.1001/ commercial advantage, even at the cost of the integrity of jama.279.19.1566. the research. Similarly, wealthy foundations have increasingly Bekelman, J., Li, Y., & Gross, C. (2003). Scope and impact of financial sought to exercise ideological influence over universities’ conflicts of interest in biomedical research: a systematic review. JAMA: curricula and staffing choices through the strategic Journal of the American Medical Association, Jan 22-29; 289 (4), 454-65. doi: 10.1001/jama.289.4.454. deployment of ‘movement philanthropy’. What can be done

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Bonnell, A. (2019). The Ramsay Centre and “Western Civilisation”. An MacLean, N. (2017). Democracy in Chains. Brunswick, Vic.: Scribe attempt at historical perspective. Australian Universities’ Review, 61(2), Mandrioli D., Kearns C., & Bero L. (2016). Relationship between 65-71. Research Outcomes and Risk of Bias, Study Sponsorship, and Author Bosch, X., Esfandiari, B., & McHenry, L. (2012). Challenging Medical Financial Conflicts of Interest in Reviews of the Effects of Artificially Ghostwriting in US Courts. PLOSMed, 9(1), Jan. doi: 10.1371/journal. Sweetened Beverages on Weight Outcomes: A Systematic Review pmed.1001163 of Reviews. PLoS ONE 11(9): e0162198. doi:10.1371/journal. pone.0162198. Brandt, A. (2012). Inventing Conflicts of Interest: A History of Tobacco Industry Tactics. American Journal of Public Health, January, Mayer, J. (2017). Dark Money. Brunswick, Vic.: Scribe. 102(1), 63-71. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2011.300292 Nestle, M. (2016). Food Industry Funding of Nutrition Research. The Feldwisch-Drentrup, H. (2016). Verkaufte Wissenschaft. (Science Relevance of History for Current Debates. JAMA Intern Med.; 176 Sold). Der Freitag, 37. Retrieved from https://www.freitag.de/autoren/ (11), 1685-1686. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2016.5400. der-freitag/verkaufte-wissenschaft Okrent, D. (2019). The Guarded Gate, New York: Scribner. Flaherty, C. (2018). Uncovering Koch Role in Faculty Hires. Inside Singer, N. (2009) ‘Merck Paid for Medical “Journal” without Higher Education, 1 May. Retrieved from https://www.insidehighered. Disclosure’, New York Times, 13 May. Retrieved from https://www. com/news/2018/05/01/koch-agreements-george-mason-gave- nytimes.com/2009/05/14/business/14vioxxside.html foundation-role-faculty-hiring-and-oversight Sismondo, S. (2008). How pharmaceutical industry funding affects trial Fokken, S. (2016), Uni Mainz muss Verträge mit Boehringer Stiftung outcomes: Causal structures and responses. Social Science & Medicine, offenlegen (Mainz uni has to disclose contracts with Boehringer 66, 1909-1914. Foundation). Der Spiegel (online), 12 May. Retrieved from https:// www.spiegel.de/lebenundlernen/uni/uni-mainz-muss-vertraege-mit- Spiegel, Der (2016). Streit um Einflussnahme von Boehringer boehringer-ingelheim-stiftung-offenlegen-a-1091956.html Ingelheim auf die Uniklinik Mainz’. (Dispute over Boehringer Ingelheim’s influence on the Mainz University Hospital), Der Goldacre, B. (2012). Bad Pharma. How drug companies mislead doctors Spiegel (online), 22 August. Retrieved from https://www.spiegel.de/ and harm patients. London: Fourth Estate. lebenundlernen/uni/uniklinik-mainz-weist-vorwurf-der-boehringer- Henry, D. A., Kerridge, I. H., Hill, S. R., McNeill, P., Doran, E., & einflussnahme-zurueck-a-1108324.html Newby, D. A., et al. (2005). Medical specialists and pharmaceutical University of California, San Francisco (N.D). Drug Industry industry-sponsored research: a survey of the Australian experience. Document Archive. Retrieved from https://www.industrydocuments. Medical Journal of Australia, 182, 557-560. ucsf.edu/drug/ Huntington, S. (2004). Who Are We? The Challenges to American Wislar, J., Flanagin, A., Fontanarosa, P., & Deangelis, C. (2011). National Identity, New York: Simon and Schuster. Honorary and ghost authorship in high impact biomedical journals: a Johann Wolfgang Goethe University. (2008). Code of conduct of cross sectional survey. British Medical Journal, Oct 25; 343: d6128. doi: Johann Wolfgang Goethe University for accepting private third party 10.1136/bmj.d6128. donations. Retrieved from http://www.hof.uni-frankfurt.de/de/ about-us/house-of-finance-stiftung/stiftungskodex.html

Kooperationsvertrag. (2012). Kooperationsvertrag zwischen der Johann-Gutenberg-Universität Mainz [...] und dem Institut für Molekulare Biologie gemeinnützige GmbH [...] und der Boehringer Ingelheim Stiftung [...[ zum Betrieb des Institutes für Molekulare Biologie gemeinnützige GmbH, gefördert durch die Boehringer Ingelheim Stiftung, 2012. (Cooperation agreement between the Johann Gutenberg University Mainz [...] and the Institute for Molecular Biology non-profit GmbH [...] and the Boehringer Ingelheim Foundation [...] for the operation of the Institute for Molecular Biology non-profit GmbH, funded by the Boehringer Ingelheim Foundation, 2012). Retrieved from https://www.wdr.de/tv/applications/daserste/ monitor/pdf/2016/molekulare-biologie.pdf

vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 Corporate power and academic freedom Andrew G. Bonnell 25 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES’ REVIEW

Precarious work and funding make academic freedom precarious

Jeannie Rea Victoria University

During January 2021, students and staff at Boğaziçi University education space, alongside the even more crowded mainstream in Istanbul were arrested and detained for protesting against and social media spaces. Calling on our own governments to the appointment of a new rector who is an ally of President act is subsumed amongst competing priorities and cowardice. Erdoğan. University staff and students, along with journalists, And, of course, other governments and universities do not civil servants and members of the judiciary have been targets have clean hands. In Australia, university staff may not be of Erdoğan’s relentless smothering of opposition. While many rounded up, detained and dismissed for signing a protest have been jailed, many others have charges hanging over them, letter, but we have seen our governments behave similarly have been suspended or dismissed from their jobs and had to the Turkish Government in blatantly interfering in the their passports seized. allocation of government funded research grants. An initial focus of Erdoğan’s ire against universities was the Academics for Peace, who, in 2016, organised a petition Scholars at Risk protesting the persecution of the Kurds and calling for a negotiated just peace. Similarly, international organisations in Turkey’s Academics for Peace were awarded the Scholars support of academic freedom and workers’ rights – including at Risk (SAR) Courage to Think Award in 2018 ‘for their Scholars at Risk (SAR) and Education International (EI) extraordinary efforts in building academic solidarity and in – debated whether an appropriate course of action would promoting the principles of academic freedom, freedom of be to boycott interactions with all Turkish universities, or inquiry, and the peaceful exchange of ideas’. (https://www. focus specifically on those doing the Government’s bidding, scholarsatrisk.org) including by seeking to silence staff and students with tactics SAR continues to protest against the ongoing attacks such as making students spy on their lecturers. At one stage, on university workers and students and has also supported deans were dismissed across the country, and university senior academics fleeing Turkey to find safe havens in other professional officers have also been removed. The dilemma universities around the world. SAR was established for was would a boycott, stopping collaboration on research and exactly such a purpose, and over the past two decades, the publishing, or excluding participation in conferences have SAR network has relocated many persecuted academics the unintended consequence of further isolating our Turkish across the world. For its program to work, the cooperation of colleagues. university senior management is needed to put the principles Turkish academics urged international supporters to be of academic freedom into concrete action. Seven Australian very public about why they were boycotting collaboration – universities and the NTEU are SAR affiliates. and why particular Turkish universities were targeted. This Rahil Dawood was the recipient of SAR’s Courage to has meant clamouring to be heard in the crowded higher Think Award for 2020. Dr Dawood, an Associate Professor

26 Precarious work and funding make academic freedom precarious Jeannie Rea vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES’ REVIEW

in the Human Science Institute of Xinjiang University, solidarity actions and demand Australian universities back and founder of the Minorities Folklore Research Centre in such actions, but is that enough? Xinjiang University, was recognised for her work, alongside that of other academics and students of the Xinjiang Jailed for teaching feminism Uyghur Autonomous Region, who continue to struggle for academic freedom and freedom of opinion, expression, When I listened to an Iranian feminist anthropologist speak belief, association, and movement. SAR reported that in of being jailed and then having to escape her country for December 2017, Dr Dawood told a relative of her plans advocating equality between women and men as part of her to travel from Urumqi to Beijing, and then disappeared. teaching, I paused a moment to reflect on my comparatively It is suspected that she continues to be detained at an petty frustrations at the persistence of sexism in the Australian undisclosed location. academy and its institutions. But I only paused a moment, as These are clear academic freedom cases. They are clear I know it matters to my sisters in Iran, and elsewhere, that we human rights and workers’ rights cases. They impact upon keep supporting feminist scholarship and fighting for justice all those directly involved and have wider implications locally and equity here. I just need to listen to the women in my and globally. In SAR’s 2019 annual report of the Academic classrooms, both local and international students, rail against Freedom Monitoring Project, SAR’s Executive Director, the injustices towards them as women, to be emboldened to Robert Quinn declared, ‘Attacks on higher education keep on teaching and advocating. Being a consistently nagging communities, regardless feminist is not very popular of their location, scale, or in Australian universities, but scope, hold consequences The attacks on university staff and students it’s also easier for me with an for societies everywhere.’ He engaged in teaching, researching and ongoing job and established continued, ‘In our increasingly speaking out against the state, military reputation. interconnected world, these and religious powers, and for fairness, It concerns me that too attacks erode an essential, democracy, and equality, are increasing. many early career academics global space where academics, have learned to be silent about students, and the public at feminism, and queasy about large can come together to even talking and researching understand and solve the complex problems that are affecting on gender. They know, and have even been warned, not to us all.’ (https://www.scholarsatrisk.org) jeopardise their opportunities. Young women say they do not The attacks on university staff and students engaged in want to always have to raise gendered discrimination and sexist teaching, researching and speaking out against the state, behaviour. Many young men can see what is going on but are military and religious powers, and for fairness, democracy, apprehensive about intervening. LGBTIQ students and staff and equality, are increasing. Violent attacks – including continue to protect themselves and one another by not being bombings and murder – wrongful imprisonments and out at university. I look for inspiration and courage to Chilean prosecutions, pressure on student expression and restrictions student feminists who bared their breasts to protest about on academic publishing and travel, are each common across sexism and gendered violence in and beyond universities. the world, from the US and Israel, to Hong Kong, Brazil I am currently in awe of the students and university staff of and Sudan. From the relative safety of Australia, we also hear Myanmar leading and joining the current mobilisation against of more cases of Australian academics being harassed and the coup – at great personal risk – to continue the fight for a detained while working overseas. As has been noted by many fair society, for equal rights and democratic institutions. academics and commentators, liberal democratic principles of free speech and movement, alongside academic freedom, are Rising up for Black Lives Matter very much a battle ground in the 21st century. Free movement of academics and students around the world is critical to So, we have to ask: why are our universities so quiet in freedom, of thought and action. comparison with students, staff and even university Seeking to make comparisons between being persecuted leaderships in many other places? Why didn’t our campuses for exercising academic freedom and freedom to organise ignite, joining the rising up (again) of the Black Lives Matter internationally, and here in Australia, can seem pretentious. movement in 2020? Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (I just read in an international student’s essay of the military leaders and activists argued that we had to take to the streets bursting into her university library and residential college despite pandemic public health restrictions. They argued that with tear gas and firing weapons in retaliation to an anti- we must seize the moment created by the brief spotlight that government protest.) We can, and should, encourage exposed the shame of disgraceful levels of incarceration and vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 Precarious work and funding make academic freedom precarious Jeannie Rea 27 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES’ REVIEW

deaths in custody of First Nations peoples in Australia. Bitter not unique to Australia but are often overlooked in focussing experience has taught that the spotlight would not linger – on the bigger human and professional rights picture. These and it has not. are insecure employment, unreliable funding and pressure in But in Australian universities, the call for decolonisation partnerships. has not erupted, nor demands to dismantle the structures and institutions of white supremacy. The mumblings are Insecure employment certainly there, but let’s face the reality. Australian universities may have opened the doors to more Aboriginal and Torres Insecure employment is now the norm in Australian Strait Islander students, staff and communities, but it is a universities. Academics no longer have ‘tenure’ even when constant battle to get in, and to stay in. At the same time, employed in an ongoing capacity. There were very good most university staff and students are able to go about their reasons for academic tenure, and they were not because of daily lives without thinking about history and racist legacies any commitment by employers to workers’ rights. Tenure today. Meanwhile, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander facilitates the academic freedom to fearlessly pursue answers. colleagues are left to carry the load of expectations that they Academics were hard to dismiss, even if their research had will alert the rest of us to respond and mobilise, while also gone down rabbit holes or they offended someone. carrying the heavy weight of their community responsibilities Today in Australia, most academic staff are employed on as well as intergenerational trauma – and facing racism and contracts – mainly sessional contracts – which are in effect discrimination every day, including in universities. the same as doing piece work. This has been extensively exposed, documented and analysed elsewhere. The reality Equity and access to academic freedom of living from one contract to the next means that speaking out may mean no job next time around. Sessionally-employed If racism, sexism, discrimination and harassment are part of academics are reluctant to make suggestions on changes to your everyday experience at university, you do not have equity content or pedagogy as this may be construed as criticism by and access to practise academic freedom. ‘Academic freedom’ their supervisor. They are often reluctant to act independently is not a philosophical debate, nor even a political one. It can in their ‘classroom’, and indeed are directed to stick to the be quite pragmatic. We can have debates about the extent of script. Staff activity can be monitored and recorded in the the extra licence and the privilege for academics to research, digital classroom. Sessionally-employed academics are not teach and publish without censorship. We do need clauses in usually really part of a course team and cannot initiate new or collective agreements and policy and legislation recognising revamped units of study. They can only undertake the work academic freedom. But this is often a discourse of, and for, assigned to them. They are not eligible to stand or vote for the privileged. Scientists and other researchers in government academic boards or councils and discouraged from getting employment envy the academic freedom of their university involved in the university. Contracted staff have a little colleagues. They look to us to speak out, as they can be more opportunity to be part of the team but are still always silenced and sacked if they do so. conscious of keeping their heads below the parapet. Academic freedom is a responsibility, not a right. It is to For research staff, academic and professionally employed, speak truth to power; to honour the liberal university goal contract employment is highly problematic. When researchers of working for the public good; and for the publicly funded had tenured positions, it was expected that they would call university, in particular, to act in the public interest. out, debate and even close down research activities that were What then is stopping us speaking truth to power in judged to be dangerous or not independent. Whistleblowing Australian universities today? There are but a handful of was always dangerous and could backfire and end careers, academics and other university staff and students, who have but today even with whistleblowing protections, there is been disciplined, suspended and dismissed for activities probably greater reluctance to jeopardise employment for that arguably fall within academic freedom definitions. It both income reasons and being able to continue monitoring is troubling that there are thousands of academic staff and and intervening in a project. The tenure era though, was students who are feeling censored, and censoring themselves, largely a pale male enclave amongst whom many resisted every day. opening up research inclusive of the standpoints and experiences of women or First Nations peoples, because Precarious work and funding curtail that could be deemed dangerous and challenge dominant academic freedom paradigms. So there have been improvements in opening gates but is it just coincidence that pushing open the gates There are three big and intertwined obstacles to the exercise of has happened alongside the shift from ‘tenure’ to ‘ongoing’ academic freedom in Australian universities today, which are – with most staff not ongoing at all.

28 Precarious work and funding make academic freedom precarious Jeannie Rea vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES’ REVIEW

Insecure employment practices of universities continue to on employing more secure staff. That increasing numbers contradict lofty proclamations of employment opportunity of universities are being found to have engaged in wage and equity. Researchers have produced the evidence that theft from the already vulnerable sessional academic staff is women are more likely to have careers stalled and stopped testimony to a very unhealthy obsession with employing staff through job insecurity. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander on the cheap. staff are more likely to be on contracts and experience systemic The responsibility of university councils and vice- and systematic racism. chancellors is to advocate for more funding, rather than Senior academic and professional staff too are on contracts, continue acquiescing to government insistence on lower which also helps explain the timidity, bordering on cowardice, and lower expenditure on higher education. Universities are of our university leaderships. Most are on three-to-five-year terrified of offending and grants being further reduced. They contracts and will work to their KPIs with an eye on the next do not take positions critical of Government, or Opposition contract and promotion at their current, or next, university. policy, or pronouncements on anything – let alone on higher There is usually little long term personal investment in the education funding. university. Being brave means The impact of and how a pretty quick end to university we respond to climate management and leadership The reliance on insecure employment is change arguably constitutes careers. explained by university managements as the greatest crisis for our However, there continue being due to government underfunding. universities today. So, maybe to be idealistic and genuine While this is largely true, it is also true this should be a measure of commitments to the public that university managements decide not whether academic freedom good, but these strategies and means anything – and whether initiatives are strangled because to spend their income on employing more our universities are fulfilling there are not resourced to make secure staff. their mission to work for the them happen. Understaffing public good and in the public and overworking staff, interest – fearlessly speaking the majority insecurely employed, is the hallmark of our truth to power. Instead, we have timid governing bodies and universities. Restructures and job cuts are constant. So, managements reluctant to provide any ammunition for a another reason for reluctance in speaking truth to power is vindictive government to further cut funding. that staff are chronically overworked and stretched too thinly. None of our Australian universities have declared a climate emergency. Climate scientists have called on universities, Unreliable underfunding governments and industry to do so. Even the UK Tory Government has. Our universities have not, and climate Government investment in public universities in Australia is change deniers continue to secure a public platform. We amongst the lowest in the OECD and continues to decline. should not forget that Australian climate scientists have not Students also pay higher tuition fees than most other only had to deal with constant funding cuts, but some also countries. The dirty secret that Australia’s universities ran experienced death threats just a few years ago. on the fees of onshore international students has now been In lieu of government funding, university leaders have exposed, as international students stopped coming in 2020 sought other avenues of income, and thus become much due to the coronavirus pandemic. more reliant on research partners, ‘philanthropists’, private, Increased competition over research funding leads to often corporate and civil society donors, as well as commercial conservative bids in areas of government determined priority partnerships. areas to the neglect of other areas and of blue-sky projects. Universities cut the breadth and depth of course offerings and Pressure in partnerships are reluctant to experiment or to support courses and new or old areas of merit unless they are self-sufficient. Many of our There have been cases of censorship and disciplining of staff universities now have a very restricted disciplinary spread even whose comments are construed as possibly offending funding in their priority fields of study, and with very few ongoing sources, whether from our governments, foreign governments, early or late career academics. individuals, companies or organisations. Staff who speak out The reliance on insecure employment is explained are accused of potentially jeopardising an income source, and by university managements as being due to government thus not acting in the interests of their employer. underfunding. While this is largely true, it is also true that The request to remove social media posts from private university managements decide not to spend their income accounts, the refusal to allow events and particular speakers, vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 Precarious work and funding make academic freedom precarious Jeannie Rea 29 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES’ REVIEW

or insistence on particular event sponsors, are all examples Follow Scholars at Risk at https://www.scholarsatrisk.org of anticipating, and seeking to circumvent, offence from and Education International at https://www.ei-ie.org. partners. There may not even have been a complaint. It seems to be assumed that these partnerships, even Jeannie Rea is an Associate Professor at Victoria University, commercial ones, are very fragile. Even implementing waste Australia currently working in gender studies, international reduction strategies has been avoided in the past because it may community development and planetary health. She was upset commercial partners. These days many such companies NTEU National President 2010-2018. are racing ahead on their own social responsibility and Contact: [email protected] environmental sustainability commitments. The universities may well be left behind, still justifying partnerships with weapons manufacturers and big polluters. So, the onus is also on university communities to not be intimidated by insinuations that they may be damaging university reputations, and thus the financial bottom line. It is the students and the staff in ongoing jobs that are in the strongest positions to speak truth to power. Speaking out is unlikely to land you in jail in Australia but can still threaten your career and livelihood. But still, don’t we have a responsibility to stand up, act up and back up others? Academic freedom is of little use as a concept if we do not exercise it; and fight the conditions that strangle it – in Australia, and in solidarity with university workers and students internationally.

30 Precarious work and funding make academic freedom precarious Jeannie Rea vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES’ REVIEW

Freedom in the university fiefdom

Richard Hil

If your head’s in the freezer and your feet in the oven, it’s likely evidence, they continue to insist that academic freedom – that, on average, your temperature will be just fine. This sort one of the most cherished of all tertiary values – remains an of perverse logic isn’t all that far removed from the question immutable part of institutional life. To suggest otherwise, of academic freedom. Increasingly, today’s academics find they fume, is an outrageous slur. After all, how can the themselves incarcerated in a Weberian iron cage with an modern university retain its image as a bastion of free, critical executioner about to chop off their heads should they protest. thought if academies are muzzled? Still, as the manageriat But hey, they’re told, you’re entirely free to express yourselves likes to remind us, with freedom comes responsibility. You as long as you toe the line. It’s a familiar Hobbesian choice. can’t just do your own thing or sound off when you work for a Not that universities will ever admit to it. corporate entity, can you now? Reputations and brands have Despite all the lofty claims to the contrary, it seems that to be protected. academic freedom across the world is under growing threat. As you may be aware, yours truly has been on the case of Academics in Hungary and Turkey have been persecuted Whackademia for some time now. My disillusionment with while others in Russia, the Baltic states, Brazil, China, universities spans about 35 years. It began with me hearing Egypt and the Philippines (to name a few) also face extreme claims by various vice-chancellors about their institutions’ difficulties (see Pills & Svenson, 2019). With the rise of tireless devotion to ‘excellence’ and ‘high quality’ education. populist authoritarianism comes the impulse to stifle dissent But here I was, along with my exhausted, yet dedicated and rewrite common sense. Universities are often in the firing colleagues, barely able to breathe as we sought vainly to line, and governments the willing executioners. cope with massive workloads, increasingly needy students, In Australia, we’re seeing new fault lines appear in the insensitive managers and totally unrealistic institutional academy as institutions are accused of left-wing bias or of expectations. Our daily experiences were defined by the peddling anti-Western sentiments. Meanwhile, the leading cloying realities of neoliberal governance, administered areas of critical inquiry – arts, humanities and social sciences through the Weberian-like isms of economic rationalism – find themselves under assault from conservative elements. and managerialism. What most irked me were those glossy The fact is that despite their often-cloistered appearance, marketing brochures depicting happy, smiling academics universities tend to reflect general trends in society. They attending to the supremely grateful students in hi-tech have, over the past 40 years or so, adopted a radical free learning centres. market ideology that has drastically altered the character In stark contrast, most of the academics I knew were barely and functioning of the tertiary sector. The impacts of this surviving. Many anaesthetised themselves with red wine, way of thinking on university cultures have had far-reaching sleeping pills and a steady stream of complaint. Research was consequences on all aspects of scholarly work across the telling us that mental health problems among the nation’s Anglosphere (see Reichman, 2019; Scott, 2019; Connell, scholars were on the rise and that job satisfaction was at an all- 2019; Watts, 2017). time low. Yet none of this seemed to matter to the manageriat It’s in this context that the old chestnut of academic – although they did promote various ‘wellbeing’ programs – freedom has been well and truly roasted. But not according who appeared hell-bent on brand promotion and balancing to today’s university manageriat; oh no. Despite mounting the books. vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 Freedom in the university fiefdom Richard Hil 31 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES’ REVIEW

I’m now more or less retired from academic work, although which loom over academics like a Damoclean sword. Fall I do continue to write books and articles like this one. My short and you’ll be required to please explain. Freedom academic friends, however, tell me that the neoliberal grip on to be interrogated. Freedom to acquiesce to institutional universities has tightened further over recent years. Core to performative measures. this is corporate compliance. This involves a complex web of Another aspect of neoliberal governance is the mangle of regulations, performance metrics and restrictive codes set out hyper individualism. Go into any school or department these in telephone directories otherwise known as policy manuals. days and you’ll find academics glued to their computer screens, The result is that the idea of unfettered academic freedom rarely straying to talk to colleagues. Tea breaks, staff meetings has all but disappeared. It’s not so much that academics and staff room booze-ups are things of the past. Competition are required to protect the corporate brand by not saying is the order of the day as academics vie with others over anything too ‘controversial’ (and certainly not about their workload allocations. It’s all rather sad really, given that own institutions!), or that they collegiality was once hailed have to run press releases and as the most rewarding part other public announcements Core to this is corporate compliance. This of an academic’s experience. past gatekeepers, or that involves a complex web of regulations, Freedom to be competitive and some academics are nervous performance metrics and restrictive codes disconnected. about upsetting international set out in telephone directories otherwise Ask most academics if they students, especially from known as policy manuals. feel free in the neoliberal China. No, it’s all this, and university and they’ll likely more. burst out laughing. Ironic isn’t The constraints on academic it that the word freedom is one freedom are built into systems of university governance. How of the main pillars of neoliberalism yet never before has the so, you might ask? Let’s take three broad examples. university been so crushed under the weight of managerial It’s hard, if not impossible to avoid the choke hold of oversight. But academic freedom, defined by UNESCO as neoliberalism when it comes to pedagogy. Study guides the right ‘to freedom of teaching and discussion, freedom are not only required to conform to the diktats of anointed in carrying out research and disseminating and publishing experts from Teaching and Learning, but they must also results’ should be a fundamental aspect of university life. It include criteria suited to the vocational aims of the modern also requires constant vigilance. economy through what are known as ‘graduate attributes’. As Cary Nelson, President of the American Association of These are designed as measures of convenience for prospective University Professors put it ten years ago, academic freedom employers who peruse graduates’ e-portfolios for signs of should allow for open debate, the free exchange of ideas, critical thinking, intellectual rigour and an appreciation challenging others’ views, disagreeing with administrative of cultural diversity. The upshot is that critical thinking is rulings, offering latitude in course and program design, turned into a commodified product rather than something and being entitled to due process in front of one’s peers etc. that is experienced through active citizenship. This of course (Nelson, 2010). It doesn’t mean to bully, cajole, impose, fits into the neoliberal emphasis on job readiness, career and override, intimidate, or humiliate, nor does it mean to all things vocational. Hey presto, economism rules! Freedom break the law, to skip off one’s duties, to recklessly ignore to be a neoliberal clone. institutional policies and regulations (however tempting that Performance reviews are another example of neoliberal might be). creep. Officially promoted as an affable exchange between Getting the balance right between institutional interests the subject and line-manager, these rituals can be high-risk. and personal responsibly is difficult but not impossible. Goals for the upcoming year have to conform to institutional Maximum autonomy in an institutional setting need not be expectations, these days including the requirement to haul contradictory. It’s the values that count here, and what we in significant sums of money through grant acquisitions, consider to be important in terms of academic work. The consultancies and the rest. Academics are also required to limits of that work have not and should not be defined simply sell their products, ensuring that units are sexy enough to by market-oriented, reputational considerations, or through attract would-be enrolees. Additionally, student evaluations top-down diktat. The application of relative freedoms should are closely scrutinised and woe betide a low score which be worked out through the active inclusion of academics and may require you to attend an upskilling course, or your students at all levels of university governance. The problem ‘performance’ can used to sabotage your promotion chances today is that this is largely the preserve of the managerial class (never mind that such voodoo metrics are less than whose stated commitments to academic freedom tend to rigorous). And then there’s the annual quota of publications collide with more instrumental concerns.

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The tension between the two is hard to reconcile, Pills, E. & Svenson, M. (2019). Academic freedom is under threat around the world – here’s how to defend it. , October but if academic freedom has any meaning in the current The Conversation 7. Retrieved from https://theconversation.com/academic-freedom-is- environment it requires a radical redistribution of power and under-threat-around-the-world-heres-how-to-defend-it-118220 influence within and across the academy. Reichman, H. (2019). The Future of Academic Freedom. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019. Richard Hil is Adjunct Professor in the School of Human Scott, J.W. (2019). Knowledge, Power, and Academic Freedom. New York: Services and Social Work at Griffith University, Gold Coast, Columbia University Press. Queensland, Australia. Watts, R. (2017). Public Universities, Managerialism and the Value of Higher Education. Melbourne: Palgrave McMillan. References

Connell, R. (2019). The Good University: What Universities Actually Do and Why It’s Time for Radical Change. Melbourne: Monash University Publishing. Nelson, C. (2010). ‘Defining Academic Freedom’, Inside Higher Education, December 21. Retrieved from https://www.insidehighered. com/views/2010/12/21/defining-academic-freedom

vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 Freedom in the university fiefdom Richard Hil 33 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES’ REVIEW

A self-selection mechanism for appointed external members of WA University Councils

Gerd E. Schröder-Turk Murdoch University & Australian National University

The governing boards of Australian public universities, known as Senates or Councils, are bodies with broad legislated powers. The composition of these bodies is crucial to ensuring sound strategic management of universities and maintaining academic standards. The key aspect of Council processes in Western Australian (WA) that this article seeks to highlight is the mechanism by which new appointed Council members are selected, and the dominant role that a committee composed predominantly of appointed members plays in this process, thereby creating a risk of a self-reinforcing selection bias. This is a noteworthy, but as yet unrecognised, effect of changes to State legislation in 2016. Changes to the legislated membership rules for key committees, particularly the Nominations Committee, mean the appointed members control the appointments of new appointed members. Such self-selection mechanisms carry the risk of reducing diversity amongst new appointments and consequently further increasing group homogeneity. Too high a degree of homogeneity, in turn, may negatively impact on the quality of Council decision making, particularly in relation to groupthink bias. In practice, membership of Councils in Western Australia is skewed to those without substantive experience in or affiliation with the higher education sector. This paper presents the conditions that may have enabled this shift in the expertise and competencies of University governing bodies and considers the consequences of this transition for the governance of universities. Keywords: university governance, university councils, public governing boards, selection bias, groupthink

The governing bodies of Australia’s public universities, All of these universities are founded through WA State known as ‘Senates’ or ‘Councils’ and referred to in this paper Government legislation, which in all cases establishes as ‘Councils’, are decision making bodies with broad powers governing Councils with full control over their universities. established in their respective State or Territory (or in the case For example, the University of Western Australia Act states: of ANU, Federal) legislation. In this paper I focus specifically [Council] shall have the entire control and management of on the Councils of the four public universities in Western the affairs and concerns of the University, and may act in all Australia: The University of Western Australia (UWA), matters concerning the University in such manner as appears Curtin University (Curtin), Murdoch University (Murdoch) to it best calculated to promote the interests of the University. and Edith Cowan University (ECU).1 (Section 13) (Western Australia, n.d.).

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The other universities have similar arrangements in place Concerning the Status of Higher Education Teaching for the powers of their governing bodies. While Councils Personnel. It says: can delegate their powers, authorities, duties and functions Higher education teaching personnel should have the to senior executive leadership teams, the Councils retain right and opportunity, without discrimination of any a responsibility for oversight of the delegations made. For kind, according to their abilities, to take part in the gov- example, UWA’s Senate Charter (University of Western erning bodies and to criticise the functioning of higher Australia, n.d.) says ‘[The Council] is responsible to the education institutions, including their own, while respect- public for the stewardship of the University as an institution ing the right of other sections of the academic community of excellence and integrity, and for the custodianship of its to participate, and they should also have the right to elect a future prosperity. It ensures that the University’s policies majority of representatives to academic bodies within the higher education institutions (UNESCO, 1997, p. 11). and procedures are consistent with legal requirements and community expectations’. How then, in this complex environment, does one best Similarly, the Murdoch University Senate Statement of design a governance system that is effective in assuring Governance Principles lists among the Council’s roles and competent oversight so that the university achieves its responsibilities the roles of ‘oversight of management’, ‘critically functions and complies with other requirements? monitoring the management of risk’, ‘monitoring University In this paper, I examine two of the many key precursors performance against strategic objectives’ and (as a legal role) to effective oversight: the composition and competence of ‘ensuring that the university is acting ethically and in conformity the governing body. Specifically, I address the need for the with all legal requirements’ (Murdoch University, n.d.). governance system to have a robustness that ensures that The oversight role that a University Council needs to Councils include a diversity of views and that ensures a fulfil differs significantly from the role of a typical company balanced integration of stakeholders, and mechanisms that board in the corporate or commercial sector, owing to the prevent majority groups or factions from forming. complexity of the functions and expectations of a public I highlight how changes to legislation in 2016 have university; to the diversity of the ‘stakeholders’, and to the weakened that robustness of Western Australian Councils, widely established principles of academic staff integration in both in terms of balanced composition and in terms of poor decision making. To elaborate: integration of academic perspectives. The legislative changes a. The complexity of the functions and expectations of referred to throughout this article are changes made through a university is reflected in the breadth of legislated the Universities Legislation Amendment Act 2016. These functions. For example, for ECU, these functions changes were proclaimed in the WA Government Gazette include: to provide courses of study appropriate to a of Friday 9 December 2016 (No 221). These changes came university; to participate in the improvement of tertiary into effect in 2017. The legislation was debated in the WA education; to undertake pure and applied research; to parliament in 2016; quotes in relation to parliamentary foster the general welfare and development of all enrolled debates in this article all refer to a debate of the legislation in students, and to serve the community and public interest the Legislative Council of Western Australia on Thursday 13 by promoting critical and free enquiry, and several others October 2016. They are represented as quotes from Hansard, (Western Australia, 1984). from pages 7012b to 7035a (Parliament of Western Australia, b. The diversity of the stakeholders relates to the functions 2016). of the universities as ‘public universities’ and to the absence of any financial shareholders or private owners. The composition and structure of WA This makes the question of who the stakeholders of the University Councils universities are more complex than for private enterprise and different to other public corporations. In financial The composition and structure of the Council of each of terms, the universities report to the state government the four public universities is determined by the WA State and parliament. In other respects, many other groups, legislation that establishes each respective university. including the public (as students or parents), industry The composition of the Council comprises up to 17 (as future employers of graduates) and the federal members and consists of the following members: government (as regulator and key funder of tertiary • One member elected by and from the academic staff of the education), all have stakes in high-quality public university, education. • One member elected by and from the non-academic staff c. The established expectations around the integration of the university, of academic staff in decision making are perhaps best • Two members elected by and from the alumni community illustrated in the 1997 UNESCO Recommendation (or convocation), vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 A self-selection mechanism for appointed external members of WA University Councils Gerd Schröder-Turk 35 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES’ REVIEW

• Two members elected by and from the student body, for membership of Council or its sub-committees limit the • The Vice-Chancellor as an ex officio member, ability of university staff and students to be considered for • The Chair of the Academic Board as an ex officio member2, such appointment, while imposing few limitations on persons • The Chancellor, external to the university. • Three Governor-appointed members, and • Up to 5 members co-opted by the Council. The group of appointed external Council Table 1 summarises the composition and describes members applicable eligibility exclusions. The uniformity of the Council structure and composition The central purpose of this article is to examine the effect across all four public universities is the result of changes to the of the 2016 legislative changes that granted (or at least state legislation in 2016 which took effect in 2017. legislated) additional powers to two groups of Council The Chancellor, who chairs the Council, is elected by members, namely co-opted and Governor-appointed the Council and need not be a member of Council prior to members, who, together with the Chancellor, typically being elected. As per state legislation, Councils must have constitute a majority of the Council membership. Although a sub-committee with delegate authority in relation to the named differently, these two groups are in fact quite similar, nomination process for the appointment of new appointed for the following reasons. members. The specific names of this committee differ at the First, co-opted members and government-appointed four universities (see Table 2); this committee is here referred members are selected for membership of the Senate in similar to as the Nominations Committee. processes in which the Nominations Committee plays a Councils have several other sub-committees, founded dominant role. through policy or statute rather than State legislation. Table 1: Composition of University Councils / Senates in Western Australia These committees typically Role # Term Exclusions perform an advisory role Chancellor 1 3 years to the Council in most matters, rather than Governor-appointed member 3 3 years ECU: must not be university staff or student. having delegate authority UWA: no exclusions or power. That is, the Curtin: no exclusions committees advise but the Murdoch: Must not be university staff > 0.5 ultimate decision remains FTE or student with Council. Chair Academic Board or 1 ex officio All universities have, President of Academic Council under various names, Council sub-committees Vice-Chancellor 1 ex officio tasked with Audit and Risk Elected Academic Staff 1 3 years UWA: must not be member of executive. and with Resources and Elected Professional Staff 1 3 years Finance. Elected student members 2 1 year ECU: Must not be university staff > 0.5 FTE Membership exclusions Elected alumni member (ECU, 2 3 years Murdoch: Must not be university staff > 0.5 for the sub-committees Murdoch & Curtin) Members FTE or student apply, so that not all of convocation (UWA) ECU: Must not be university staff > 0.5 FTE categories of Council or full-time student membership qualify for membership of the sub- UWA: Must not be university staff committees. In particular, Member co-opted by Council ≤ 5 3 years ECU: Must not be university staff or student exclusions applicable to the Murdoch: Must not be university staff > 0.5 Nominations Committee FTE or student (see below) were introduced UWA: no exclusions in the 2016 changes to the Curtin: sole or principal employment must not legislation and are of central be as staff member of university relevance to this article. Composition of the Councils of the four public Western Australian universities, with exclusions or requirements for eligibility for the specific Most eligibility positions. The full set of requirements and exclusions is legislated through the relevant WA state legislation. The concept of a convocation is in exclusions or restrictions place only at UWA, presumably owing to it and its State Act being much older than those of the rest of the WA public universities.

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For the co-opted members, the Council’s Nominations Hence, barring exceptional circumstances and government Committee makes recommendations to the Council for intervention, the selection of Governor-appointed members is, suitable persons, and the Council appoints these persons as in practice, vested in the Council’s Nominations Committee. ‘co-opted’ members of the Council. Second, legislated rules about who is eligible to be selected For the Governor-appointed members, the Nominations as a co-opted or government appointed member creates Committee directly recommends to the Education Minister, another similarity between these two types of membership. without further legislated consideration by Council, Table 1 summarises the restrictions on eligibility for co-opted suitable persons for appointment. In practice and judging and Governor-appointed members. Except at UWA, existing from comments made in parliament, it appears that the restrictions limit or remove the ability of university staff government consideration reduces to a ‘box-ticking’ exercise. or students to be selected as co-opted and government- The Honourable Peter Collier (the then Education Minister) appointed members. made the following comment in the WA Legislative Council In practice, at all WA universities, the vast majority of on 13 October 2016 (Parliament of Western Australia, 2016, co-opted and government appointed members are persons p. 7027): without any substantive professional connection to any university or to higher education (other than through their Any recommendation, not just from me but any Minister for Education, will exclusively come from a recommendation Council membership). Specifically, amongst the 37 people from a university. They might feel they need someone with who are listed in the 2019 annual reports of the four public a financial background or something. It is just a convention WA universities, none, based on easily accessible public that the minister appoints someone. It is the same with any information, appear to have an employment relation with board, but particularly in this instance. any university, and only two (listed as an Emeritus Table 2: Legislated composition and 2019 membership of the Nominations Committees at the Professor and an Honorary four public WA universities. Professor) of the 37 have Nominations Committee any university affiliation. U WA ECU Murdoch Curtin Therefore, by all accounts, it is fair to conclude that Name Chancellor Governance and Chancellor’s and Nominations Committee Nominations Nomination Committee a vast majority of the Committee Committee appointed members need to be considered ‘external’, not Composition Chancellor, Chancellor, Chancellor, Chancellor, only to the university on Pro-Chancellor, Deputy Chancellor, Deputy Chancellor, Pro Chancellor, Vice- Chairs of Resources Chair of Resources Chair of whose Council they sit but Chancellor, and Audit & Risk Committee, Kalgoorlie to the university system in Chairs of Committees, Chair of Audit & Campus Council, general. Audit and Risk 1 member Council, Risk Committee, Chair Finance Third, the 2016 Committee 1 member of At least 1 other Committee, legislative changes altered and Strategic Chancellery, Senate member Chair Audit & the composition of Council Resources 1 or 2 persons with appointed by Risk Committee, sub-committees (or, at least, Committee relevant expertise (1 Chancellor who 1 member of formalised their composition needs to be Council is external to University through legislation). member) university Council; Critically, and pivotal to the 2019 Chancellor, Chancellor, Chancellor, Chancellor, argument advanced here, membership 2x co-opted, 3x co-opted, 4x co-opted Senate 4x co-opted this means that the co-opted Vice- 2x Governor- members, Council Chancellor appointed, 1x Governor- members3 and government-appointed 1 VC-nominated appointed Senate members, together with Chancellery member2 the Chancellor, are, at member1 least in practice, the The table provides the formal name of the committee at the respective university, the composition of the committee (that is, the membership sole groups of Council requirements to the extent that they are prescribed by the corresponding WA state legislation), and the actual membership of the committee members represented on for the year 2019 as the most current year for which annual reports are available (that is, the type of Council members, or others, who were part of the Nominations Committee). the powerful Nominations 1. Information on members of committee as per document Governance and Nominations Committee, downloaded 12 January 2021 and Committee. (Exceptions referencing resolution UC197/25 Dec19; Council membership categories as per 2019 ECU Annual Report. are in place at UWA, where 2. Membership and Senate membership categories as per Murdoch University Annual Report 2019. 3. Data as per Curtin University Annual Report 2019 the Vice-Chancellor is a vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 A self-selection mechanism for appointed external members of WA University Councils Gerd Schröder-Turk 37 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES’ REVIEW

member of that committee and at Curtin University where actual selection bias. Such an investigation would require a a VC-nominated Chancellery member is a member of that more comprehensive study, presumably including a historical committee, see Table 2.) membership analysis, and a careful analysis of the homogeneity In light of these similarities – and in the absence of any of the groups of appointed members, separately for each other Council regulations that distinguish between these university. Such an analysis would also need to assert whether, two membership types – it seems reasonable to group both and if so to what degree, committees with the functions of membership types together, and to refer to them as ‘appointed the Nominations Committee existed in practice prior to the external members’, or perhaps more precisely as ‘appointed, in legislative change in 2016 and whether or not, even without the practice external, members’. legislative requirements, these were dominated by appointed Together with the Chancellor (who is appointed in a similar external members. fashion to the co-opted members or whose appointment In the context of this risk, it is worth noting a creates a vacancy for a co-opted member), this group holds a recommendation in a review of university governance, majority of up to 9 of the up to 17 members of Council. conducted for and by the Victoria Department of Education and by Stuart Hamilton (2002). His recommendation 11 Nomination process for appointed suggests ‘that ... the nominations committee should fairly members dominated by appointed reflect the composition of the whole council’. While it is not members clear how this could be achieved, given the small numbers of members, the inclusion of groups other than appointed As we have seen above, the Nominations Committee has members in the Nominations Committee would improve the a powerful role in the selection of the appointed external system and lessen the risk of a selection bias occurring. members, both for co-opted and for Governor-appointed Importantly, the risk of a damaging self-reinforcing selection members. For all practical purposes and notwithstanding bias could, in principle, swing the majority of Council to any the ability of the minister/governor to override a ideology: left or right, capitalist or socialist, tree-hugging or recommendation, the selection for the Governor-appointed corporate-minded. All such majorities would impair decision members is a decision of the Nominations Committee, and making. Put simply, the risk is that an emerging dominance the selection of the co-opted members a decision over which of a particular persuasion amongst the appointed members the Nominations Committee has substantial control. becomes reinforced through the system. Legislated requirements and exclusions for membership of However, as we will see below, there are further exclusions the Nominations Committee are in place that have the effect and restrictions on Council membership or Council sub- that the Nominations Committee is dominated by appointed committee membership and eligibility that mean that the risk members. These legislated requirements, summarised in Table of a dominance of perspectives commonly held by academic 2, were legislated in 2016 and introduced in 2017.3 staff are suppressed, whereas the risk of a dominance of what This means that the selection of new appointed members to perhaps could be described as ‘corporate think’ is enhanced. the University Council is undertaken by a sub-committee that is itself dominated by appointed members, with that selection Limitations on the representation and being confirmed by the Council on which the appointed participation of academic staff external members have a majority. This system creates, in my view, a significant risk of a The 2016 changes to the State legislation regarding WA self-reinforcing selection bias that could, in turn, result in a university Councils also directly affected the representation harmful level of group cohesiveness or group homogeneity and participation of academic staff of the universities in the affecting the quality of decision making. Councils. Whether this risk manifests in an actual selection bias The most drastic of these changes was the reduction to a depends, in particular, on whether or not the group of single elected representative for the academic staff: Out of up appointed members is largely a homogeneous group of to 17 Council members, there is now only 1 elected academic individuals with similar backgrounds, views, persuasions, staff member.4 ideologies, etc., that is, whether or not it is a group that, in Prior to the legislative change, there were three elected other contexts, might be considered as a ‘faction’, a ‘section’ or academic staff members on the Councils of the University an ‘interest group’. of Western Australia and of Murdoch University and two This article asserts that the risk of a self-reinforcing selection elected academic staff members on the Councils of Edith bias exists and that it is inherent in the processes in WA Councils Cowan University and of Curtin University. legislated by the university Acts. The article deliberately stops This very poor representation of the academic body short of concluding whether or not the risk manifests in an becomes particularly concerning in a situation in which the

38 A self-selection mechanism for appointed external members of WA University Councils Gerd Schröder-Turk vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES’ REVIEW

potential selection bias, described above, leads to a cohesive University, and perhaps others, Senate members (including or homogeneous group of appointed external members that the academic staff representative) cannot be observers of the holds views that are contrary to the interests of the academic Nominations Committee. body. It is worth noting that, where this occurs, the exclusion The reduction in academic representation on the Councils of elected staff members from these sub-committees not is likely to be considered detrimental by the majority of only leads to weaker staff representation in decision making, academic staff. Even outside the academic community, the but also limits the breadth of perspectives and situational change was highly contested. Within the same parliamentary knowledge accommodated in decision making processes. It debate referred to above, the Honourable Lynn MacLaren may limit the range and relevance of information available to argued (Parliament of Western Australia, 2016) that: elected members in supporting important decisions. Such lack of ability to make informed judgements or form opinions in [The] bill proposes to reduce the number of members on the governing councils and senates of the four universities from relation to Council matters may negatively affect their ability between 19 and 22 to 17. The reduction is applied dispropor- to carry out their Council duties particularly in relation to tionately to the number of elected academic staff members, complex issues, such as assessing whether the university acts in because there are three members on the University of West- an ethically appropriate manner. ern Australia’s and Murdoch University’s senate, and Edith Cowan University and Curtin University have two. Further- Dominance of appointed external more, the bill changes how the academic representation is members on Council sub-committees selected, from being elected to being appointed by the board chair or the President of the Academic Council.5 This remains The dominance of the Nominations Committee in relation a concern to us and is a diversion from the principles of open and transparent participation on these governing bodies.(p. to the selection process of new appointed members is perhaps 7021) the most striking demonstration that powers within the WA Councils are not evenly distributed and are rather skewed The then Leader of the Opposition and later Minister towards external appointed members at the expense of staff for Education, the Honourable Sue Ellery, moved a motion representatives including, in particular, that of academic staff. seeking to amend the bill and increase the academic staff The Nominations Committee may also have a wider remit representation to two academic staff members, arguing: than just the selection of future appointed Council members. ‘I do think this is an opportunity for us to make sure that In some universities, either by regulation or by practice, the academic staff are properly represented. We should honour Nominations Committee has adopted other tasks, often the traditions of the history of the independence of academia central to the highest level governance decisions. and make sure that academics are properly represented on the For example, at Murdoch University, the Senate Statement governing bodies of the universities’ (Parliament of Western of Governance Principles defines the terms of reference of the Australia, 2016, p. 7029) Nominations Committee (whose full name is Chancellor’s The motion was defeated, leaving the single representative and Nomination Committee) to include the tasks: to for the academic staff members as the sole, and thereby determine remuneration including bonus payments for Vice- disproportionately weakened, voice of the academic body on Chancellor and senior officers; to recommend performance each Council. objectives for the Vice-Chancellor; to determine succession Further limitations on the representation of academic planning for the Vice-Chancellor and Senior Officers; to interests are imposed by further exclusions or limitations of advise the Senate on amendments to University legislation; the elected academic staff member from membership of the to review operating procedures of the Council; to advise the significant Council sub-committees. In addition to exclusion Chancellor on governance issues and matters of substance; of the academic staff member from the Nominations and to provide advice to the Vice-Chancellor on strategic Committee, there are exclusions from, or limitations on, plans, and others. other committees. For example, at UWA the Audit and The majority considerations above for the Nominations Risk Committee is prescribed to only include external Committee and the membership eligibility criteria therefore members (both Senate members and co-opted) thereby apply to decisions on these important matters as well, in the excluding the academic staff representative. At Murdoch same way as to the selection of new members. The effect University, the Senate Statement of Governance Principles is that, by policy, these important tasks are considered by requires all members of the Audit and Risk Committee and a committee of which the academic staff member in the the Resources Committee to be external to the university. Council cannot, by legislation, be a member.6 Beyond membership, restrictions are in place on the ability to As with the Nominations Committee, there are some attend sub-committee meetings as an observer; at Murdoch eligibility conditions for other Council sub-committees that vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 A self-selection mechanism for appointed external members of WA University Councils Gerd Schröder-Turk 39 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES’ REVIEW

exclude the academic staff Council member from membership A social experiment on the emergence of of these committees. This has led, in practice, to a situation groupthink? where the vast majority of members of the key Council sub- committees are appointed external Senate members, rather The self-selection mechanism and the consequent risk of than elected staff, student or alumni members. a self-reinforcing selection bias, described above, create a The result of this is a situation where a) appointed members risk that the majority group of appointed external members together with the Chancellor and the Vice-Chancellor form becomes, in effect, a group with uniform and similar views, the vast majority of members of all Council sub-committees, professional backgrounds, ideologies and persuasions. This and b) appointed members together with the Chancellor increases the risk of a harmful degree of group homogeneity and Vice-Chancellor have a significant majority within the or group cohesiveness (and ‘groupthink’ in the extreme case) Council. negatively affecting the decision process. This, then, implies a risk that recommendations by the Many of the conditions that have created the self-selection sub-committees to the Councils – developed without any mechanism are due to relatively recent legislative changes involvement of the elected members – become foregone (or, at the very least, were formalised in law through those conclusions and de-facto decisions. The Councils themselves changes). This creates an interesting opportunity for a study risk becoming mere ‘rubber-stamping’ organs. Decisions to address whether the risk arising from the self-selection appear to have been taken by a body – the Council – that has mechanism indeed manifests in the negative outcomes of at least a remnant representation of staff and students; yet, in harmful cohesiveness and group homogeneity, with reduced effect, the de-facto decision was taken by bodies – the sub- quality of decision making as an outcome. committees, perhaps appropriately called ‘super boards’ – that The theory of ‘groupthink’ goes back to work by Janis expressly exclude any representation of these elected groups. (1971; 1972; 1989) in the early seventies, with a short I have sketched diagrammatic representations of the definition included in Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary governance structure in Figures 1 and 2. Figure 1 represents as ‘conformity to group values and ethics’ as early as governance arrangements representing the Council as the central governance

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g the 17 Council members) and the fact Elected alumni y that the sub-committees are, in practice, Elected alumni composed only of appointed external members (as the hashed background in Figure 1: Diagrammatic depiction of Council Governance structure for University the sub-committee boxes).7 Councils at the four public universities in WA Perhaps a little provocatively, Figure This figure represents and highlights what the authors believe is the likely understanding of many as to how university 2 replaces the double arrows between governance is expected to work. A Council, made up of 17 members elected or appointed through different mechanisms Council and sub-committees – but otherwise independent, has broad decision making powers bestowed on it by state legislation acts, thereby having ultimate control over decisions, strategies, directions, public positions on matters, etc. of the university and of co-option indicative of the truly back-and-forth of new Council members. Subcommittees of the Council, by and large and with the exception of the Nominations advisory relationship of a committee Committee for specific tasks, have an advisory role to the Council rather than having power delegated to them by the with sub-committees – by single arrows. Council. The government or governor have three ‘representatives’ on the Council that they select, perhaps considering suggestions from the universities’ Nominations Committees and/or from Council. The voice of the academic body is These represent the flow of de facto represented only poorly through a single member, but the academic staff member’s voice (and vote) on Council is one of decisions being taken. 17 independent voices (or votes).

40 A self-selection mechanism for appointed external members of WA University Councils Gerd Schröder-Turk vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES’ REVIEW

1975. Groupthink refers to a psychological phenomenon Not surprisingly, these combined forces are predicted to where collective decision making becomes impaired and result in extremely defective decision making performance by dysfunctional. Turner & Pratkanis (1998) describe Janis’ the group. classic formulation as the hypothesis that In the context of a governing board, any occurrence of groupthink would pose a substantial problem in relation to [D]ecision making groups are most likely to experience groupthink when they are highly cohesive, insulated from good decision making. This is in particular the case for boards, experts, perform limited search and appraisal of information, such as Australian university Councils, whose composition operate under directed leadership, and experience conditions does not correspond to any proportionate or democratic of high stress with low self-esteem and little hope of finding a representation of stakeholders or stakeholder groups. In such better solution to a pressing problem than that favoured by cases, the quality of collective decision making rests on the the leader or influential members. capacity of all members to independently consider the matter in-hand drawing on access to relevant information, prior to When present, these antecedent conditions are hypothesised to foster the extreme consensus-seeking characteristics of reaching agreement. Groupthink affects this ‘independence groupthink. This in turn is predicted to lead to two categories of thought’ and may seriously compromise the quality of the of undesirable decision-making processes. resultant group decisions. An awareness of groupthink and its associated risks is The first, traditionally labelled symptoms of groupthink, important for members of governance boards in order to include illusion of invulnerability, collective rationalisation, avoid falling victim to it. However, even more importantly, stereotypes of outgroups, self-censorship, mindguards, and the design of a governance system (through composition, belief in the inherent morality of the group. appointment rules, etc.) should be such that it provides The second, typically identified as symptoms of defective safeguards against groupthink and any dysfunctional forms of decision-making, involve the incomplete survey of alter- group cohesiveness or group homogeneity. natives and objectives, poor information search, failure to A particular danger is a damaging feedback loop where the appraise the risks of the preferred solution, and selective infor- emergence of a greater degree of (harmful) group cohesiveness mation processing. – identified as a possible antecedent to groupthink – leads to a further enhancement of the degree of group cohesiveness. To quote Irving Janis

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r Elected student a cohesiveness or homogeneity amongst Audit & Risk t Elected student e Committee g the group of appointed external Council Elected alumni y Elected alumni members, but this might be a fruitful and feasible topic for future study. A preliminary analysis of all 37 appointed Figure 2: A diagrammatic representation of the governance structures and external members listed in the 2019 arrangements in WA University Councils annual reports suggests several common This figure highlights through the hashed background the strong and potentially self-reinforcing power of the appointed features amongst these persons, based on external members (co-opted and Governor-appointed members and Chancellor) and the Vice-Chancellor. Specifically, the an analysis of LinkedIn profiles, business diagramm illustrates a) the majority in the Council of 9 of 17 external appointed members, or 10 if the VC is included; b) the fact that these groups almost exclusively represent the membership of the Council subcommittees; and c) the news profiles, and public information on practical reality that the nomination of new Governor-appointed members by the Nominations Committee is, in effect, a university websites: a majority of more de-facto decision, subject only to a government/governor tick-off. The single arrows pointing from the sub-committees to the Council are intended to illustrate the risk that, in effect, the subcommittees dominated by appointed members become than 60% list corporate leadership roles de-facto decision makers with Council’s role reduced, in practice, to a rubber-stamping exercise. (such as CEO, CFO, senior executive, vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 A self-selection mechanism for appointed external members of WA University Councils Gerd Schröder-Turk 41 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES’ REVIEW

director, chairperson, partner) in the utility, mining, finance, university Councils. In my opinion, the West Australian banking, consulting, agricultural, property development or universities and the West Australian Government would be services sectors; more than 80% have a profile on businessnews. well advised to rectify the self-selection mechanism in the com.au; very few have substantive present connections of any Councils. form to any university (beyond their Council membership) or to the research sector or the tertiary education sector; Concluding discussion only 20% list postgraduate qualifications beyond an MBA or master’s degree. In this article, I have highlighted aspects of the WA university Members with a background in the technical professions governance and legislation that have the potential for the (e.g. engineers or scientists), medical doctors or health concentration of power in the appointed external members of professionals, education practitioners, public servants with the university Councils, through a self-selecting mechanism. policy background, research professionals are only a small That is, decision making power is concentrated in a group of minority amongst the appointed external members. These Senate members who have little connection to the university similarities between appointed members may be an indication system other than through their Council membership. It seems of a selection bias, or they may be merely a reflection of the that the legislative changes of 2016 (and other earlier changes) fact that these common features are the characteristics of may have created the conditions for a WA experiment on the successful careers in leadership roles in the ‘real world’. This is potential emergence of groupthink. a subtle question for future investigation. Ironically, this is directly contrary to the professed intent A further related risk of ‘homogenising’ the opinions held of the legislative change as articulated by the Honourable amongst external appointed Council members stems from Peter Collier (then Minister for Education in the WA Liberal the exposure of the external appointed Council members to government) in the same parliamentary debate as referenced university staff, which, for many external Council members, is above on 13 October 2016 (Parliament of Western Australia, likely restricted to interactions in the context of the Council. 2016): The reduction of academic staff representation to a single The whole point of the exercise was that even though they member reduces the exposure of appointed external members are universities and their role is in research and development, to university staff other than the Vice-Chancellor and the student exchange et cetera, they are also commercial entities. executive leadership team, and thereby reduces their exposure It is, therefore, important that a broad range of skill sets is to viewpoints held by university staff other than that of the brought to those governing councils. (p. 7025) Vice-Chancellor and his or her senior executive team. The dangers related to groupthink or lack of independence The self-reinforcing selection bias described above works of its members are well recognised in the various policy expressly against this goal; without careful management it has documents for university Councils (without any of them the potential to lead to a bias in selection of members in favour using the word ‘groupthink’). For example, the requirement of candidates who have similar views, skills, professional for independence and diligence is stated in the Murdoch or educational backgrounds, etc. as the current appointed University Senate Statement of Governance Principles members of a university Council. It may, ironically, lead to (Murdoch University, n.d.). It stipulates that Council universities being governed by a body dominated by a group members ‘will be independent in judgment and actions and with little first-hand professional experience in or in-depth take all reasonable steps to be satisfied as to the soundness of exposure to the tertiary sector. all decisions taken by the [Council]’ (p. 20), ‘will not allow The Honourable Peter Collier also had something to say sectional or factional interests to deflect the [Council’s] focus about academic staff representation on university Councils on the University’s general welfare’ (p. 20) and ‘must at all (Parliament of Western Australia, 2016): ‘There was a lot of times act in the interests of the University and give precedence pushback, from my perspective, to me from the universities, to the interests of the University over the interests of any because they wanted [the inclusion of elected academic person appointing or electing him or her’ (p. 15). representatives] to be even more restrictive. There was a push While such guidelines or regulations regarding expected – I will be honest – to not have elections. That was quite clear’. behaviour are useful, they may not be sufficient to ensure (p. 7025) the mandated behaviour. It is crucial that the governance This is a remarkable statement, that suggests that the structure and governance processes are designed so as to ‘universities’ themselves wanted to restrict academic staff promote independent and informed judgment and to have representation and, in particular, argued for a change that safeguards in place against violations of it. would have made the sole remaining academic Council The mechanisms highlighted in this article represent a real member a member to be appointed by the Council, rather than risk for the quality of decision making in Western Australian elected by the academic body. A change to appointed academic

42 A self-selection mechanism for appointed external members of WA University Councils Gerd Schröder-Turk vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES’ REVIEW

members would have completely removed any reasonable selection described here means that the group of appointed staff representation on the Councils that is independent members – if assumed to represent a ‘faction’ of sorts – can from and not at the mercy of the university leaderships. This simply maintain their legislated majority and dominance of proposition by the universities was considered unreasonable the Council by their dominance in the selection process for even by the Honourable Peter Collier (Parliament of appointed members, regardless of the validity or strength of Western Australia, 2016): ‘I considered that but felt that was their arguments. unreasonable. I believe that students and staff need to elect Good governance is not a question of the broader university their own representatives and they should not be appointed by strategy; it is not a question of left or right, or conservative the chancellor or vice-chancellor. I felt that the students and or progressive. It is not a judgement on whether a corporate staff deserved that respect’. (p. 7025) business model is best suited for our universities or not. Good The question that this raises is who is it that Peter Collier governance is simply, at least in the aspect covered here, the here refers to as ‘the universities’, and who is it that speaks need to set up the governing bodies and governing structures for ‘the universities’. It seems likely that the above opinion in a way that ensures a diversity of views – including the (that it is preferable to remove elections and instead appoint perspective of the academic body – has fair consideration. academic staff members) is not an opinion that the majority The described self-selection mechanism, whether as a risk or a of academic staff at any university would support. It therefore manifest problem, works against that goal. seems likely that this opinion rather was expressed by the executive leaderships of the universities, or perhaps by the Acknowledgements senior Council members. This appears likely, considering that the Honourable Lynn MacLaren said in the same debate This article is dedicated to my friend and former colleague, Dr (Parliament of Western Australia, 2016) ‘Representative Duncan Farrow who was employed at Murdoch University bodies of students and staff were not given an opportunity to from the 1990s until 2021 and during that time held academic provide any meaningful input into the legislation.’ (p. 7021) roles in Mathematics & Statistics including that of Associate The Honourable Peter Collier said in the same WA Dean for Courses and Admissions. Dr Farrow is a formidable Legislative Council debate, and in the context of his refusal advocate for academic freedom, standards and integrity as to remove the elected staff positions on university Councils well as for ethical practices in higher education and student (Parliament of Western Australia, 2016): ‘There is nothing wellbeing, with that advocacy being based on his sound and better than to have a bit of banter in any decision-making unpretentious expert analyses and understanding. Dr Farrow’s forum, as we know in this chamber as well, because more often hopefully temporary departure from Murdoch University in than not it leads to a better result’. (p. 7025) 2021, and thereby from the Australian academic community, This statement appears to describe the contribution of the is a big loss to Australia’s academic community. elected academic staff members as ‘banter’, which according I am grateful to my colleagues and former colleagues to the Cambridge dictionary means ‘conversation that is not Graeme Hocking, Anne Surma, Max Sully and Adrian serious and is often playful’ and the Oxford dictionary as ‘the Sheppard and to my wife Catherine Turk for comments on playful and friendly exchange of teasing remarks.’ the manuscript. In my opinion, decision making bodies at universities This article represents academic work that the author should, aside from ensuring sound financial and commercial has conducted in his role as a member of the academic management, focus on the core purposes and functions of the community. For the sake of full disclosure, the author declares universities which by and large are educational and academic his membership of the Senate of Murdoch University, his in their nature. Academics are the experts in this area; their membership of the National Executive of the Australian contribution to governance is not banter. Rather, to ensure Institute of Physics, and his membership of the National that the academic voices and perspectives are central in the Tertiary Education Union (NTEU). The author does not university Council’s decision making is good governance, and suggest or imply in any way that the views expressed here the best assurance that the Council keeps the core functions of represent the views of Murdoch University, of the Senate of the university at the heart of its decision making. Murdoch University, of The Australian National University, Finally, Peter Collier refers to a democratic parliamentary of the Australian Institute of Physics, or of the National chamber in the above remark. Any analogy of a democratically Executive of the AIP, or of the NTEU. elected chamber to a university Council falls short in the light of the core of this article. A democratic chamber is all about Gerd Schröder-Turk is an Honorary Associate Professor at ensuring majorities, and the need to maintain majorities in Murdoch University, Western Australia, and an Honorary future elections by virtue of good arguments that convince Professor at the Australian National University, ACT. the public. In the university Councils, the mechanism for self- Contact: [email protected] vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 A self-selection mechanism for appointed external members of WA University Councils Gerd Schröder-Turk 43 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES’ REVIEW

References At Murdoch, 19 members (42 per cent) are elected by the academic staff, 2 elected from the professional staff, 8 are student Hamilton, S. (2002). The Review of University Governance. Victoria members (ex officio office bearers of the Guild or elected) and 16 Department of Education. Retrieved form http://www.capa.edu. executive ex officio members (36 per cent). Murdoch data as per au/2002-state-victoria-review-university-governance/ Academic Council Regulations as approved 25 Sept 2019; note that composition may change without change to regulations as it reflects Janis, I. L. (1971). Groupthink. Psychology Today. 5 (6), 43–46, 74–76. structural or organisational changes in the university. Janis, I.L. (1972). Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Victims of groupthink. On UWA’s Academic Board, there are 12 ex officio executive Janis, I.L. (1989). Crucial decisions: Leadership in policymaking and crisis members (12 per cent), 6 student members, 8 professional staff management. New York: The Free Press. members, 12 members elected by the Heads of School, and 60 elected academic members (61 per cent, consisting of 39 professorial Murdoch University. (n.d.). Senate Statement of Governance members and 21 others) (UWA data as per Academic Board Principles. Retrieved from http://senate.murdoch.edu.au/_document/ Regulations approved 9 Dec 2019). S GP.pdf 3. It should be noted that this article does not assess comprehensively Notre Dame University. (n.d.). Introducing Notre Dame University. whether there were ‘precursor’ committees to the Nominations (Retrieved from https://www.notredame.edu.au/about/notre-dame). Committee, set up at the various universities through university Parliament of Western Australia (2016). Parliamentary Debates regulation, statute or policy (rather than through legislation) nor (Hansard), Thirty-Ninth Parliament, First Session 2016, Legislative what their structure and membership was. Such a study is beyond Council, Thursday, 13 October 2016. Perth: Parliament of Western the scope of this article and would require a careful analysis of and Australia Retrieved from https://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/Hansard/ access to past agenda papers and university regulations. However, hansard.nsf/0/85C52EE0589ECAF34825805300185EE0/$file/ at least at Murdoch University, the 2014 annual report provides a C39%20S1%2020161013%20All.pdf clear indication that a ‘Nominations and Governance Committee’ Turner, M.E. & Pratkanis, A.R. (1998). Twenty-Five Years of existed but that the membership was considerably more diverse, and Groupthink Theory and Research: Lessons from the Evaluation of a included both a student and a staff member. Theory. Organisational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 73 (2 4. A note on the use of the word ‘staff representatives’ for the Council & 3), 105-115. members ‘elected by and from’ the staff is important. In this UNESCO. (1997). UNESCO Recommendation Concerning the Status of article, the term ‘staff representative’ is used with a full awareness Higher Education Teaching Personnel, Retrieved from https://unesdoc. that the role of this member is not specifically to represent the unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000113234.page=2 interests of staff. For example, the Murdoch University Senate Statement of Governance states (Murdoch University (n.d.)) ‘A University of Western Australia. (n.d.) Senate Charter. Retrieved from [Council member] must at all times act in the best interests of the https://www.governance.uwa.edu.au/committees/senate University and give precedence to the interests of the University Western Australia. (n.d.). University of Western Australia Act 1911. over the interests of any person appointing or electing him or her’. Representation of an interest group is not the role of any Council Western Australia. (1984). Edith Cowan University Act, 1984, Retrieved member. from https://www.legislation.wa.gov.au/legislation/statutes.nsf/ main_mrtitle_282_homepage.html 5. Note that this part of the bill, the change from election to Council of the staff members to appointment to Council was abandoned and did not become legislation. Endnotes 6. The question whether the Senate Statement of Governance Principles has the status of a policy is unclear. The Senate Statement 1. There is a further university, Notre Dame University, that is of Governance Principles discusses the instruments of governance established through Western Australian state legislation, namely (in section 1.3) as acts, statutes, by-laws, regulations, rules, policies the University of Notre Dame Australia Act 1989. However, by its and procedures, yet it does not make it clear how the document itself own description it is a ‘private Catholic University’ (Notre Dame fits in within this set of instruments. University). The governance structure is very different, involving the 7. The Vice-Chancellor may or may not be included in this group, Trustees, the Board of Directors and the Board of Governors. The and his or her inclusion does not alter the fact that this group Catholic church has a strong say in the composition of these boards, can have a majority of members in Council. The mechanisms and there is no elected representation of staff and students. for selection of the Vice-Chancellor again centrally involve the 2. The President (Chair) of Academic Board is a professorial academic Nominations Committee, thereby exposing it to the same exclusions staff member elected by the Academic Board. At some of the of representation as discussed above. However, the Vice-Chancellor universities in WA, a large proportion of ex officio executive members is, of course, clearly not an external member of the Council. gives the university leadership teams significant weight in these elections. To elaborate: At UWA, Murdoch and Curtin, the President of Academic Board is, by regulation, elected by the Academic Board from among the academic staff and must be at the level of Associate Professor or Professor. The membership of the Academic Boards varies between the four universities, with varying degrees of elected academic staff members and with the following approximate numbers.

44 A self-selection mechanism for appointed external members of WA University Councils Gerd Schröder-Turk vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES’ REVIEW

Slippery beasts Why academic freedom and media freedom are so difficult to protect

Fred D’Agostino & Peter Greste University of Queensland

It is easy to confuse academic freedom with freedom of speech, but it is illuminating to consider the responsibilities that frame academic freedom and thus distinguish it from the less constrained freedoms to speak that characterise our roles as citizens of democratic societies. In particular, scholars and scientists are subject to standards of rigour and integrity. While academics sometimes fail to live up to these standards, we consider a difficulty that arises even when they do. This is a collective action failure that arises because of the incentives that motivate choices of topics and approaches by scholars and scientists and it results in overconcentration of academic effort. Diversity within the academy is a potential antidote to this difficulty. We explore these issues from within our different professional perspectives and note some analogies between the situation of academics on the one hand and journalists on the other. Keywords: Negative freedom, positive freedom, tragedy of the commons, groupthink, diversity

Periodically, the academy, and its friends and critics, pause On this topic we believe something already asserted by the to consider the idea of academic freedom. This is often National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), which said in connected with events outside the academy, as in the 1950s its submission to a 2008 Parliamentary review, ‘The dialogue when ‘loyalty oaths’ were sometimes imposed on academics about protecting academic freedom needs to move beyond in the United States, or after 9/11, when security concerns old debates about political correctness [already old thirteen were leveraged to permit oversight of ‘sensitive’ scholarly years ago!] to the real threats that incursions on academic and scientific enquiries. Thirty years ago, from the very freedom can have for our universities and for our society place where we write, a series of ‘managerial’ changes to the more broadly’ (2008, p. 8). We aim to show how to move governance of Australian universities (the so-called ‘Dawkins the debate beyond these hackneyed questions, though not, Reforms’) prompted the Bulletin of the Australian Society perhaps, in the direction that the NTEU had in mind in that of Legal Philosophy to devote a special issue to discussing earlier intervention. ‘Academic Freedom Today’ (Moens, 1991). Public airing of this topic frequently suggests that there is So-called political correctness (in the form of things like nothing more to the concept of academic freedom than the ‘de-platforming’, ‘speech codes’, ‘cancel culture’, and ‘safe idea of freedom of speech (within a particular community), spaces’) has recently provoked heated debate, while the where this is read as a negative liberty, in the sense that Commonwealth government was so concerned about these Isaiah Berlin (1969) first proposed in 1958. Berlin thought matters that in 2018 the Minister for Education commissioned of ‘negative liberty’ as an absence of enforced institutional former High Court Chief Justice Robert French AC to set up constraints such as laws and regulations that explicitly limit an inquiry. (And a subsequent 2020 inquiry into the results certain behaviours. In this case it refers to the ability for of the inquiry, led by Professor Sally Walker AM.) Justice people to say what they please, within broadly described legal French’s findings yielded, among other things, a model code limits. However, some notable discussants have been careful for universities, some of which have adopted it, with or to distinguish academic freedom from such a libertarian without modifications. conception of freedom of speech. Professor Carolyn Evans, vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 Slippery beasts Fred D’Agostino & Peter Greste 45 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES’ REVIEW

Vice-Chancellor of Griffith University, recently cautioned in a scholarly spirit – the fruits of competent and patient (2020): ‘We need to be careful … that we do not let absolute and sincere inquiry … set forth with dignity, courtesy and ideas of freedom of speech undermine the core purposes of the temperance of language’. university’. French noted (2019, p. 116, emphasis added) that These are (some of ) the elements that need to be added to academic freedom confers a ‘qualified freedom of speech’ and the idea on unencumbered freedom of scholarly discussion if that that was only ‘one of its elements’. We are with Evans and we are to understand what is at stake with academic freedom. French on this issue. While there are issues about the proper Crudely, these are the requirements of academic integrity, domain of freedom of speech on campus, this is not what has about which the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards usually been meant by academic freedom; free speech is not Agency (TEQSA) has issued a Guidance Note that provides what we mean by academic freedom; and it is not a matter a good summary of conventional wisdom – often hard won that we will discuss, except, perhaps, glancingly. Indeed, we from scandalous failures in the past – about the fundamentals will offer an account of academic freedom according to which of (specifically) research integrity. As they put it (TEQSA, scholars and scientists are free to explore and express ideas 2019, p. 3-4): the limits set by the stringent standards of rigour and within Good practice includes: objectivity to which they are subject. • intellectual honesty in proposing, performing, and French’s reference to ‘qualified freedom of speech’ as only reporting research ‘one of [the] elements’ of academic freedom is our starting • accuracy in representing contributions to research pro- point. What are the other elements of academic freedom that posals and reports lie just outside our line-of-sight, and what does consideration • fairness in peer review of this whole notion – the complex ideal, with multiple • collegiality in scientific interactions, including commu- elements – enable us to understand about the threats to it? nications and sharing of resources To answer this question, we need to consider the telos of • transparency in conflicts of interest or potential con- academic freedom. Why is that freedom valuable to us, not flicts of interest just as members of the academic community, but as citizens of • protection of human subjects in the conduct of research a democratic society? • humane care of animals in the conduct of research, and One familiar kind of reason for academic freedom is an • adherence to the mutual responsibilities between inves- instrumental one. If we have academic freedom (whatever tigators and research. that might turn out to encompass), then knowledge will Breaches of research integrity include: grow and, with that growth, the human condition will be • plagiarism bettered in various ways. This is not restricted to those kinds • falsifying or fabricating data of improvements brought to us by scientific and technological • deliberately omitting data to obtain a desired result advances, but encompasses, just as surely (if sometimes more • using data from other researchers without due acknowl- obscurely), advances in humanistic and social scientific edgement understandings of our situation. • representing observations as genuine when they are not, It is already apparent that academic freedom couldn’t and possibly deliver this if all it amounted to was the liberty • misleading attributions of authorship. of scientists and scholars to think, say or do whatever they Berlin would regard these ideas about good practice and the wanted, without qualification … a radically libertarian avoidance of breaches as limits to negative freedoms. These conception of academic freedom. As Evans charmingly put clearly articulated norms and rules define the space in which it (2020), ‘Just as academic freedom strongly protects the an individual is able to operate. These formal requirements articulation of unpopular views, it also places more demands of the academy are often missed in debates about what can on participants than a discussion in the campus bar.’ and can’t be said, but when they are added to the libertarian As is commonly acknowledged in discussions of academic ideal of academic freedom (in a narrow, permissive sense), freedom, but alas rarely properly emphasised, academic they together give us an ideal of academic freedom that is freedom (NTEU, 2008, p. 3, quoting the Global Colloquium distinctive. of University Presidents) is ‘subject to the norms and standards Taking these ideas into account – and some of them of of scholarly inquiry’ and (Evans, 2020) should be exercised ‘in course have analogues in relation to university-level teaching the spirit of a responsible and honest search for knowledge’; – we can say, roughly, that academic freedom amounts to the its conduct and products (Bickel, 1975, p. 127) ‘must be freedom of academics to pursue their enquiries and propagate judged by professional criteria’, being (American Association the results of those enquiries in accordance with good practice of University Professors [AAUP] 1915), in quaintly archaic and avoiding breaches of scholarly or scientific integrity. diction, ‘conclusions gained by scholarly method and held And here we can begin to see more clearly how academic

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freedom, understood in this expanded sense, contributes to those who seek to control it. (The American newspaper mogul the realisation of its own telos. Honesty, accuracy, fairness, William Randolph Hearst famously once remarked (JPROF, avoidance of fabrication and the like … all these are necessary 2019), ‘news is something somebody doesn’t want printed; all conditions for the growth of knowledge through disciplined else is advertising.’) Journalism must be allowed the freedom enquiry. to investigate almost all corners of society and government, These principles find echoes in another institution with the fairly narrow exception of those that hold sensitive that also regards itself as a truth-making enterprise. While private, commercial or security information. It should be journalism has always been accused of imperfectly applying allowed to interrogate the complete range of political views, its own standards, its telos is strikingly similar to the to allow the best of them to win in free and open debate. academy’s. Both journalists and academics consider their Consider perhaps the most eloquent defence of press value to be underpinned by a commitment to a set of rigorous freedom ever written, from John Stuart Mill (1998, ch. 2), professional practices and standards that valorise their roles in who argued in 1859: developing and circulating useful and reliable knowledge. In The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion cultural terms, journalism and the academy are worlds apart. is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the Journalists tend to mock academics, especially journalism existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still academics (Anonymous, 2015), and few academics would more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are consider journalists to be in the same league when it comes deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if to rigorous research and analysis. But while journalists would wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer choke on the purple prose of the 1915 AAUP statement, those perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its phrases, invoking the ideals of ‘honest search’, ‘sincere inquiry’, collision with error. and ‘temperance of language’, might well have come from an There is barely a coat of paint between Mill’s argument, antiquarian journalism textbook. and Evans’ (quoted above), that ‘academic freedom strongly It has to be acknowledged that these professional self- protects the articulation of unpopular views’. But just as Evans understandings and institutional devices are the consequence goes on to point out that academic freedom is not unqualified, of long and complex historical processes, some of which the same is true of press freedom. With the power of the press, are influentially documented by Habermas (1989). They comes great responsibility, and while not every journalist are imperfectly embodied in actual practice, and they are or editor has honoured that responsibility with complete increasingly under pressure as ‘legacy’ practices from newer integrity, those higher standards of editorial independence, cultural forms. We are not ‘essentialising’ the academy or the a bias towards transparency over secrecy, fidelity to the facts, profession of journalism, but we are taking a stand to defend and professional scepticism should all still apply. some hard-won institutional forms. And, as already mentioned, these standards, whether of In essence, both professions idealise a search for ‘truth’; the academy or of journalism are, crucially, superintended an attempt to brush away distracting ‘noise’, to uncover by a variety of institutional offices and processes. So, for an important reality. Both require rigorous scepticism example, research ethics committees oversee conflicts of – a willingness to question and challenge established interests and the welfare of subjects (whether they be human orthodoxies – and the courage to ask deep, and often deeply or other animals), while gatekeepers work hard for academic uncomfortable questions about why things are as they are, and publishers and funding agencies to ensure fairness in the peer how they could be improved. That is why the challenges to review processes. There are comparable offices and processes one should resonate powerfully with the other. The battles in the work of journalists – the ombudsman, the Australian that journalists have fought in defence of press freedom are Press Council, the desk editor, sub-editors, managing editor, only marginally removed from those the academy continues and the like. Journalists’ codes of conduct establish much to struggle with over academic freedom. And both professions the same ethical framework as is articulated in the TEQSA will, if genuinely pursuing the truth, need to do so with an Guidance Note (2019). The Australian Press Council’s integrity that itself puts limits on a purely libertarian approach (2014) ‘General Principles’ for example, cover ‘accuracy and to professional freedom. clarity’, ‘fairness and balance’, ‘privacy and avoidance of harm’, If academic freedom is driven by its telos, the same is true of and ‘integrity and transparency’. The Media, Entertainment press freedom. Its underlying purpose is to enable the media to and Arts Alliance’s Journalist Code of Ethics (2018) act as a watchdog over the powerful, to interrogate disputes, crucially mentions correction of errors, honesty, avoidance circulate ideas and facilitate public debate and understanding. of conflict of interests and avoidance of plagiarism. See also That telos helps inform and describe its shape. A press without the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s (2019) Principles freedom is little more than a propaganda machine, pushing and Standards. It is these institutional parallels, as well as particular ideologies and narratives that serve the interests of (partially) shared teloi, that warrant our guiding principle that vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 Slippery beasts Fred D’Agostino & Peter Greste 47 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES’ REVIEW

looking at journalistic practice can illuminate issues about But we are worried about something that can happen in academic freedom (and vice versa). both professions, even when individuals act with integrity and Notwithstanding this institutional apparatus, we still even though they may experience themselves as being authors from time to time witness scandalous failures of academic of their own destinies, and so ‘free’ in Berlin’s (1969: Part II) or journalistic integrity. There are infamous examples of ‘positive’ sense. made-up evidence in support of a news story or a research In many cases, failures of journalism and scholarship don’t outcome, accompanied by retraction, discipline of the involve bad people acting, self-interestedly, in ways that offending professional, and soul-searching about the guiding cheat the system and violate professional integrity. They policies and the effectiveness of their implementation. For may involve self-interest, but self-interest in terms that are some recent journalistic scandals, see ThoughtCo. (2019) and defined, indeed, precisely by ‘the system’ and internalised for some scientific scandals, see Fanelli (2009). by the individual. The failures we want to add to the kinds These failures of integrity are, of course, abuses of the that people already know about aren’t individual, so much freedoms granted to journalists and/or scholars and scientists as ‘collective action failures’, of the kind familiar, perhaps, in and they take a form that is itself easily and dramatically the ‘tragedy of the commons’ (Hardin, 1968). And, tragically, narrated, involving as they do individual miscreants and the they don’t typically erupt into scandals, though their effects failure of other individuals, holding gatekeeping offices, to can be more damaging to the public good than more easily detect (in time to stop) their misbehaviour. Indeed, they are dramatised failures of personal integrity. the stuff of documentaries (e.g. The Crisis of Science 2019) The tragedy of the commons involves three key ideas: (1) or dramatisations (e.g. Absence of Malice 1981), so readily do the institutionally recognised freedom of individuals (their they fit into the contemporary mythos. negative liberty) to do as they like with a common resource; The canons of academic and journalistic integrity provide a (2) their own individual estimations of where their personal framework of constraints on the liberty of individuals to do as interests lie; and (3) the degradation of the common resource they please … they represent constraints on freedom in Berlin’s that results as a joint effect from freedoms exercised in pursuit negative sense. We accept them because they are understood as of (narrowly construed) self-interest. Hardin described an means to the ends, the teloi, that define the relevant professions. unregulated environment in which each farmer may graze The pursuit of truth requires a commitment to integrity. And their cattle on the commons ab libitum. Every individual it is the application of this commitment that distinguishes the farmer sees that it is in their self-interest to do so, whatever the freedom that the scholar or journalist expresses through their other farmers do. But when all act in their individual interests, work, from the free-wheeling discussion in the pub (or Evans’ even when each can plainly see the collective consequence, the campus bar), just as the constraint on harm to others (as in commons is overgrazed and tragically loses its value to each. Mill’s Liberty) distinguishes freedom in a civilised society No-one has behaved without integrity, but the consequences from absolute negative freedom … i.e., the freedom from all of their individually sensible (and permitted) activities, are institutional constraints that amounts to anarchy. bad for the individual and for the collective. Of course, within the constraints of academic or What has this got to do with the freedom of individual journalistic integrity, the widest possible freedom of enquiry scholars and scientists to pursue their own research interests and expression is also instrumental to the realisation of the or, indeed, with the freedom of individual journalists to teloi of these practices. While they depend on restraint – the follow the story as they understand it? commitment to ‘objectivity’, for example – they also depend Consider the situation of the individual scholar or scientist, on examination of the full variety of ideas and points of view. at liberty, because of their (negative) academic freedom, to While there is objectivity, in some sense, there should be no research whatever topic they consider it best to engage with, institutionally enforced orthodoxy in the practice of scholarship and hoping to express themselves, to author themselves, or journalism. We are rightly sceptical, for example, of news through their choices. How can they choose? Well, with some media or academic organisations that demand conformity to topics, they are and with other topics they are not going … a ‘party line’; they may think they already have the truth, but • to be easily recognised as ‘one of the gang’; experience has taught us to be wary of such claims. (More on • to benefit directly from the work of others; this point below.) • to have ready access to publication and grants opportunities; All this is pretty straightforward. On the account so • to be sought out as a collaborator; far sketched, we have academic or journalistic freedom • to have the quality of their work easily and reliably assessed when individual practitioners are free from overbearing by their peers. institutional constraints to ‘follow the story where it takes Where these characteristics are present, the individual them’, so long as they are guided by their professional scholar or scientist has strong career-related incentives to standards and ethics. seek them out and to make their selection of research topic

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and method on that basis. So, as scientists or scholars consider described 9/11 as a heinous crime that needed to be dealt with what topic to research, it is predictable (and indeed observable, by the criminal justice system, rather than an act of war that empirically) that most will choose a topic that affords these demanded an armed invasion. In Berlin’s terms, the structural career-enhancing opportunities. But if most do choose these forces that drove journalists – and indeed most of the West – highly salient options, then there is every prospect that there to see the attacks on the World Trade Center in military terms will be, as was long ago observed (Chubin and Connolly severely limited journalists’ positive freedom to see alternatives 1982, p. 294), an ‘unproductive over-concentration on some or to even challenge the orthodox view. In terms of ‘fitting in’ few problems, while high-potential areas go underdeveloped.’ and ‘getting recognition’, all the incentives were aligned with There will, in other words, be ‘over-grazing’ of the knowledge this interpretation of the situation. commons in some areas at the same time that other areas of In 2003, in the wake of the invasion of Afghanistan, the enquiry are neglected. And the logic is the same as in the US Government claimed it had evidence that proved Iraq environmental case. Each individual, acting within a domain had ‘weapons of mass destruction’. The then-US Secretary of personal freedom, and expressing themselves as the author of State, Colin Powell, famously addressed the United of their own professional narrative, is nevertheless steered, Nations to insist that Iraq was a threat to world peace by compelling incentives that are built into their situation, and that invasion was necessary. In a stinging piece for to behave in a way that produces, as a resultant from the CNN to mark the invasion’s tenth anniversary, journalist combined decisions of many such individuals, a collective Howard Kurtz wrote (2013), ‘Major news organisations action failure. If there had aided and abetted the Bush been a different, more diverse administration’s march to distribution of research activity The pursuit of truth requires a commitment war on what turned out to be across the various topics of to integrity. And it is the application of this faulty premises. All too often, potential enquiry, then more commitment that distinguishes the freedom scepticism was checked at the knowledge, contributing to that the scholar or journalist expresses door, and shaky claims of top more human betterment, could through their work, from the free-wheeling officials and unnamed sources have been produced. (See also were trumpeted as fact.’ Kurtz D’Agostino, 2019.) discussion in the pub... found more than 140 front- So, while issues of academic page stories published from integrity – not cheating the August 2002 until the war system – are important and already well-known limits to began on March 19 the following year that focused heavily on academic freedom in a simplistic libertarian sense, we need the US administration’s rhetoric against Iraq: ‘Cheney says to add another, less widely noted element in understanding Iraqi strike is justified’, for example, and ‘Bush tells United what (responsible) academic freedom in fact requires. For Nations it must stand up to Hussein or US will’. Kurtz called there are systemic effects involving common incentives (in it (2013), ‘the media’s greatest failure in modern times.’ Kurtz Berlin’s terms, limits to positive freedom rather than negative was perhaps being too hard on his colleagues. He implied it freedom), that can also limit the ability of free academic was a failure of professional integrity, rather than powerful enquiry to deliver on the telos of that activity. structural and social forces that simply made it too difficult If that is true in the academy, it is no less real for journalism. (or too uncomfortable) to see the war in any other terms. Take the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre in Like the tragedy of the commons, this groupthink wasn’t so New York. Those shocking acts of mass murder made it much a failure of individual integrity as it was an expression all but impossible for US reporters to see their country as of the incentives in play, given a strong cultural bias towards anything other than a victim, and the attackers as anything interpreting the relevant events in a particular way. While less than villainous. This is more than simple self-censorship. the Iraq war is a dramatic example, a terrorist attack isn’t the The incentives to adopt this narrative – to be recognised only thing capable of restricting Berlin’s positive freedoms by as ‘one of the gang’, to have publication opportunities – putting on blinkers or channelling an individual’s approach were so powerful in the aftermath of the attacks that this to self-authorship. interpretation of events became a deeply embedded world view There is, perhaps, one disanalogy between the academic and that catastrophically disrupted the ability of many journalists journalistic professions. Both have constraints on freedom of to ask difficult questions and challenge the government’s practice that are related to the teloi of the enterprises, and narrative. The phrase, ‘the War on Terror’ became so resonant both exhibit systemic failures because of the influence of in the collective psyche, that it became impossible to see the professional incentives for recognition and participation. But US response in anything other than military terms. Think journalism, though perhaps not the academy, also encourages how different the world would have been if the US had institutional conformity; the organisations that hire vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 Slippery beasts Fred D’Agostino & Peter Greste 49 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES’ REVIEW

journalists often have an established and enforced corporate sciences. Once Foucault’s work was canonised, it became an ‘brand’ or guiding (and enforced) ideological orientation. ‘attractor’ for academic work on a variety of topics. Showing But even those organisations that claim to have no particular some facility in deploying Foucauldian ideas became a sine ideological position, are still vulnerable internal political qua non for those needing to appear up to date. Of course, cultures that in turn shape their world views. For example, the mechanism was not the top-down one of corporate policy Chris Kenny, a conservative columnist for Sky News and The and its enforcement within a specific institutional context. Australian, often derides the ABC for ‘groupthink’ that he (On this see D’Agostino, 2019.) argues drives the national broadcaster to take socially liberal Of course, it’s no easy matter to suggest a way around this approaches to a whole range of issues, though he often singles particular difficulty, but the idea of diversity holds the key. out climate change (Kenny, 2018; 2020). The American In media, there has been a long debate about the need sociologist William H. Whyte Jr described ‘groupthink’ thus for diversity in newsrooms. The theory will be familiar. If (1952): ‘We are not talking about mere instinctive conformity homogeneous communities tend to develop homogeneous – it is, after all, a perennial failing of mankind. What we are thinking, it follows that introducing people from different talking about is a rationalised conformity – an open, articulate social, religious, ethnic or gendered groups is likely to keep philosophy which holds that group values are not only the institution’s mind open, if not each individual’s. But expedient but right and good as well.’ while diversity in this sense undoubtedly has value, given In Kenny’s conception, the ABC’s groupthink has pushed the way institutional incentives for recognition and ‘fitting the broadcaster and its staff to hire left-wing journalists from in’ work, there is no guarantee that a person from an African a narrow band of Australian society and has thus entrenched a background will magically see the world in a way that is narrow small-l liberal culture that is incapable of understanding radically different from a European or Asian, particularly if why a significant proportion of Australian voters continues they all grew up in the same schools, played football together, to support coal mining. He declared (Kenny, 2020) on Sky and shared university lectures. News that ‘the taxpayer funded ABC opinion leaders suffer Culture is key; and not just the culture of those who from ideological groupthink and avoid inconvenient facts’, get hired. (See Sunstein, 2003.) Corporate culture can especially when it comes to climate change. be as stubborn a thing to shift as an individual’s, and every It is easy to dismiss Kenny and his colleagues at News Corp employee is as involved in the culture as any other. All are for being guilty of exactly the same problem he accuses the vulnerable to the same structural and social pressures. Bosses ABC of. Either by accident or design, News Corp appears to tend to hire people who think like them because we are drawn have adopted a conservative ideological position, developing to those who reflect our own values and world views. We like its own right-of-centre cultural world view. For example, working with people who support our opinions; not those the website mediabiasfactcheck.com rates The Australian who challenge them. (This is the central finding of ‘social as ‘centre right’, Sky News and The Daily Telegraph as ‘right’. comparison theory’ in psychology (Suls & Wheeler, 2000) Walkley Award-winning journalist Tony Koch wrote in The and it is a very robust effect.) And anyone who doubts the Guardian, 9 May 2019, ‘For 30 years I worked for News Corp power of a self-reinforcing culture to head off in dangerously papers. Now all I see is shameful bias’. But in the heart of the narrow-minded tangents needs only to look at the way one contradiction lies the legitimacy of the argument. The social particular unit of the Australian Special Air Service seems to and political structures of the institutions charged with freely have convinced itself that war crimes were okay. developing our knowledge and understanding, of challenging In the academy, the idea of ‘tenure’, of ‘jobs for life’ in the status quo, and asking difficult questions, are encumbered effect, was touted as an antidote to the risks of venturing by an institutionalised way of seeing and interpreting the into unpopular or unfashionable territory. Without the risk world, which is only reinforced by the set of professional of losing their job, a researcher is theoretically free to explore incentives, also in play in the academy, that tend to promote those territories without restraint. But tenure has turned ‘follow-the-leader’ rather than ‘be-the-leader’ behaviour by out to be relatively weak, up against the power of cultural individual agents. Just as those institutional wheel ruts drive incentives to maintain conformity. academics to plough certain fields of research and ignore There are some areas, largely in the humanities and social others, so journalists are also pushed into particular ways of sciences, where, because of ideological engagements, there is seeing that shape and direct the questions they ask, and the a diversity of realms in which recognition might be sought stories they tell. This is often a matter of corporate policy and hence, a potential structural solution to what is, after all, for media companies, but the influence of culture on an a structural problem. If many scholars are likely to respond academic’s world view can be just as powerful as a journalist’s. to incentive signals and to want recognition for their work, The ‘Foucault phenomenon’ of the 1980s and 1990s is a then to secure diversity and sceptical challenges to taken-for- striking example, especially in the humanities and social granted thinking, it will help, indeed help a great deal, if there

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are different ‘schools’ of thought to which one might belong. media echo chambers and ignoring one another. Anything less The individual scholar gets to be recognised within their is not true freedom, whether it is journalistic or academic. favoured school, but, because the schools are different and often indeed opposed, each will keep the other honest so long Fred D’Agostino is Emeritus Professor of Humanities at the as they engage with one another. University of Queensland, where he was President of the Much the same principle animates ideas about diversity Academic Board and Executive Dean of Arts. He edited of media ownership. Former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd the Australasian Journal of Philosophy and PPE: Politics, recently launched a petition calling for a Royal Commission Philosophy and Economics, and co-edited The Routledge to investigate the impact of Australia’s highly concentrated Companion to Social and Political Philosophy. A relevant media ownership. It was driven at least in part by his concern book is Free Public Reason (OUP, 1996). about the way Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation narrows Contact: [email protected] and distorts public debate in Australia. At least according to one landmark study (Noam, 2016), Australia ranks third in Peter Greste is UNESCO Chair in Journalism and the world for the degree of concentration, (behind China Communication at the University of Queensland. Before and Egypt), and that was in 2016, before the Nine Network joining the university as professor in 2018, he spent 25 years bought the Fairfax papers in 2019. It would be fine if News as a foreign correspondent for the BBC and Al Jazeera. His Corp’s ‘right-wing’ tilt cancelled out the ABC’s ‘left-wing’ memoir, The First Casualty, (Viking, 2017) explores what world-view, but true media freedom requires more than he describes as the ‘war on journalism’. simply weighing one bias against another. It requires an Contact: [email protected] aggressive approach to protecting diversity of ownership across the media landscape and, within those organisations, References deliberate mechanisms to encourage dissident thinking, and, Australian Broadcasting Corporation. (2019). ABC’s Principles and within the general public, a commitment to actively sampling Standards. Retrieved from https://about.abc.net.au/wp-content/ the diversity before forming the judgments that will engage uploads/2016/05/CODE-final-15-01-2019.pdf them in the voting booth or in other political action. American Association of University Professors. (1915). General On this account, then, academic and journalistic freedom Declaration of Principles. Retrieved from http://www.aaup-ui.org/ are in the service of something … the pursuit of the truth. And Documents/Principles/Gen_Dec_Princ.pdf while each is subject to those limits on positive freedom that Anonymous. (2015). Journalism academics: mocked by the media and are inherent in any system of social incentives, the pursuit of stifled by universities, The Guardian, 7 May. truth may still be possible if there is diversity in the approaches Australian Press Council. (2014). The Australian Press Council’s that are taken to finding it. That is a matter of our institutional General Principles. Retrieved from https://www.presscouncil.org.au/ statements-of-principles/ arrangements, not of our individual integrity. Academic freedom, journalistic freedom … these are not Berlin, I. (1969). Two Concepts of Liberty, in I. Berlin, Four Essays On Liberty. Oxford: Oxford University Press. something for the individual; they are something for the society, in the service of the society. But they are real only if Bickel, A. (1975). The Morality of Consent. New Haven: Yale University Press. the social arrangements are in place that enable both integrity at the individual level and diversity at the collective level. Chubin, D. & Connolly, T. (1982). Research trails and science policies, in N. Elias, H. Martins & R. Whitley (eds.), Scientific establishments Only in that way can they put honestly arrived at but always and hierarchies. Dordrecht and Boston: D. Reidel Pub. Co. only partial perspectives on the truth into contact with one D’Agostino, F. (2019). Growth of knowledge: dual institutionalisation another in a productive way. This is the social precondition of disciplines and brokerage, Synthese, retrieved from https://doi. for the ‘rigorous scepticism’ that is expected of both individual org/10.1007/s11229-019-02335-1 academics and journalists. It is too much to expect each Evans, C. (2020). Freedom of speech on campuses should never be individual to step outside their own culturally defined world confused with undisciplined free-for-all rants, The Australian, 11 views though. We need, at a minimum, the diversity that Rudd February. is calling for in the Australian media landscape, but also an Fanelli, D. (2009). How many scientists fabricate and falsify research? aggressive approach to encouraging and rewarding dissidents PLOS ONE 4. and contrarians. But even that is not enough. We also need French, R. (2019). Report of the Independent Review of Freedom the civility among divergent parties – the ‘dignity, courtesy of Speech in Australian Higher Education Providers. Canberra: Department of Education and Training. and temperance of language’ mentioned earlier – that will enable these parties to engage with one another in honest Habermas, J. (1989). The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. debate, rather than hurling barbs at one another across the Hansen, M.T. (2013). How John F. Kennedy Changed Decision Twittersphere or, even worse, simply retreating to their social- vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 Slippery beasts Fred D’Agostino & Peter Greste 51 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES’ REVIEW

Making for Us All, Harvard Business Review, November 22, retrieved Noam, E. and the International Media Concentration Collaboration. from https://hbr.org/2013/11/how-john-f-kennedy-changed- (2016). Who Owns the World’s Media: Media Concentration and decision-making Ownership around the World. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Hardin, G. (1968). The Tragedy of the Commons. Science 162, 1243- NTEU. (2008). Submission to the Senate Education, Employment 1248. and Workplace Relations Committee Inquiry into Academic Freedom. Retrieved from https://www.nteu.org.au/indigenous_ed/article/ JPROF. (2019). ‘Journalism is printing what someone else does not Inquiry-into-Academic-Freedom---August-2008-174 want printed.’ Or maybe not. Retrieved from http://www.jprof. com/2019/05/28/journalism-is-printing-what-someone-else-does- Suls, J. & Wheeler, L., (eds.). (2000). Handbook of Social Comparison. not-want-printed-or-maybe-not/ New York: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Kenny, C. (2018). ABC groupthink distorts debate we need to have, Sunstein, C. (2003). Why Societies Need Dissent. Cambridge: Harvard The Australian, September 15. University Press. Kenny, C. (2020). ABC’s ‘ideological groupthink’ is a bigger worry TEQSA. (2019). Guidance Note on Academic Integrity. Retrieved from than climate change. Sky News, April 9, retrieved from https://www. https://www.teqsa.gov.au/latest-news/publications/guidance-note- skynews.com.au/details/_6139636856001 academic-integrity Kurtz, H. (2013). Media’s failure on Iraq still stings. CNN, March 11. ThoughtCo. (2019). The Top 12 Journalism Scandals Since 2000. Retrieved from https://edition.cnn.com/2013/03/11/opinion/kurtz- Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/the-top-journalism- iraq-media-failure/index.html scandals-2073750 Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance. (2018). Journalist Code of Whyte, W.H. (1952). Groupthink. Fortune (1952). Retrieved from Ethics. Retrieved from https://www.meaa.org/meaa-media/code-of- https://fortune.com/2012/07/22/groupthink-fortune-1952/ ethics/ Mill, J.S. (1998). On Liberty. Harmondsworth: Penguin. Moens, G., (ed.). (1991). Bulletin of the Australian Society of Legal Philosophy 8: Academic Freedom Today.

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Beyond the usual debates Creating the conditions for academic freedom to flourish

Sharon Stein University of British Columbia, Canada

Contemporary conversations about the state of academic create the conditions under which academics, students, and freedom in higher education are an important subject of both the communities they engage with can address any issue, scholarly inquiry, campus dialogue, and public debate. This but especially pressing issues of shared societal concern, includes concerns from all sides of the political spectrum that with more sobriety, maturity, discernment, accountability, unpopular views are being shut down or shut out of campuses, and respect. To do so, I consider what kind of intellectual, as well as anxieties that the corporate, neoliberal turn of higher affective, and relational conditions might prepare us to engage education and the resulting decline of tenure and precarity of on these terms. I also consider the difficulties of creating and many academic jobs has made academic freedom effectively sustaining these conditions. Although I separate these three moot in practice, if not in policy. These and other concerns types of conditions to discuss them in more detail, they are point to incredibly important conversations that need to also interrelated and interdependent. be had and that are engaged in with nuance and complexity within the contributions to this special issue. However, for Intellectual conditions the purposes of this afterword, rather than enter directly into these conversations on the terms that are already set, I suggest What might be the necessary intellectual conditions that the importance of stepping back to consider what might be would allow us to have difficult conversations about complex missing. Protecting academic freedom is a vital element of and contentious issues of shared concern, and what might ensuring that higher education can serve as a site for deep, be the challenges involved in creating those conditions? rigorous, multi-voiced, and socially accountable inquiry into Each field of study and discipline has its own internal norms complex contemporary challenges (including the challenges of what constitutes deep and rigorous scholarly inquiry. faced by higher education itself ). Yet in our defence of Members of those fields and disciplines need to maintain academic freedom, we rarely ask: What would be the necessary the professional authority to adjudicate among their peers conditions for academic freedom to flourish? and students the extent to which those notions of rigour are Conversations about academic freedom are never just about met. Maintaining this depth and rigour is especially crucial in protecting the intellectual rigour of academic knowledge the current moment in which the effects of technology and as an abstract object; they are also about the relational social media have resulted in the production of information rigour of how, by whom, and to what ends that knowledge at an unprecedented rate. The inability to grapple with is produced, transmitted, circulated, and ultimately impacts this information overload has led to selective and shallower both humans and other-than-human beings (Stein, in Lobo engagements with knowledge based on what is convenient et al., 2021). In this afterword, I suggest the need to balance and consumable (Bauman, 2011). intellectual, affective, and relational dimensions of how we While a field or discipline’s norms might shift according approach academic freedom. Specifically, I ask how we might to external influences, the shift itself should be negotiated vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 Beyond the usual debates Sharon Stein 53 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES’ REVIEW

internally. However, it is important to note that what often of the partiality and situatedness of each knowledge system, happens in conversations among academics in different fields each scholarly field or discipline, and our own knowledge. or disciplines is an un-reflexive tendency to apply our own We would also need to foster a sense of respectful curiosity notions of depth and rigour to knowledge that is produced about what we do not (and may never) know, and humility within another field of study and assume that we can easily about our capacity to understand other knowledges and fields understand the knowledge that is produced within those deeply or fully. Intellectual humility – or recognising the other fields. Yet our expertise in one area of knowledge limits of what it is possible to know beyond one’s own area does not make us experts in every area. Part of this slippage of expertise – is crucial here, especially as otherwise we tend of presumed expertise has to do with the tendency within to reproduce patterns of selective engagement (only with modern institutions of higher education to position our own what is convenient or fits our agendas) and impose our own ways of knowing as universal and exceptional. While science, disciplinary ideas of depth and rigour onto others. technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines might be well-known for their claims of universality and exceptionalism, Affective conditions this can be found in all corners of the university. This kind of academic arrogance (Andreotti, 2021) precludes both In many cases, the topics that are addressed in conversations genuine curiosity about other perspectives, and genuine about academic freedom are highly politically charged. These respect for those other perspectives. are topics that many people feel passionately about in many Especially when the norms derived from western disciplines different directions, which makes generative engagements with are imposed onto non-western knowledge traditions, it them from different perspectives extremely difficult. It also affects a renaturalisation of the presumed universality and means that addressing these questions is extremely important exceptionalism of western knowledge, thereby preventing – but again, the question remains, how can we address these the possibility of a true equality of knowledges – or what contentious, important issues in sober, mature, discerning, Boaventura de Sousa Santos (2007) called an ‘ecology of accountable, and respectful ways? Part of the answer has to knowledges.’ For Santos, claims of epistemic universality do with attending to the ways that these issues are not merely result in the decontextualisation and devaluation of other a topic of intellectual analysis, but also affective investments. knowledges, and in some cases the invisibilisation of those In other words, we would need to attend to the ways that knowledges altogether (see also Ahenakew, 2016; Mika & engagements around these issues tend to activate within us Stewart, 2017). embodied emotional responses that can make it difficult to By contrast, an ecology of knowledges is premised not only hear but actually listen to other perspectives. When on an assumption that: all knowledge systems are both we fail to attend to the role of affect in these conversations, indispensable and insufficient; their relevance is context we often short-circuit the possibility of genuine conversation. dependent; and their value should be measured not according To foster the affective conditions for academic freedom to their alleged ability to offer a universally applicable to flourish, we might begin not only identifying our own description of reality, but according to what opportunities affective responses to engagements around different issues, (interventions into reality) they produce. As a result, rather but also taking account of the ways that these affective than approach knowledge from a position of absolute responses impact others and potentially block the possibility universalism, or conversely, embracing absolute relativism, an of relationships premised on trust, respect, reciprocity, ecology of knowledges approach suggests the need to attend accountability, and consent (Whyte, 2020). In relation to the to the contextual relevance of any particular way of knowing. former, we would need to become more attuned to our own That is, certain knowledges are better suited to answer some embodied responses to certain topics of conversation. We questions than others, while at the same time, some questions would need to not only learn to notice when these responses are fruitfully addressed by drawing upon and braiding the emerge, but also to ask: Where is this response coming from? insights of multiple knowledge systems. If we fail to ask What personal anxieties, insecurities, fears, assumptions, how this ecology of knowledges might inform responses to hopes, desires, and defences might it be related to? Which contemporary global and social challenges, the academy is of my own experiences, conflicts, and even traumas might be likely to reproduce ethnocentric imaginaries of sustainability, contributing to this kind of response? What structural and justice, relationality, responsibility, and change (Andreotti et institutional issues of power, inequality, and systemic harm al., 2018; Stein et al., 2020). might be shaping these responses? Are these responses related For us to create the intellectual conditions under which we to the content of what is being discussed, and/or the way it is can have the opportunity to have a generous and generative being discussed, and/or my internal emotional state? dialogue between different disciplines, fields, and knowledge In asking these questions, it is important to not only communities, we would need to develop a deeper awareness approach the answers with curiosity but also to practise

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‘acceptance without endorsement.’ That is, the first step is to relationships is not just between institutions, but also between accept that these responses are present, rather than try to repress communities and individuals. or judge them. Only then might we be able to self-reflexively This approach to relationships differs significantly from consider the effects of these responses on ourselves, on others, mainstream approaches premised on transactional, calculated and on the possibility of generative, genuine engagement, benefits that treat relationships as an instrument toward especially across difference. By observing these responses in achieving an end and seek a single predetermined pathway ourselves and taking account of their impacts, we can more of change. The approach that Whyte suggests, along with soberly assess what and how we might need to recalibrate many other Indigenous thinkers, is instead focused on the in order to have deeper engagements about controversial quality and integrity of the relationship itself. Ends are not subjects. Taking responsibility for our own responses and determined in advance but negotiated and woven through their effects is not about compromising our integrity, agreeing the process of walking together differently. Such an approach with whatever is being said, seeking consensus or harmony, or to relationships decentres the individual and the presumed avoiding conflict. Instead, it entitlement to unrestricted is about asking how we might and unaccountable autonomy, each contribute to creating the ...how we might create the conditions and suggests instead that, while conditions in which we can under which academics, students, and the we are all ultimately free to have difficult conversations communities they engage with can address make our own choices, we are without compromising any issue…with more sobriety, maturity, accountable for those choices collegial relationships. discernment, accountability, and respect. and the impact they have on the wellbeing of others. Relational conditions For instance, for Jimmy et al. (2019), this approach to relationship ‘invites the surrender The contemporary moment is characterised by both hyper- of individual entitlement for a greater good and calls for an fragmentation and hyper-individualism (Bauman, 2011). This ongoing stretch-discomfort within a container of relational is not only about the polarisation of different perspectives in interdependence that is unconditional in its generosity over what have been called ‘echo-chambers’, but also the increasing time, but not open to abuse’ (p. 15). From this perspective, tendency for people to encase themselves in their own creating the relational conditions for academic freedom to individualised virtual reality bubbles. This shift has been thrive entails looking beyond individual and even group affected, in part, by growing social, ecological, economic, interests to consider our different accountabilities (as people and political crises that lack clear solutions paired with the and as academics) to many different communities, and fragmentation of knowledge itself that makes collective becoming attuned to the tensions and contradictions that responses to these crises appear increasingly impossible, and arise among these different accountabilities. Accountability in the idea of a common good and collective well-being appear this sense is not about deciding to whom we are accountable, increasingly abstract and out of reach. Academic knowledge but rather to acknowledging our interdependence with one production and teaching can be an important part of efforts another and all living beings on a finite planet. to address current local and global crises and enable creative, Fostering these relational conditions is slow and often sustainable responses that reimagine a common good and difficult work. It is particularly difficult to do in the context support collective well-being. of relationships where trust and respect have been continually However, these are not problems that can only be solved violated over long periods of time – for instance, between with more knowledge alone. In part this is because, as Indigenous and settler communities. To foster the conditions addressed earlier, different knowledge systems and knowledge for generative relationships between these communities that communities will not only derive different, often conflicting have been in historical dissonance tends to require additional answers to the question of how we might achieve a common effort, including: understanding and accounting for the effects good and collective well-being, but also different ideas of systemic, historical, and ongoing harms, and not avoiding of what constitutes the common good and wellbeing in this fact out of fear of guilt, shame, or conflict; a shared the first place. As Whyte (2020) notes, to derive ethical commitment to work toward trust, consent, accountability, and effective collective responses among these different reciprocity, and respect, as well as an understanding that these possibilities, especially in ways that attend to systemic, mean different things to different people (Whyte, 2020); historical, and ongoing inequalities, we would need to and a long-term commitment to continue doing the work of ‘establish [and] maintain relational qualities connecting social building generative relationships even and especially when it institutions together for the sake of coordinated action’ (p. becomes difficult or uncomfortable, without compromising 3). Furthermore, the work of establishing and maintaining one’s integrity or well-being (Jimmy et al., 2019). vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 Beyond the usual debates Sharon Stein 55 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES’ REVIEW

Concluding thoughts References

Ahenakew, C. (2016). Grafting Indigenous ways of knowing onto Creating the above conditions for academic freedom is unlikely non-Indigenous ways of being: The (underestimated) challenges of a to be a straightforward, linear, or painless process. However, if decolonial imagination. International Review of Qualitative Research, we can create those conditions, or at the very least commit to 9(3), 323-340. the process of working towards creating them, then we might Andreotti, V. (2021). Hospicing modernity. Berkeley, California: North be in a better position both to practise and defend academic Atlantic Books. freedom in today’s complex, uncertain, unequal world. Andreotti, V., Stein, S., Sutherland, A., Pashby, K. L., Susa, R., & With these conditions in place, any idea could be discussed Amsler, S. (2018). Mobilising different conversations about global with more prudence: in more sober, mature, accountable, justice in education: toward alternative futures in uncertain times. Policy & practice: A development education review, 26, 9-41. discerning and respectful ways – especially ideas that are Bauman, Z. (2011). . Padua: difficult, contentious, and controversial. This, in turn, would Liquid modern challenges to education Padova University Press. be conducive to ensuring that higher education serves as a key Jimmy, E., Andreotti, V., & Stein, S. (2019). Towards braiding. site at which we might support the coordinated co-creation of Musagetes Foundation. more equitable, ethical, and sustainable societies. Lobo, M., Bedford, L., Bellingham, R.A., Davies, K., Halafoff, A., Mayes, E., Sutton, B., Marwung Walsh, A., Stein, S. & Lucas, C. (2021). Sharon Stein is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Earth unbound: Climate change, activism and justice. Educational Educational Studies at the University of British Columbia Philosophy and Theory. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1080/00131 (Canada), and a Research Associate with the Chair for 857.2020.1866541 Critical Studies in Higher Education Transformation at Mika, C., & Stewart, G. (2017). Lost in translation: Western representations of Māori knowledge. Nelson Mandela University (South Africa). Her research Open Review of Educational Research, 4(1), 134-146. examines the complexities, challenges, and possibilities of Santos, B. S. (2007). Beyond abyssal thinking: From global lines to decolonisation, internationalisation, and sustainability ecologies of knowledges. Review (Fernand Braudel Center), 45-89. in higher education. She is founder of the Critical Stein, S., Andreotti, V., de Souza, L. M., Ahenakew, C., & Suša, Internationalisation Studies Network, and a founding R. (2020). Who decides? In whose name? For whose benefit? member of the Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures Decoloniality and its discontents. On Education. Journal for Research Collective. and Debate, 3(7), 1-6. Contact: [email protected] Whyte, K. (2020). Too late for Indigenous climate justice: Ecological and relational tipping points. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 11(1), e603.

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ATARs, Zombie ideas & Sir Robert Menzies

Robert Lewis

The December media frenzy over low standards of entry to Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) infer the minimum teaching degrees has become an annual event on Australia’s entry standards for initial teacher education be set at ATAR 80 news media calendar. The 2019 headlines were unforgiving: and above, drawing prospective teachers from among the best Teachers Fail Up! Sub-par students let into teaching degrees, and and the brightest. However, this is not the trend, and neither ATAR of 50? No Problem-Study Teaching [sic]. Commenting side of politics has a serious national plan to redeem falling on the news that the Australian Catholic University, the standards. Moreover, since its inception, the ATAR system University of Canberra and the University of Newcastle has become increasingly politicised and dragged into ‘culture were lowering their ATARs – Australian Tertiary Admissions wars’ over access, funding, standards and social justice. The Rankings – to 49.65, 48.30 and 53.45 respectively, the NSW aim of this commentary is to highlight the profound systemic Education Minister Sarah Mitchell made the extraordinary problems of falling standards in school student outcomes; in acknowledgement, ‘Some universities are not doing their best part due to lowered ATARs as well as problematic standards to properly prepare teachers for our schools’ (Harris, 2019). in teacher education. Launched in 2010 by the Gillard Labor Government, the ATAR system is the first national unified system for reporting Lowered university admission rankings the educational attainment of successive cohorts of Year 12 school leavers. The system is widely regarded as fit for In 2012, the Gillard Labor Government ushered in the purpose, being both predictive of academic success and rates demand-driven domestic market with the idea of increasing of completion (Higher Education Standards Panel, 2017; access to university degrees for disadvantaged low socio- Marks, 2007; Wilson, 2020; Shulruf et al., 2018). An ATAR economic status (SES) school leavers. With a nudge from the is a ranking on a scale from 0.05 (lowest) to 99.95 (highest), Bradley Review (Bradley et al., 2008), Gillard removed capped based on a complex algorithm informed by a 50:50 composite funding and discipline quotas on Commonwealth Supported of final year exam results and school assessments. The median Places (CSPs), except medicine. Opportunistically, many ATAR depends upon the participation-retention rate of the universities and colleges lowered ATAR entry requirements to cohort. In theory, if there were 100 per cent participation, the boost their intakes of domestic students, especially in cheap- median-average would be ATAR 50. However, retention rates to-run degree programs like teacher education (as well as hover at around 80-90 per cent, falling to around 65 per cent health, IT and business studies), thus securing the lucrative in regional, rural and remote areas. Lower participation rates CSP revenue stream. Between 2009 and 2016, there was a elevate the median to about ATAR 70. Generally speaking, 33 per cent increase in domestic undergraduate enrolments. an ATAR > 80 is well-regarded, whereas an ATAR < 50 (Birmingham, 2017). places a student in the bottom 30 per cent of the cohort, The trend continued, despite some limitations on funding and therefore far less likely to have the requisite foundation imposed by the Morrison Government in 2018, not long literacy-numeracy skills necessary to meet the demands of before release of the Productivity Commission’s report: The tertiary study. Demand Driven University System: A Mixed Report Card The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and (2019). The Productivity Commission report attributed the Development (OECD) and the Australian Institute for significant and rapid enrolment expansion to deregulation vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 ATARs, Zombie ideas & Sir Robert Menzies Robert Lewis 57 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES’ REVIEW

and found that institutions other than the Group of Eight evidence-based, but ideologically motivated and politically (Go8) procured most of the ‘additional students’ – an expedient. In the absence of a commitment to fund higher estimated 191,000 between 2009 and 2017 – who would not education teaching and research properly, he persists with have attended but for lower standards of entry. Those students the demand-driven market model with its inherent flaws and were mostly low SES applicants drawn from government contradictions. In 2016, the then NSW Education Minister, secondary schools with low ATAR scores (< 70), many of Adrian Piccoli, conceded that after Gillard, ‘universities whom lacked foundation literacy and numeracy skills and were using teaching degrees as cash cows to accumulate ‘underperformed academically’, dropping out ‘at rates of 57 to Commonwealth government funding through HECS debts.’ 70 per cent higher than other students’. The report stopped He said, ‘universities were putting their reputations at risk, and short of suggesting caps or quotas be reintroduced but there was no excuse for admitting such large numbers of sub- acknowledged that targeting low SES disadvantaged students standard students’ (Bagshaw & Ting, 2016; Hunter, 2019). It was not in their best interests due to high rates of attrition, beggars belief that, in pursuing this policy, no consideration is low rates of completion, loss of income, accrued private debt, given to the profound and predictable impact on the teaching and so on (Productivity Commission, 2019, p. 37). profession, teaching standards and student learning outcomes. The findings of the Commission’s report fundamentally contradict the then Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan’s Falling standards in schools logic-defying proposition that low-ATAR degrees are a viable means for redressing social and educational disadvantage. Ten years ago, David Gonski, author of the Review of Funding In his speech at the Sydney Morning Herald School Summit for Schools (2011), highlighted the ‘unacceptable link between on 25 February 2019, the Minister talked up the Morrison low levels of achievement and educational disadvantage, Government’s approach to ‘closing the gap’, a key component particularly among students of low SES and Indigenous of which entails supporting local Indigenous secondary backgrounds’ (Gonski et al., 2011, p. xiii). He signalled that students to gain access to teaching degrees and eventually ‘a concerning proportion of Australia’s lowest performing supply local schools (Tehan, 2019). It sounds like a compelling students are not meeting minimum standards of achievement’. progressive agenda, however if these students lack foundation He was not the first, nor would he be the last to register the literacy and numeracy skills, how are they expected to engage, problem. Twelve months later, former WA Premier Carmen participate and complete training? Lawrence wrote: The Productivity Commission signals very clearly that taking Australia’s school system is widely-recognised to be one of the low SES educationally disadvantaged students as low-ATAR most unequal in the world. The link between student back- entrants into teaching degrees, or any degree, is a high-risk ground and educational achievement is more marked in this strategy with predictably low returns – a strategy most likely to country. On average, differences in students’ backgrounds fail many of these students who are unprepared for academic accounted for some 55 per cent in performance differences studies. The report states that ‘improving the preparation of between schools across OECD countries, but in Australia the university students requires raising the skills of school students’, figure is around 68 per cent (Lawrence, 2012). that is prior to entry; but the Minister argues that skills prior Ten years ago, Gonski recommended that ‘a systemic effort’ to entry are less important than skills-sets after four years of was necessary to remedy the crisis. Clearly successive national university study (Hunter, 2019). He is adamant it is all about governments of both political persuasions have not done ‘outputs rather than inputs’. The report reaffirms the widely- enough in this space. Predictably, recent reports evidence the held-view that even a four-year degree cannot compensate for results of historical neglect and dysfunctional intervention. 12 years of educational underachievement. It suggests that, The 2018 Program for International Student Assessment beginning with pre-school students, the logical approach is to (PISA) found that Australian students’ results in reading, build their foundation literacy-numeracy skills step-by-step, science and maths were all in long-term decline. Back in 2003, especially during the formative primary school years, and that Australia was ranked third in reading, fourth in science and this development is a necessary preparation for secondary and ninth in mathematics, behind Japan but ahead of Switzerland. higher education (Productivity Commission, 2019. p.15). Sixteen years later Australia is ranked 12th in reading, tenth in This is a widely-held opinion also evidenced by recent research science and 20th in maths. In the latest 2018 study only 54 per (Australian Council for Educational Research, 2011). cent of 15 year olds attained the national proficiency standard Regardless of public pressure, the Minister has not in mathematical literacy, a downward trend that is said to be recanted, doggedly determined that low-ATAR degrees ‘equal to the loss of more than a year’s worth of schooling remain a permanent feature of the landscape, justified in [since 2003]’, positioning Australia alongside Latvia, Russia terms of a highly problematic social justice agenda that and the Slovak Republic, leaving our students more than three raises special pleading to a new low. His position is not years behind their Beijing-Shanghai peers and three years

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behind Singapore (Thomson et al., 2019). The PISA national responsibility rests not with the Federal Government, but project manager, Sue Thomson, has said, ‘This has got to be a elsewhere in the system. For many observers the Minister is wake-up call’ (Baker, 2019). not part of the solution. The 2018 and 2019 NAPLAN further evidenced the same downward trend. Aside from marginal improvements Declining standards in teacher education in mathematics for Year 3 and 5 (above 2008 levels) there was a continued decline in writing skills among Year 7 and 9 Dr Rachel Wilson has published extensively on ATARs students (below the 2011 baseline). Nearly one-in-three Year 4 and the teaching profession. She makes the elemental point primary school students did not meet the intermediate literacy that ‘within teacher professional accountability systems benchmark, 36 per cent in Year 8. The Grattan Institute’s internationally, both assurance of high standards and stability Peter Goss has said, ‘In Year 7 a third of the kids might still in those standards are minimum starting points for successful be in that learning-to-read stage and yet they are expected to education systems’ (Wilson, 2020, p. 5). However, many start covering more and more content.’ He added, ‘Secondary students enrolled in teaching are of an ‘unknown academic school teachers are not specialists in teaching kids how to standard’. In 2017, applicants’ ATARs were reported for read.’ Even if individual literacy only 17 per cent of the cohort problems were identified, they It sounds like a compelling progressive entering teaching degrees, are unlikely to be fixed. The and no other indicators were 2015 Trends in Mathematics agenda, however if these students lack available. ‘More than 65 per and Science Study (TIMSS) foundation literacy and numeracy skills, cent of entrants would have had Australian students flat- how are they expected to engage, participate an ATAR granted within the lining in mathematics and and complete training? prior two years, but this data science, with conspicuous was not recorded if entry was gaps in achievement between on a basis other than ATAR’ Indigenous and non-Indigenous students remaining as they (Wilson, 2020, p. 9). were 20 years ago! (Thomson et al., 2017; Martin, 2019) The available data shows that, for teacher education, the The PISA scores also highlighted falling standards at the number of low-ATAR entrants (between ATAR 30-50) has extremities of the performative scale, among the brightest increased five-fold over the past decade; and those between students at the top and those at the bottom end, suggesting that ATAR 51-60 has tripled. Those with ATARs of between 70 this downward trend is sector blind and system-wide. Rachel to 90 have fallen. Only 51 per cent of high ATAR students Wilson, University of Sydney academic, whose recent report, who began their studies in 2012 completed within six A Profession at Risk (2020), highlights declining conditions for years. Teaching is a minimum three-year program. Overall, teaching and learning in NSW schools, made the comment: completion rates for low-ATAR entrants are much lower ‘When we look broadly across Australian education at the than among those with higher ATARs (Baker, 2020). Lowest moment, there are lots of really disturbing indicators in terms completion rates are among those enrolled in online courses. of declines in performance… Those indicators are system- Over the past two decades, some initial teacher education wide, they’re not [only] among disadvantaged students, and providers have moved away from dedicated primary or they’re across all states and territories’ (Robinson, 2018). secondary degrees to ‘one-size-fits-all’ three or four-year The Director of the Australian Mathematical and Sciences programs; a retrograde trend seen to be a further consequence Institute (AMSI), Tim Brown, has also raised the alarm of market forces. over falling standards across secondary schools, signalling When the quality of recruited undergraduates declines the critical shortfall in secondary maths and science teacher and ‘less able’ graduates enter the school system, their lack numbers. Brown has said that ‘urgent action is needed to of expertise, particularly in relation to literacy and numeracy strengthen the teacher workforce and reverse the trend’ pedagogy and STEM, can profoundly impact student learning (Watson, 2019). outcomes (Wilson, 2020, p. 35; Fitzgerald & Knipe, 2016). In Federal Parliament on 19 December 2019 the call Wilson and Mack (2014) have reported on the contracting for urgent action was met with bullet-point apologia from numbers of primary and secondary students studying STEM, the Education Minister, who boasted of the billions being and the commensurate increase in school leavers undertaking spent on Australian schools – disproportionately less on teacher education degrees without achieving adequate maths public/government schools – while countries like Estonia, or science, a trend which is likely to generate ‘a vicious cycle he maintained, have achieved more with less (Hull, 2019). of declining engagement’ (Wilson & Mack, 2014, p. 35). The Evidently, the Minister would have the public believe that reverse of this trend is always a possible alternative (Wilson, the national crisis in school education is not his problem as 2020, p. 48). However, since the rapid expansion in initial vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 ATARs, Zombie ideas & Sir Robert Menzies Robert Lewis 59 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES’ REVIEW

teacher education­­ programs post-2012, reportedly there has raising doubts about the quality of prospective teachers been a corresponding rapid decline in the quality of provision in training as well as many who have already entered the and graduate outcomes (Maslen, 2013; Lloyd, 2013). national school system. In 2014, only two years after the onset of the demand- driven system, the Tertiary Education Ministerial Advisory The politicisation of ATARs Group (TEMAG) reported, ‘National standards are weakly applied’ across the 48 providers of initial teacher education In September 2018, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation programs. ‘Whilst there are examples of excellent practice, (ABC) obtained a confidential report that showed that there are also significant pockets of objectively poor practice’. applicants with an ATAR 19 or below were being admitted Furthermore, programs were operating ‘without providing to teacher education degrees. The author, retired professor practical teaching experience in schools.’ The review noted John Mack, released the data and commented, ‘It was clearly that there were ‘gaps in crucial information (such as ATAR not in the interest of universities to make this data available, entry data)’ and ‘insufficient support for beginning teachers.’ [as] it evidences that the general quality of applicants has Recommendation 2 stated reassuringly (!), ‘The Australian gone down’; he added, ‘It was worrying that offers were made government acts on the sense of urgency [sic] to immediately to students that would have exceptional difficulty coping commence implementing actions to lift the quality of initial with first-year university’ (Robinson, 2018). His report also teacher education… The full impact of the implementation suggested the scale of the problem was much greater than of the Accreditation Standards will not be in place until 2023’ expected. For instance, in 2015, ‘students who scored in the (Craven et al., 2014. p. xvii, emphasis added)! Australian bottom thirty percent of school leavers, with an ATAR 50 Catholic University Vice-Chancellor Greg Craven told the or less, made up half of all those offered places in teaching press, ‘There is no doubt that some courses are substandard… degrees’ (Conifer, 2019). Mack’s leak to the media was clearly Some universities may stop offering teaching degrees in the public interest, as breached accreditation standards were altogether and that would be a good thing [sic]… The process reported as early as 2013 but no action was taken (Ingvarson, of accreditation is much laxer than we would like. We have 2013; Craven, et al., 2014). excellent national standards – the problem is they are not In a number of significant reviews supposed to investigate being applied.’ But TEMAG were soft on transparency and falling standards in teacher education, ATARs did not rate a standards, and solid on institutional self-regulation. On mention – a remarkable omission (TEMAG, 2013 ; Bahr & the question of low-ATAR entry, Craven lined up with the Mellor, 2016). Other studies acknowledged that the ATAR Minister, ‘You can’t select quality teachers by looking at a mark system had become highly politicised, even if conceding branded on their forehead [ATAR] when they are 17 [years the inherent utility of ATARs. Notably, some Victorian old]. What matters is how teachers come out of university, not universities and colleges abandoned ATAR-based selection, how they go in’ (Knott & Cook, 2015). adopting instead psychometric or personality testing (Lloyd, In 2015, facing a tsunami of public criticism, concerns 2013; Wurf & Croft-Piggin, 2015), marginalising ATARs as a that initial teacher education graduates were unprepared common currency for reporting standards of entry to teacher and complaints that ‘some programs lacked rigour’, the then education. Federal Education Minister Christopher Pyne resorted to Perhaps the most disturbing behaviour has been the overt the unprecedented introduction of a pre-graduation literacy- disparagement or demonisation of the national ATAR system numeracy test (Hurst, 2014; Knott & Cook, 2015). It was (Jones, 2013; Craven, et al., 2014; Devlin, 2016; Australian and remains an extraordinary admission of failure on the Council of Deans of Education, 2019; Park, et al., 2020; part of government – a self-evidently damning proposition Zaglas, 2020). Some voices from mostly non-Go8 universities – the necessity of testing the basic literacy and numeracy have pressed the message that ‘ATARs are just a marketing skills of prospective teachers just weeks prior to graduation! tool’, more or less irrelevant for entry to a university program. In 2016, when the Literacy and Numeracy Test for Initial A prominent voice among them is the Chancellor of Western Teacher Education (LANTITE) was first implemented, Sydney University and former Howard speech-writer Peter one-in-ten pre-graduates failed to pass! The following year Shergold, who has been running the line that ‘ATARs are the failure rate dropped to five per cent (Doyle, 2017). distorting both the final years of schooling and students’ In 2018 it was back up to ten per cent. Late 2019 private subject choices’, grimly declaring that ‘the ATAR will face a slow tutoring colleges reported an influx of enquiries from pre- death over the next five years’ (Zaglas, 2020). He advocates for graduates (prospective teachers) wishing to improve their a new mode of matriculation, the Learner Passport, to replace English and maths skills before sitting the LANTITE. All ATARs (Park et al., 2020). In another op-ed piece the Deputy of this presents woefully poor optics around the quality of Vice-Chancellor of Victoria University, Anne Jones, has undergraduates exiting initial teacher education programs, justified lower ATARs as a ‘flow-on effect’ due to increased

60 ATARs, Zombie ideas & Sir Robert Menzies Robert Lewis vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES’ REVIEW

enrolments, not the other way around: lower ATARs testing, the LANTITE, an admission that significant numbers increasing enrolments. She concedes low ATAR entrants need of prospective teachers were not up to scratch! Add to this to be supported, and concludes assuredly, ‘That’s not about the social costs to private individuals and wastage of taxpayer dumbing down’, perhaps inviting the reader to logically draw dollars; then the spectacular undermining of the status of the the opposite conclusion (Jones, 2013). teaching profession. Notwithstanding further disruptions due Increasingly ATARs are being connected with the issue to the pandemic, it is highly unlikely that future PISA and of ‘precarious futures’ for young people, critiqued for being NAPLAN studies will do anything but continue to report ‘out of step’ with the culture, values and incentives of the declines in literacy, numeracy and STEM results, as much the business world. The authors of Beyond ATAR – A Proposal for legacy of policy ineptitude as ‘force majeure’. Change (O’Connell, 2019 ) and The Australian student voice Falling standards in school student education are obviously on the soft skills needed for the future – And how universities not solely attributable to ‘low-ATAR teaching degrees’, can integrate these skills into their teaching (OUP, 2020 ) however teaching standards should be under the spotlight. are touting the alternative to Shergold’s Passport: learner Teachers are widely acknowledged to be the key drivers of profiles, which are supposed to replace ATARs and report improved learning outcomes, and so too the reverse is always an individual’s competencies and ‘soft skills’: emotional possible. The renowned Brazilian educator, Paolo Freire, intelligence, critical thinking and creativity. This next wave of reminds us that we may fail in our work with predictable (even neoliberal prescriptions is being funded by the likes of Oxford if unintended) consequences for our students. University Press, or consortia of corporates, not-for-profits ‘Incompetence, poor preparation, and irresponsibility in our and universities, their collaborations sometimes un-authored practice may contribute to their [students] failure. But with and/or subject to disclaimers to assure the reader they are responsibility, scientific preparation, and a taste [love] for thoroughly independent. Typically endorsed by a line-up of teaching, with seriousness and testimony to struggle against vice-chancellors, corporate high-flyers and state officials, they injustice, we can also contribute to the gradual transforma- all enthusiastically embrace unfettered entry to the higher tion of learners into strong presences in the world.’ (Freire, education marketplace, and the demise of ATARs. 2005, p.62) Despite what some may say, the ATAR system is not The actual impact/s of ten years of ‘low-ATAR teaching broken per se (even if much abused) and doesn’t need ‘fixing’. degrees’ are impossible to quantify in meaningful terms, According to the Productivity Commission report, ‘the given the lack of transparency around ATAR reporting. ATAR remains important for Year 12 applicants’ entry into The continuing practice of recruiting applicants below the the most selective courses’ (Productivity Commission, 2019). published ATAR settings via alternative pathways, mature- The Go8 and other high performing universities continue age entry, ‘forced offers’ and the like, impedes accountability to promote high ATAR cut-offs, both for selection and to around standards, falling or otherwise. Ten years ago, before distinguish their degrees from the market competition. In so the rise of the demand-driven market, there were legitimate doing they maintain academic standards and the positional concerns around the underrepresentation of disadvantaged value of their degrees, as well as their reputation in the global minorities and low SES students. Today there is no doubt and domestic marketplaces. In general, perceptions of courses that this ‘progressive agenda’ has improved the numbers, and institutional reputations underscore students’ selections, but at what cost? Some public good has surely been served as course entry ATARs ‘serve as a proxy for quality’ in the eyes where academically competitive low SES students have of prospective students. (Marginson, 2004, p.185) achieved and completed degrees. But there is a sense in which credentialing and market economics, when applied to higher Final remarks education, no longer confer upon the recipient any guarantees of employability. Recent graduates are taking jobs that not so Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman speaks of ‘zombie ideas’ – long ago might have gone to high school graduates. When all ideas that are not held in good faith but are ‘brought to life’ is said and done, neither neoliberal prescriptions nor higher to undermine political debate – ideas that should have been education are necessarily the solution for the vicissitudes of killed off by the evidence, but just keep shambling along, global capitalism in the throes of stagnation, still capable of negating or suppressing rational discourse. The recruitment producing unparalleled profits and pauperisation (Means, of low-ATAR (< 50) entrants to teaching degrees is such 2015). a ‘zombie idea’. The full weight of nearly a decade of low For the Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan to completion rates should be sufficient impetus to kill off the acknowledge publicly the crises and instabilities in the idea. This level of attrition speaks to the fact that a university national education system might prompt further questioning degree cannot be both remedial and ‘higher education’, as around falling standards, and the interrogation of his further evidenced by the precipitous resort to pre-graduation legacy and that of his predecessors. There is perhaps no less vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 ATARs, Zombie ideas & Sir Robert Menzies Robert Lewis 61 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES’ REVIEW

disturbing evidence of crisis and instability than high attrition Teacher education should be the flagship of quality in teacher education programs and among those graduating university degree programs because of its importance for and recruited into schools. Recent reports estimate that some societal and economic development. After all, education is a 30-50 per cent of teachers entering the school system leave public good, and higher education institutions should accede within five years (Dadvand & Dawborn-Gundlach, 2020). to the moral imperative of serving the national interest. As High staff turnover most profoundly disrupts the education far as the ATAR system is concerned, it should be used for of students attending majority low-SES disadvantaged a better purpose, to raise standards of entry, to lift the status government/public schools in regional, rural and remote of teachers and to improve the effectiveness of teaching, and areas. The inextricable nexus between teacher education and thus ameliorate student learning outcomes across Australia’s falling teaching standards in schools, particularly for these primary and secondary schools. However, this is not the present areas, has become a ‘chicken and egg’ situation: prospective trend. The Australia Institute’s chief economist, Richard teachers with low ATARs recruited from disadvantaged low Denniss argues that the neoliberal pendulum has swung too SES majority schools then become ‘less able’ teachers who far to the right, and questions whether it is so desirable for our teach in disadvantaged low SES majority schools. This is not a public universities to turn a profit. He argues that ‘no public solution but looks for all intents and purposes to be an exercise good has been more commodified than a university degree’ in ‘creative destruction’ or class decomposition. As Wilson which ‘has come at the expense of the university sector’s and others have argued, this trend only generates a ‘downward ability to explain the broad contribution it makes to society’ spiral of disengagement’ (Wilson, 2020), lowering standards (Denniss, 2020). By shedding standards and diminishing the – a form of educational or intellectual disenfranchisement, cultural value of the institutions of higher education and mass or ‘dumbing down’. public schooling, there is a sense in which the state is trashing While the conditions conducive for learning continue to be the post-war social contract, and failing to meet its mutual eroded for the two-thirds of all school-aged children attending obligations to workers, their communities and Australian comparatively resource-poor public schools, this is a disastrous society. Even the longest-serving Liberal-Conservative Prime situation. Only an elite among the broader population can Minister, Sir Robert Menzies, despite his association with the secure access to the most prestigious schools and ‘a world class complicated history of state aid, recognised the transformative education’, leaving Indigenous and non-Indigenous working potential of education. In his words (from 1964): ‘Our great class Australian children stripped of a basic human right: a function when we approach the problem of education is comprehensive secular education that might enable them to equalise opportunity to see that every boy and girl has a to reach their full potential. Not even foundation numeracy chance to develop whatever faculties he or she may have, and literacy skills are guaranteed, despite all the promises and because this will be a tremendous contribution to the good motherhood statements. life of the nation’ (Furse-Roberts, 2019). In June 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Federal Education Minister set in train fiscal measures to Robert Lewis is an English literacy teacher, formerly working incentivise university degrees in areas of predicted employment in primary, secondary and higher education in Australia, growth, like teaching. Instead of confronting the evidential Indonesia, Vietnam and Hong Kong. crises that permeate the national school system, instead of Contact: [email protected] developing a national plan to raise standards or announcing a Royal Commission into the system-wide crisis dating References back some 20 or more years, he looks to another instalment Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER). (2011, August of neoliberalism, to feed public perceptions and reassure 8). Focus on Primary School Key to Closing the Gap. Media Release. universities that they are supported when struggling with the Retrieved from https://www.acer.org/in/discover/article/focus-on- collapse of the international student market. Impoverished primary-school-key-to-closing-the-gap low-ATAR teaching degrees, just like micro-credentials, are Australian Council of Deans of Education (ACDE). (2019). Education emblematic of instrumentalist designs on higher education, Deans against a big stick approach to ATAR entry. Retrieved from which look set to manufacture intellectually hollow training https://www.acde.edu.au/education-deans-against-big-stick-approach- to-atar-entry/ credentials for the surplus population or precariat. In the absence of viable public policy that might get ahead of the Bagshaw, E. & Ting, I. (2016, January 27). NSW universities taking students with ATARs as low as 30. The Sydney Morning Herald. curve and address issues around structural unemployment, Retrieved from https://www.smh.com.au/education/nsw-universities- environmental degradation, climate change, the war economy taking-students-with-atars-as-low-as-30-20160126-gmdvr6.html and ‘the social dilemma’ of corporatised popular culture, Bahr, N. & Mellor, S. (2016). Building Quality in Teaching and young Australians are being subjected to ‘a holding pattern’ of Teacher Education. Australian Education Review No.61. Melbourne, lifelong training, to be job ready… Vic.: Australian Council for Educational Research.

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Baker, J. (2019, December 3). ‘Alarm Bells’: Australian students record warns-against-crackdown-on-admissions-standards-for-teaching- worst results in global tests, Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved from degrees-20190224-p50zxc.html https://www.smh.com.au/education/alarm-bells-australian-students- Hurst, D. (2014, February 18). Quality Education begins with the best record-worst-result-in-global-tests-20191203-p53gie.html teachers, says Christopher Pyne. Sydney Morning Herald. Baker, J. (2020, February 20). Teaching students struggling to finish Ingvarson, L. (2013, June 7). Victoria’s ATAR follies. Sydney Morning their degrees, Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved from https://www. Herald. Retrieved from https://www.smh.com.au/education/victorias- smh.com.au/national/teaching-students-struggling-to-finish-their- atar-follies-20130607-2ntxl.html degrees-report-says-20200219-p542cq.html Jones, A. (2013, January 22). Uncapped uni places may be the death Birmingham, S. (2017, December 18). Sustainability and Excellence of the ATAR obsession. The Conversation. Retrieved from https:// , Media Release. Minister’s Media Centre, in Higher Education theconversation.com/uncapped-uni-places-may-be-the-death-of-the- Department of Education, Skills and Employment. Retrieved from atar-obsession-11716 https://ministers.dese.gov.au/birmingham/sustainability-and- excellence-higher-education Knott, M. & Cook, H. (2015, February 14). Teaching degrees fail to get pass mark: review. Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved from www. Bradley, D., Noonan, P., Nugent, H., Scales, B. (2008). Review of smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/ teaching-degrees-fail-to- , , Canberra: Department of Australian Higher Education Final Report get-a-pass-mark-review-20150212-13d885.html Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. Lawrence, C. (2012, July). Mind the Gap: Why rising inequality of Conifer, D. (2019, January 6). Low-scoring ATAR students to be ours schools is dangerous. The Monthly. Retrieved from https://www. barred from becoming teachers under a Labor government. ABC themonthly.com.au/issue/2012/july/1344475666/carmen-lawrence/ . Retrieved from https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-01-06/low- News mind-gap#mtr scoring-atar-students-to-be-barred-from-becoming-teachers/10687746 Lloyd, M. (2013). Troubled Times in Australian Teacher Education Craven, G., Beswick, K., Fleming, J., Fletcher, T., Green, M. & Jensen, 2012-2013. Office for Learning and Teaching (OLT), NSW Dept. of B. (2014, December). . Action Now, Classroom Ready Teachers Education, Sydney. Canberra: Teacher Education Ministerial Advisory Group (TEMAG) Marginson, S. (2004, January). Competition and Markets in Higher Dadvand, B. & Dawborn-Gundlach, M. (2020, July 30). The Challenge Education: a ‘glonacal’ analysis. Policy Futures in Education, 2, 175- . University of Melbourne. Retrieved to Retain Second Career Teachers 244. from https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/the-challenge-to-retain- second-career-teachers Marks, G. (2007). Completing university: Characteristics and outcomes of completing and non-completing students. LSAY Research Report No. Denniss, R. (2020, June 6-12). Hauls of Academe, , The Saturday Paper 51. Australian Council for Educational Research, Melbourne. 5-6. Martin, L. (2019, August 28). NAPLAN results 2019: Year 7 and 9 Devlin, M. (2016, April 11). ATAR is a university marketing tool: 4 Writing have declined. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www. . EduResearch Matters. Australian reasons to stop obsessing about it theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/aug/28/naplan-test-results- Association for Research in Education. Retrieved from https://www. 2019-year-7-and-9-writing-skills-have-declined aare.edu.au/blog/?p=1511 Maslen, G. (2013). Teacher training at the crossroads. The Sydney Doyle, J. (2017, November). Teaching students’ high school marks are Morning Herald. Retrieved from https://www.smh.com.au/education/ dropping, but universities say it doesn’t matter. . Retrieved ABC News teacher-training-at-the-crossroads-20130301-2fb2j.html from https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-02/are-our-teachers- smart-enough-to-teach-our-kids/9102674 Means, A. (2015). Generational Precarity, Education and the Crisis of Capitalism: Conventional, Neo-Keynesian and Marxian Perspectives. Fitzgerald, T. & Knipe, S. (2016, July 25). Policy reform: testing Critical Sociology, 1-16, Sage Publishers. times for teacher education in Australia. Journal of Educational Administration and History, 48(4), 358-369. O’Connell, M., Milligan, S., Bentley, T. (2019, November 2). Beyond ATAR – A Proposal for Change. Position Paper. Analysis & Policy Freire, P. (2005). Teachers as Cultural Workers – Letters to those who Observatory. Koshland Innovation Fund, Melbourne. Retrieved from . Cambridge MA: Perseus Books Group. dare teach https://apo.org.au/node/261456 Furse-Roberts, D. (2019). Free to Flourish. Menzies Research Centre. Oxford University Press (2020). The Australian student voice on the soft Retrieved from https://www.menziesrc.org/news-feed/free-to-flourish skills needed for the future – And how universities can integrate these skills Gonski, D., Boston, K., Greiner, K., Lawrence, C., Scales, B., Tannock, into their teaching. Retrieved from https://apo.org.au/node/261456 P. (2011, December). Review of Funding for Schooling. Dept. of https://apo.org.au/node/261456 Education, Employment & Workplace Relations, Canberra. Park, A., Donaldson A. & Kewley, L. (2020, August 11). ‘Slow death of Harris, C. (2019, December 24). Teachers Fail Up: Sub-par students let ATAR as students head for ‘job cliff’. Retrieved from https://www.abc. into teaching degrees. The Daily Telegraph. net.au/news/2020-08-11/slow-death-of-atar-as-school-leavers-head- for-jobs-cliff/12529898 Higher Education Standards Panel (2017). Improving Retention, Completion and Success in Higher Education. HESP, Tertiary Productivity Commission (2019). The Demand Driven University Education Standards & Quality Agency, Canberra. System: A Mixed Report Card. Commission Research Paper, Canberra. Hull, C. (2019, December 14). Tehan’s Response to PISA results is to Robinson, N. (2018, September 18). Students with lowest ATAR scores cook the books. The Canberra Times. being offered places in teaching degrees: secret report. ABC News. Retrieved from https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-18/students- Hunter, F. (2019, February 24). Dan Tehan warns against crackdowns lowest-atar-scores-teaching-degree-offers-secret-report/10200666 on admissions standards for teaching degrees. Sydney Morning Herald. 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A., Warnecke, E., Wilkinson, T. & Poole, P. (2018). The efficacy Wilson, R. & Mack, J. (2014). Declines in High School Mathematics of medical student assessment tools in NZ and Australia. Medical and Science Participation: Evidence of Students’ and Future Teachers’ Journal of Australia, 205(8). Retrieved from https://www.mja.com. Disengagement with Maths, International Journal of Innovation in au/journal/2018/208/5/efficacy-medical-student-selection-tools- Science and Mathematics Education, 22(7), 35-48 australia-and-new-zealand Wilson, R. (2020). The Profession at Risk: Trends in the Standards Tehan, D . (2019, 25 February). Speech at the Sydney Morning Herald for Admission to Teaching Degrees, February 2020, (pp. 5-62). Sydney, Schools Summit. Retrieved from https://ministers.dese.gov.au/tehan/ Australia: NSW Teachers Federation. sydney-morning-herald-schools-summit Wurf, G. & Croft-Piggin, L. (2015). Predicting the academic Tehan, D. (2020, August 13) . Putting Students’ Interests First, achievement of first year, pre-service teachers: The role of engagement, Minister’s Media Centre, Dept. of Education, Training & Employment. motivation, ATAR and emotional intelligence. Asia-Pacific Journal of Retrieved from https://ministers.dese.gov.au/tehan/growth-demand- Teacher Education, 43(1), 75-91. job-ready-degrees Zaglas, W. (2020, June 11). Relying solely on ATAR ‘profoundly Thomson, S., Wernert, N., O’Grady, E. & Rodrigues, S. (2017, March). distorts educational experience: Peter Shergold, Campus Review. TIMSS 2015: Reporting Australia’s results. Melbourne: Australian Retrieved from https://www.campusreview.com.au/2020/06/relying- Council for Educational Research. solely-on-the-atar-profoundly-distorts-the-educational-experience- shergold/ Thomson, S., De Bortoli, L., Underwood, C., & Schmid, M. (2019). PISA 2018: Reporting Australia’s Results. Volume I Student Performance. Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER). Retrieved from https://research.acer.edu.au/ozpisa/35 Watson, L. (2019). Transparency is Needed on Nation’s Maths Teacher Crisis. Media Release, Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute: AMSI. Retrieved from https://amsi.org.au/2019/05/10/transparency- needed-on-nations-maths-teacher-crisis/

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REVIEWS The Idea of the University – A review essay The Idea of the University: Histories and Contexts by Debaditya Bhattacharya (ed.) ISBN: 9781138055384 (hbk.), London: Routledge, xix+287 pp., 2019.

Public Universities, Managerialism and the Value of Higher Education by Rob Watts ISBN: 9781137535986 (hbk.), London: Palgrave Macmillan/Springer, xxi+358 pp., 2017.

Politics, Managerialism, and University Governance: Lessons from Hong Kong under China’s Rule since 1997 by Wing-Wah Law ISBN: 9789811373022, Singapore: Springer, (hbk.), xxii+223pp., 2019.

Reviewed by Thomas Klikauer & Catherine Link

Three contemporary books examine the fundamental the UK and the USA. The book delivers one of the more changes occurring in and around today’s universities. The first comprehensive overviews of the current state of universities. book argues that the origin of the modern university lies in The last book positions Hong Kong’s universities since the Europe. Starting with such a European perspective, Debaditya hand-over from British rule to Chinese rule. Wing-Wah Law’s Bhattacharya’s edited volume The Idea of the University book focuses on the emergence of university managerialism highlights the essence of the modern university. This concept since 1997 – an ideology that has infected many, if not most, hinges on modernism’s idea of a university dedicated to universities (Aspromourgos, 2012). enlightenment (Kant, 1784). Such a concept was strongly This review starts with Bhattacharya’s The Idea of the influenced by Wilhelm Humboldt (1767-1835; see Nybom, University before taking a look at the Anglo-Saxon universities 2003). Humboldt’s Bildungsideal [education ideal] favours and finishing with the highly instructive case of Hong Kong. a unity of research and studies directed towards the two Enlightenment ideals: the rational individual and the world The Idea of the University citizen (MacIntyre, 2009). Bhattacharya’s volume shows the damage that has been done to Humboldtian universities in In the preface to The Idea of the University, Debaditya the USA and India. The book also illustrates why and how Bhattacharya writes that today’s universities exist at a time Humboldt’s Enlightenment university has been defeated by of a ‘resurgence of right-wing forces across continents the neoliberal university. [fostering] a climate of rabid anti-intellectualism’ (p. vx). The second book – Rob Watts’ Public Universities, Perhaps even more than its right-wing populist offsider, the Managerialism and the Value of Higher Education – presents ideology of neoliberalism has done very serious damage to an insightful overview of many changes experienced by ‘Humboldt’s idea of a university’ (p. 1). This damage comes universities in three Anglo-Saxon countries, namely Australia, through preventing universities from conducting research vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 The Idea of the University – A review essay Reviewed by Thomas Klikauer & Catherine Link 65 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES’ REVIEW

‘uninterrupted and unforced’ by external powers (p. 3). neoliberalism’s key goals has been achieved, namely that ‘we Originally, many university systems ‘took inspiration from are…losing universities as sites for the generation of democracy the Humboldtian model’ (p. 6). Against that sits today’s in any meaningful sense of the word’ (p. 58). neoliberal university. It is a university defined by ‘the logic Apart from the pre-designed loss of democracy, poorer of production and consumption’ (p. 11) with a ‘fetishisation students are deterred from entering university so that the of performance’ (p. 15; cf. Avigur-Eshel & Berkovich, 2019) poor are trained to work. Like during the 19th century, they often mutating in what Fleck calls impact factor fetishism are simply confined to Learn to Labour (Wills, 1977). In (Fleck, 2013). Performance and competition have been short, ‘the only worker who is productive is one who produces fostered by external agencies including the World Bank surplus value for the capitalist’ (p. 63). Not even the ideological (Federici, 2009). words of sophisticated human resources management talking The World Bank’s The Challenge of Establishing World- of high performance work systems – HPWs can alter this fact. Class Universities (Salmi, 2009) basically takes the twenty HPWs aren’t designed to alter that fact. They are designed most elitist universities and tells the rest to be just like them. to camouflage the profit-making imperative of companies, It is a bit like telling a slightly overweight middle-aged corporations and ultimately capitalism (Baig et al., 2018). businessman who plays golf once a month, that you too can be That the world centres around private profits can be Tiger Woods. Following such illusions, many local universities experienced in private kindergartens, private schooling, and around the world have been made to believe they too can be the private ‘surplus university’ (p. 63). These institutions world-class universities. This is not going to happen. On condition (HR, 2010) young people just ‘as the neoliberal a more serious note, the 2008 ‘World Bank’s World-Class university trains them in the rhythms of flexibility and self- University report [had the] mission of poverty reduction’ exploitation’ (p. 65). These surplus universities operate as (p. 13). At the same time, the World Bank is ‘promoting the ‘teaching factories’ (p. 67) where an ‘accelerated learning development of private tertiary education’ (World Bank, 2009 process’ (p. 69) creates ‘students [who are] self-financing p. 12). In a quasi-tautological move, the World Bank believes entrepreneurs’ (p. 70). Meanwhile, ‘the figure of the teacher that poverty can be reduced by privatising universities so that is merely that of an administrator’ (p. 74) delivering pre- university fees prevent the poor – and in some countries a fabricated, modular and testable knowledge to Excellent Sheep growing (India) or dwindling (USA) middle-class – from (Deresiewicz, 2014). accessing higher education. Today’s students – now reframed as customers – are trained Because of the World Bank’s privatisation policies, there (not necessarily educated) in ‘the neoliberal university obsessed were ‘1100 per cent fee hikes for certain courses’ (p. 24) at with the factory format – as represented in its obsession certain universities. Surely the fact that ‘universities impose with…academic performance, and rankings (Avigur-Eshel & costs on students’ (Chomsky, 2014, p. 2) is a welcoming Berkovich, 2019) based on technological upgrades such as development for the World Bank and neoliberalism. For e-learning’ (p. 83). With the e-learning of the ‘digital diploma those universities that refuse to be privatised, there is mills’ (Federici, 2009, p, 454) or not, this signifies what social always managerialism’s ‘model of punitive audit for public philosopher André Gorz calls ‘the despotism of the factory’ universities’ (p. 28). Overall, the World Bank supported the (Gorz, 1970, p. 2) – a ‘tyrannical system’ (Chomsky, 2014, p. transition from public funding to private investment. By and 4). Factory-like e-learning is a classical euphemism. Learning large, the World Bank’s neoliberal ideology is based on three hardly takes place inside an e – electronic. It takes place in principles (p. 48): classrooms (Robinson, 2010). Instead of learning, what takes 1. The principle of value – capital appreciation and the place inside the neoliberal university is ‘the enclosure of capacity to attract new investors. knowledge’ (p. 93). This is embedded in ‘the dismantling of 2. Skyrocketing tuition fees…that stratify societies; and public education at all levels [which] has been the hallmark 3. The idea that privatisation breaks apart teaching and of neoliberal structural adjustment’ (p. 94; cf. MacIntyre, research, decreasing the value of scholarship. 2009). All this fits into ‘a neoliberal configuration driven by ‘The conversion of universities from public to private privatisation [and] state disinvestment’ (p. 104) marking ‘the purpose, in both research and education, has been shaped triumphalist narrative of liberal capitalism’ (p. 106). by the demands that accompany private funding’ (p. 53). Inside the neoliberal university, one finds ‘corporate-style For students, the public-to-private conversion means that managerial regimes [with] bureaucratic mechanism [and] ‘privatisation limits access and funnels the historically excluded strict surveillance’ (p. 109; cf. Zuboff, 2019) often signifying towards technical training rather than broad education in ‘private educational factories’ (p. 112). On many occasions, the science and letters’ (p. 56). The poor continue to labour one gets the impression these university factories are while the rich attend expensive universities. This seems to be running on the premise that ‘people who think too much are the neoliberal model of the World Bank. Meanwhile, one of dangerous’ (p. 125). To prevent dangerous thoughts, ‘teachers

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and students are [placed] at the mercy of petty bureaucratic… year (750,000 / 15,000 = 125). Beyond that, not all academics administrators’ (p. 133). University managerialists have even submit an article each year. Only about 60 per cent of assured that ‘the arts, humanities and social science have all academics submit an academic article to a peer-reviewed been diminished…while professional, business and vocational journal per annum. In our assumed case, this means 60 per education have expanded’ (p. 135). University graduates cent of 125 = 75. Still, 75 academics per A/A* journal article. should function – not think. While junior academics are pressured to publish in A/A* As universities have set up marketing departments spending journals, senior academics are often less likely to care about millions on advertising, universities have become ‘profit- such a pressure. In a replication of the bankers’ dilemma making teaching shops’ (p. 137). One university has recently (those who need a loan cannot get one and those who do spent $20 million simply to rename the university to ‘enhance not need a loan can get a loan), a publication dilemma is their branding’ (p. 151; cf. Kimbrey, 2015). At least the established: those who cannot publish are forced to publish money spent on changing the university’s logo wasn’t wasted while those who can publish do no longer want to publish in on research and teaching. Meanwhile, many universities ‘make A/A* journals. In any case, many A/A* journals have about money off degrees that are as lightweight as the paper on 75 submissions per acceptance. This is a just under two per which they are printed’ (p. 137; cf. Klikauer, 2018a). To an cent acceptance rate or a 98 per cent rejection rate at top tier overwhelming degree managerialists parrot the World Bank’s journals. hallucination of being a ‘world-class teaching and research Many top tier journals pride themselves on their high institution’ (p. 143). rejection rate. In any case, an artefact of the volume of Still, the ideology of the World Bank creates very serious submissions is not a statement of quality. It is a statement problems. Apart from the fact that, ‘the possession of a of the success of managerialism (Klikauer 2019). Finally, PhD or a DPhil is too often the mark of a miseducated there is also the well-known bias of disciplinary gate keeping mind’ (MacIntyre, 2009, p. 348), a PhD candidate at an journal editors favouring star authors. Much of this aids Australian university was recently told not only to complete the madness of numbers, measurements and rankings. her PhD thesis but also to have three A or A* publications. Unfortunately for Albert Einstein who published his Theory This follows the A*/ABC ranking of journals according to of Relativity [Relativitätsprinzip] in 1908 in a journal called which five per cent of journals are ranked A*/A, 15 per cent Jahrbuch der Radioaktivität und Elektronik, this journal is B and 50 per cent are ranked as C (Dobson, 2014, p. 232). not an A* journal. The 2018 list only includes the Jahrbuch The focus is on the top five per cent. The PhD candidate’s fuer Wirtschaftswissenschaften (ranked: C). According to university managerialists required her to do that even though university managerialists, Einstein’s theory of relativity should there are plenty of academics who will never publish a single not have been published – it is worthless (Einstein, 1908). A or A* publication – let alone three of them (Klikauer, Just as, by the same reasoning, is Einstein’s E=mc2 formula 2020). Managerialists believe that an unknown PhD from published in the Annalen der Physik (1905) – another non-A* an unfamiliar local university in a distant city can push their journal. university towards being a ‘world-class’ university (p. 143; cf. All this explains two things: firstly, the numerical (Dobson, 2014, p. 239). impossibility for many business school academics to publish According to the Australian 2018 list used to ‘calibrate in an A/A* journal (hence the high rejection rate of A/A* academic work’ (Dobson, 2014, p. 229) and to classifying journals); and secondly, it shows managerialism’s madness academic journals into A* (best), A (good), B (okay) and C telling unknown PhD candidates with no track record to (bad), there are roughly 250 A and A* journals in the field of publish in A/A* journals. Worse, university managerialists management (coded #1503: business and management). The have told senior academics not to publish in B/C journals. 250 journals within the 1503 code include journals such as Unknown to managerialists, there are many B/C journals Applied Psychology, Acta Psychologica, Demographic Research, that are of extremely high quality – just not in the eyes of Health Services Research, Higher Education, International managerialists (Dobson, 2014, p. 233). Migration, Journal of Communication, etc. Let’s do the For managerialism, ‘the very idea of excellence consists in maths: if each A and A* journal publishes four issues per year its internal manipulability’ (p. 148). Inside the university, containing six peer refereed articles, there may well be about managerialists can easily manipulate PhD-students and 6,000 A or A* articles published per year. academics while ‘mobilising structures of surveillance and Globally, there are about 15,000 business schools. If one control’ (p. 149). Just as one can control a lab rat in Skinner’s assumes that each business school has fifty academics (and box by dangling a carrot in front of it, one can also control PhD many schools have more), that would make about 750,000 students and aspiring academics by dangling a full-time job in management academics globally (50 x 15,000 = 750,000). front of them. The rat will jump, and the PhD candidate will In other words, there are 125 academics per A/A* article per try to publish in A/A* journals (Lemov, 2006). This support’s vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 The Idea of the University – A review essay Reviewed by Thomas Klikauer & Catherine Link 67 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES’ REVIEW

managerialism’s ‘fantasy…of people-as-human-capital’ (p. sense of good and bad, positive and negative’ (p. 270). Their 157) – a mere cost factor for managerialists. The fact that ‘in a surveillance system follows Greece’s ργος Πανόπτης – the all- reasonably functioning university, you find people working all seeing Argus Panoptes. It is pan (all) and potikon (to see). In the the time because they love it’ (Chomsky, 2014, p. 5) is an alien panopticon, managerialists see all, measure all and control all thought for managerialists. (Kindsiko, 2018, p. 50). In short, university ‘Managerialism In other cases, university managerialists are eager to establish disrupts existing social relations between educational actors, ‘structural feudalism’ (p. 171). This is something that follows only to reconstruct them in a new system of control’ (Avigur- what real management calls strategic business units (SBUs; Eshel & Berkovich, 2019, p. 3) – the all-seeing panopticon. cf. Govindarajan, 1986). In Managerialism’s rational choice Meanwhile, external control has led to the fact that ‘in 2011, theory of endless games of chance (Abella, 2008), these SBUs funding in the US for humanities research was less than half can be pitted against each other. A mathematics department of 1 per cent of the amount that the science and engineering can be set against engineering or social science or against the studies had access to [a fact that is somewhat] echoed in arts. The possibilities are endless for the local warlords called Britain…and Australia’ (p. 272). One of the dire consequences department heads or deanlets (Ginsberg 2011). Uncontrolled, of engineering’s over-funding lacking a philosophical-ethical managerial deanlets can transmit the pressures installed by foundation is that science can genetically modify a human top-managerialists downward. The Harvard Business Review baby but to the question should we do that? we have no calls this ‘kiss upward and kick downward’ (Chamorro- answer (Habermas & Blazek, 1987, p. 10). Equally daunting Premuzic & Sanger, 2016). No wonder the neoliberal is the fact that Debaditya Bhattacharya’s book on The Idea university increasingly becomes a prime site of bullying of the University makes abundantly clear that the original (Lewis, 2004). Even the corporate psychopath thrives under concept of the university has been thoroughly demolished by these conditions (Klikauer, 2018b). Beyond that, the product neoliberalism and its evil twin brother of managerialism. All of flowing from much of this is that ‘social justice is no longer the this leads to the inevitable conclusion that public universities responsibility of…the university’ (p. 174). have been privatised while others are still-to-be-privatised. In In the managerial university, ‘the cultural Bildung model both cases, managerialists behave as if universities were for- of Humboldt’ is no longer of value (p. 185). Bildung now profit companies (Mandell, 2002). Whether private or public takes place elsewhere. During Humboldt’s times and before university, the destructive ideology of Managerialism has Managerialism took hold, ‘for students, the campus was the taken hold in many universities. Meanwhile, higher education universe’ (p. 188). In many cases, a campus has been replaced has been reduced to vocational training. How neoliberalism by a parking-lot-university that students drive to and then go and managerialism have achieved the same thing in the USA, home straight after class. Meanwhile, other managerialists call Great Britain and Australia is illuminated in Rob Watts’ book. impersonal and dehumanising office blocks Vertical Campus. The linguistic madness – or perhaps the reality camouflaging Public Universities and Managerialism ideological constructs of university managerialists – knows no boundaries (Orwell, 1948). In the preface to Public Universities, Managerialism and Inevitably, this leads to politics. The ‘mundane question the Value of Higher Education, Rob Watts notes that ‘it is of how academic research is controlled by grants cannot be increasingly difficult to find universities where learning, as divorced from politics’ (p. 201). This also links to the World opposed to education and training, is the main goal’ (p. ix; Bank’s ideology that ‘higher education should be completely cf. Habermas & Blazek, 1987). Perhaps this is because, ‘higher released to private capital’ (p. 213). It makes universities education is now a commodity’ (p. 10). Learning has been functional additives to capitalism. Deprived of a real campus, replaced by something that can be sold: an employment- real teaching, real learning, and no civic engagement ‘higher related degree. Managerialism’s apparatchiks have convinced education [no longer] provides the space for young people many that ‘selling higher education [is important and to become citizens’ (p. 245). Now universities provide universities] work in a highly competitive market’ (p. 14; cf. vocational training between school and work (Klikauer, Klikauer, 2015a). 2016) ‘promising their students a gateway to superior career The much-acclaimed educational market has ‘redefined the possibilities’ (MacIntyre, 2009, p. 350). university in terms of purely economistic calculations [based The original ‘universitas magistrorum et scholarium – the largely on] consumer satisfaction’ (p. 29), i.e. a multiple-choice community of teachers and scholars’ (p. 247; Habermas & survey through which students evaluate courses. It is the Blazek, 1987, p. 11) has long been eliminated in favour of application of management’s customer-is-king idea to private control and competition. University managerialists ‘leave and public universities. Under managerialism the ‘distinction no stone unturned to maintain surveillance’ (p. 269). They between private and public universities is fast becoming have created ‘a system of rewards and punishment based on a blurred’ (p. 31). Today, many, if not most, public universities

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operate as if they were private for-profit entities. Their focus managerial hallucination. Much of this is based on the has truly shifted from philosophy, science, research and hegemonic belief that ‘the market is intrinsically more efficient teaching towards ‘budget responsibility, efficiency [and] than government; to gain greater efficiency, government accountability’ (p. 32). should be redesigned according to market methods and Rafts of willing executors carry out managerialism’s incentives’ (p. 115). In many cases, such ideologies are imperatives every day. Staunchly, they stick to managerialism straight out of Pinochet-loving Friedrich Hayek and his in a Columbus-like fashion. Watts writes ‘until his death, neoliberal catechism (Hayek, 1944; 1978). Inside universities, Columbus insisted that he had actually discovered a neoliberalism comes along as managerialism (Shepherd, transatlantic path to India and threatened to hang any of his 2018). Managerialism means high fees while academics are crew who dared disagree’ (p. 44). University managerialists substituted through ‘the hiring for temps’ (Chomsky, 2014, seem to follow this. Challenge the managerialists and p. 1). Managerialism’s unsavoury realities are camouflaged managerialism’s core beliefs and you are done. Gone are the through announcements such as ‘students [are] at the heart of days of ‘Kant’s unrestricted freedom to use his own rational the system’ (p. 119). capacity and to speak his own mind’ (p. 47). Kantian The second impact of Hayek’s neoliberalism has been philosophy has vanished into thin air. Long gone are the days that ‘governments required that higher education double when ‘universities stood outside the system of market relations its enrolment…without any additional public funding’ (p. and cultivated both higher values and objective knowledge’ 123). This has been achieved largely through hiring more (p. 53). In the managerialist university, knowledge’s value lies managers while casualising teaching – ‘some [academics] have in its saleability (Sandel, 1998). to apply [for their own job] every year so that they can get Useless to managerialists are universities ‘constrained appointed again’ (Chomsky, 2014, p. 3). This is accompanied only by the requirement of truth’ (p. 54). Instead, university by stagnating academic wages, the worsening of working managers focus on things that can be measured, controlled conditions, work intensification, larger classes and moving and sold. Hence, numbers are relevant. These are numbers research towards external, i.e. state or industry, funding. of publications – pure output – for example. Ask a colleague Both are seen by managerialists as the ‘most important ‘how did she become a professor? And the answer is like to output’ (Dobson, 2014, p. 231). Meanwhile, the growth of be “oh, she published a lot”’. These output publications are a universities has been successful. Indeed, ‘student numbers in valuable source for university marketing just like the number Britain almost doubled between 1990 and 1996 [while] real on some ranking (Amsler & Bolsmann, 2012). With the rise funding per student fell by nearly 30 per cent’ (p. 124). of the managerialist university, many ‘wannabe universities Following neoliberalism’s ideological catechism, ‘in 1995- are offering merely professional or vocational courses’ (p. 80). 2005 Australia was the only OECD member state to reduce This brings in money. total spending on tertiary education’ (p. 131). The loss of Under managerialism, much of this has become ‘social funding was compensated by a gigantic influx of oversees full- plumbing’ (p. 83), as universities are increasingly mere shells of fee-paying students. In Australia, higher education became what they once were. They are no longer dedicated to science, the third largest export industry after iron ore and coal wisdom, philosophy, and truth. Now they are dedicated to (ABC, 2019). In other words, ‘higher education is an export vocationalism like any other vocational college or training industry’ (p. 147) and the prime location ‘for production of a school. Many activities previously organised by academics commodity’ (p. 149) – just like iron ore and coal. Universities have been handed over to managerialists (Grubb & Lazerson, fulfil ‘the neoliberal project that is a political project’ (p. 153) 2005). In the case of vocational training, these vocational even though neoliberalism is sold to us as an economic theory. training regimes are supported by external agencies, so-called Just add the prefix neo to the political idea of liberalism and accreditation agencies. Vocationalism also means a ‘trend you get neoliberalism – the master ideology of untamed toward occupational-professional programs combined with competition. short-term cyclical movements’ (p. 86). These are courses Under neoliberalism and managerialism, research is based in which students are forced to use ‘textbooks with all the on ‘the competitive pursuit of excellence’ (p. 156). Now, right answers’ (p. 89; cf. Harding, 2003). It produces ‘clueless researchers are often prevented from working collaboratively. students’ (p. 92) ready for corporate consumption (Lyons, Instead, they are pitted against each other. Teaching and 2018). Such students no longer see ‘the value of knowledge in research have become based on three core principles: a) knowledge itself ’ nor do they see universities ‘as emblems of promote competition; b) privatise higher education; and c) democracy’ (p. 96; cf. Klikauer, 2016). achieve economic autonomy (p. 161). The goal is to convert Deprived of its original sense, ‘Plymouth University [for a ‘public good [into] a private good’ (p. 165) even though example] promotes its vision to be the enterprise university… ‘knowledge is predominantly a public good, not a private having a world-leading…enterprise culture’ (p. 105) – a good’ (p. 166). Just imagine if Albert Einstein would have kept vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 The Idea of the University – A review essay Reviewed by Thomas Klikauer & Catherine Link 69 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES’ REVIEW

E=mc2 private and Alan Turing would have done the same – as managers set[ting] about employing consultants and PR millions would have starved to death. Unsurprisingly, Nobel specialists to say what makes their university ‘unique’ or ‘spe- Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz argued ‘knowledge is close to a cial’, just as nothing expresses the loss of purpose that those charged with running the modern university now display as pure public good and far away from being a commodity’ (p. they attempt to express their claims to purpose and distinc- 166; cf. Stieglitz, 1999). Undeterred, university managerialists tiveness’. march on (Klikauer, 2015b). Despite managerialists’ enforcement of the neoliberal Conceivably, mission statements are a clear sign that the ideology of competition, top universities are ‘not driven neoliberal university has truly lost its sense and purpose. by competition’ (p. 170). Next to neoliberalism’s market It becomes even more obscene when universities advertise malfunctions, internally managerialism means ‘the rise of the themselves by telling students ‘begin, build, and believe’ (p. manageriat’ (p. 181). As in all other cases where managerialism 204). Not surprisingly, university marketing comes along with has taken hold (Klikauer, 2013), the number of managerialists the following: ‘there is a nearly complete inability on the part will rise. Hence, ‘between 1975 and 2005 American colleges of the senior managers to say what learning is, or why truth and universities increase[d] the number of administrators matters combined, with an unwillingness to see or to say by 85 per cent and the number of non-teaching staff by 240 why higher education remains a fundamental public good’ per cent...by 2014 there were two non-academic employees (p. 209). Instead, ‘a school or program looks to be successful for every full-time (or tenure-track) academic staff member’ when all of the metrics which an audit culture generates are (p. 185: cf, Chomsky, 2014, p. 1). At the UK’s University of favourable’ (p. 231), like: Bradford, 63 per cent of all employees are support staff. ‘The • high student entrance numbers, University of Wolverhampton had 62 per cent, and Durham • high completion rates, and Aberystwyth University had 61 per cent... in Australian • satisfied students who are attractive to employers, and universities, there are 1.3 non-academic staff members to • excellent customer satisfaction numbers, apparently every academic staff member’ (p. 186), equivalent to 57% of signifying good teaching quality. all employees being support staff. In other words, universities Customer satisfaction is achieved when students fill in are a place where managerialists manage themselves with a few a student feedback questionnaire. Here, ‘the assumption is remaining academics. that students are best placed to evaluate teaching quality’ (p. Meanwhile, university managerialists are busy with 241). It follows Managerialism’s customer-is-king ideology. being busy (Rosenfeld et al., 1995) and, on top of this, they It is highly contestable that students are reliable judges of invent and manage things like ‘strategic plans, target setting, academic teaching ability. benchmarking, academic audits, quality assurance, annual Research on managerialism’s customer-is-king found ‘that performance review, performance indicators’, etc. (p. 192). 32 per cent of students each semester did not take any subjects The large overhead of university managerialists is financed with more than 40 pages of reading assigned a week, and that by fee-paying students and ‘a continuous worsening of the half of the sample did not take a single subject requiring them staff/student ratio’ (p. 194). This means that more students to write more than 20 pages over the semester’ (p. 244). These are crammed into larger classrooms with a casual teacher in are the valued customers-as-kings sitting in judgement over front of them, Alternatively, teaching has been moved online academic staff. To an ever-increasing level, academic staff no (Edmondson, 2012) – something even more cost-effective. longer consists of full-time scholars. Instead, the managerialist Fee-paying students create what managerialists call ‘teaching university depicts this: surplus’ (p. 195). It means students pay more than they get in ‘back in 1969, almost 80 per cent of college faculty members return (Hil, 2015). This also means that managerialists can use were tenured or on tenure track. By 2015 the numbers had the income generated from students for other purposes such as, essentially flipped, with two-thirds of faculty now non-ten- for example, themselves (Michels, 1915), the marketing of the ured and half of those working only part-time, often with PR university (Cronin, 2016), and the fostering of a ‘culture several different teaching jobs. This is something that modern of audit’ (p. 196). Audit culture is another instrument used universities refuse or fail to acknowledge: it doesn’t align well by the all-seeing Argus Panoptes. It is also used to camouflage with the glossy brochure-speak in their corporate advertising. ‘the arbitrary exercise of managerial power’ (p. 198). One such It is also something of a public-policy scandal. No one in their right mind would go to a hospital staffed predominantly by an area for managerial power is found in corporate mission low-paid, third-year medical students’ (p. 246). statements (p. 201): Much of this has a negative impact on students and ‘Mission statements for universities were almost unknown until the late 1980s but have become near universal in 2016. academics. American academics, for example, ‘spend twice as Perhaps nothing captures the pathos of modern universities many hours on teaching as they do research’ (p. 247). This is thanks to something managerialists call ‘workload formulas’

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(p. 248). As a consequence, ‘universities are unhealthy place in takes place what German philosopher Habermas calls the which to work’ (p. 251). University managerialism comes not open democratic sphere (Kellner, 2000). just with a heavy price for academics, it hits students as well. As a consequence, even democratic states often have a ten- For example, ‘student debt in England will increase to around sion-filled relationship with universities found in ‘the inter- £100 billion in 2016–17, £500 billion in the mid-2030s, and play between politics, managerialism, and higher education’ £1000 billion (£1 trillion) by the late 2040s’ (p. 269). Such (p. 1). Still, with the rise of the managerialist university, a ‘debt is a trap, especially student debt, which is enormous’ democracy has been moved into the background. Meanwhile, (Chomsky, 2014 p. 2). Next to user-pays regimes and financial managerialists foster – or perhaps enforce – ‘quality assurance loan pressures, there is also a lot of pressure ‘to go to university and accountability’ (p. 2). This is not for CEOs, ‘antiquated [that is] strongly influenced by…[family] expectations’ (p. hierarchies’ (Habermas & Blazek 1987, p. 6) and ‘the layer after layer of management’ (Chomsky 2014, p. 1). It is for aca- 279). Based on years of schooling (Bowles & Gintis 1976), demics working under such a regime. With the elimination of parents and students have been convinced that ‘knowledge is democracy from university administration came ‘the subordi- a thing that can be delivered in on-line modules or memorised nation of academic governance to corporate governance’ (p. for subsequent regurgitating in a short-answer test’ (p. 291). 3). On this the historian of economics, Tony Aspromourgos All this indicates that ‘academic capitalism’ (p. 302) is notes in one of the finest pieces ever written onThe Mana- truly with us. Expectedly, ‘in the academic capitalist regime, gerialist University (Aspromourgos 2012, p. 48), ‘the man- higher education has two economic roles. Apart from agerialist model cannot serve as a substitute for traditional generating revenue for academic organisations, its task is approaches to quality assurance, which ultimately rest upon also to produce the kind of knowledge that facilitates the embodying in all individual and collective academic activity, professional norms and ethics of conduct, collegially regu- global economic competitiveness of corporations’ (p. 304). lated by the community of academics’. Given the imperatives of neoliberalism and managerialism ‘to satisfy certain interests, the modern managers of universities The ultimate goal of managerialism is the complete now have no interest in telling the truth…this means…no destruction of the collective academic community. In many Vice-Chancellor (or university president), Dean or Head of countries, this goal is supported by a ‘triangle of coordination School/Department has any interest in telling the truth about spanning from ‘states, to markets and academic oligarchies’ (p. the impact of public policy on the quality of work done in 4). The point is, however, that these oligarchies are managerial their institution’ (p. 339). It is no surprise then that Noam rather than academic oligarchies (Murray & Frijters, 2017). Chomsky comments, ‘how about management? Most of them Quite often, they are furnished with professorial titles by are pretty useless or even harmful anyway, so let’s get rid of the managerialists, which are generously handed out to them’ (Chomsky 2014, p. 4). those who support Managerialism (Thaw, 2013). In short, It appears that the managerialist university moves further the horizontal collegial approach is annihilated in favour of and further away from ‘the central point made in this book, ‘a top-down approach’ (p. 4). In his book, Law also says that that knowledge as a process is a deeply human and a public ‘Managerialism lacks an agreed-upon definition’ (p. 5). Still, good’ (p. 349) [and] that ‘universities ought to be spaces Wikipedia provides a sensible explanation: for public scholarship, rational debate, and dissension, and Managerialism combines management knowledge and ideol- they ought to play an indispensable role in nurturing a wider ogy to establish itself systemically in organisations and society democratic and humane culture’ (p. 351). These virtues are while depriving owners, employees (organisational-economi- slaughtered on the altar of neoliberal managerialism even in cal) and civil society (social-political) of all decision-making places like Hong Kong as the last book under review shows. powers. Managerialism justifies the application of managerial techniques to all areas of society on the grounds of superior Politics, Managerialism, and the University ideology, expert training, and the exclusive possession of managerial knowledge necessary to efficiently run corpora- tions and societies. (coincidentally citing Klikauer (2013) in The foreword of Wing-Wah Law’s book on Politics, Managerialism – Critique of an Ideology) Managerialism, and University Governance starts with ‘education has frequently been seen as a prime vehicle One might also argue that managerialism can be presented for advancing democracy’ (p. v). Historically, the rise of as a formula: MA=MEI (Micocci & Di Mario 2018, p. universities has often been accompanied by the rise of 54) where managerialism (MA) equals the product of democracy. Some have argued that an increase in educational management (M), expansion (E) and ideology (I). In short, levels will inevitably lead to a rise in a middle-class seen as there is no managerialism (MA) without management (M), citoyens – open-minded democratic citizens (Rosenow, just as there is no managerialism without expansion into, for 1992). Subsequent to that is ‘the belief that the free exchange example, universities in Hong Kong. Finally, it is virtually of ideas furthered the advancement of society’ (p. vi). This impossible to think of managerialism without mentioning vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 The Idea of the University – A review essay Reviewed by Thomas Klikauer & Catherine Link 71 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES’ REVIEW

ideology ever since Enteman’s seminal work Managerialism: to fit into Hoyle and Wallace’s (2005) second versions of the Emergence of a New Ideology (Enteman, 1993). Still, entrepreneurial managerialism (Magretta, 2012, pp. 70f.). managerialism has replaced ‘the two dominant models of For many universities, the neoliberal toolkit came with a universities governance – bureaucratic and collegial’ (p. 7) hefty reduction in state support but not so in Hong Kong. that used to define university administration until the 1970s. Hong Kong universities did ‘not face severe budget cuts’ (p. The ‘collegial model considers universities as a collegium or 57). Furthermore, ‘Hong Kong academics enjoyed academic academic community, one which allows the full participation freedom’ (p. 59) – an increasingly rare commodity. of academics’ (p. 7). Managerialism ‘shifts [a] university as a Still, slowly but surely even Hong Kong universities republic of academics’ (p. 8) towards ‘implementing NPM eventually fell under managerialism and ‘the introduction of [new public management] measures’ (p. 8), where NPM is the competition between…institutions for research funding’ (p. application of managerialism to public entities. Such attacks 63). The mantra is let the market decide. All too often, one of on universities and knowledge aren’t new. the outcomes of the free market is that we will have even more After the unsavoury threat to torture Galileo Galilei by medical drugs against obesity (a lucrative market) and but the Catholic Church significantly delayed the advent of next to no drugs against malaria. Put crudely, poor children in vital scientific knowledge and progress (Chalmers, 2013), our Planet of Slums have no market value (Davis, 2007). This it became increasingly clear that ‘the most cherished feature is the inhumanity of neoliberalism. In any case, neoliberalism’s of the university is that it derives its authority from human so-called market is based on ‘research outputs alone’ (p. 64). reason and wisdom, rather than from external authorities, Just like a car factory, the more cars roll off the assembly line such as the state and churches’ (p. 10). Managerialism the better. Hence, managerialism ‘treats university staff as threatens this. With managerialism, the state has actively if they were workers in a factory’ (p. 66). The principles of planted its managerial henchmen into the very structure of management and the ideologies of managerialism work in the university. If Galileo Galilei and Albert Einstein fail to factories and in universities just as much. publish in A/A* journals and fail to attract external funding Another effect of markets is that they create a system that (Gove 2015), university managerialists will place those two is geared towards ‘stabbing each other’s back to compete for no-goods on a PIP – a performance improvement plan, the scarce research resources’ (p. 188). Managerialists measure first step towards dismissal (Klikauer 2018c). this through attracting grants (money) and A/A* journal For managerialism, another hindrance is ‘tenure [that publications. In Australia, research grants also follow used to be] an important mechanism to protect individual neoliberalism’s competition-is-good ideology. This means and collective academic freedom’ (p. 11). Academic that academics invest weeks, if not months writing grant freedom is a worthless concept for managerialism just as applications to the Australian Research Council perhaps is the idea that universities should educate future citizens unaware that ‘75 per cent’ (Dobson, 2014, p. 230) or even up engaged in public discourse. Whether such citizens are ‘legal to ‘80 per cent of them don’t get funded’ (Lowe 2019, p. 49). citizens, minimal citizens (someone who just votes), active This is a colossal waste of time. Another unknown side effect citizens (someone who participates), or transformative is a ‘preference for publications in English journals over [non- citizens (e.g. Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandel, English] ones [has] demoralised [non-English] scholarship’ etc.) is of next to no relevance to managerialism’ (p. 12). (p. 189). Managerialism’s ‘performance [and] funding-based One of the best expressions of what such a citizenship research assessment’ (p. 190) strongly favours US journals that means is Henry Giroux’s UWS Hamilton Graduation are often highly ranked. Guest Lecture (2017). To conclude, all three books support the ‘E’ in The Giroux lecture encourages ‘academics [in their] duty managerialism’s formula of MA=MEI. Managerialism to defend higher education as a democratic public sphere’ (p. remains highly expansive (E). Managerialism expands deeply 13). In this defence, too many academics have fallen into the into universities. The three books show this vividly in the case trap of attempting to deal with managerialism on the basis of of the UK, USA, Australia, India, China, Hong Kong and in what they are trained in and do every day. They argue their many other parts of the world. Managerialism has infected case and provide supporting evidence. Managerialism is not businesses, companies and the public service (hospitals and about arguing a case and it is neither about providing evidence. schools). At universities as well, managerialism’s ‘business Managerialism is about ideology and power – organisational model means what matters is the bottom line’ (Chomsky power and managerial power (Magretta, 2012). The 2014, 1). Most crucially, university managerialism is taking ideological power of university managerialism is also found in universities back where they once were. These are the dark ‘the concept of consumerism and academic entrepreneurship’ ages of external influences over research, knowledge and truth. (p. 16). Students are seen as revenue-generating customers These are also the days of Galileo Galilei. It was a time where while academics are seen as entrepreneurs. They are made an external agency – the Catholic Church – could define

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truth. A mere 350 years after Galileo Galilei, the Catholic Chalmers, A. F. (2013). What is this thing called science? (4th ed.). St Lucia: University of Queensland Press. Church actually apologised (Cowell, 1992) – admitting that the earth is not at the centre of our solar system and that the Chamorro-Premuzic, T. & Sanger, M. (2016). What leadership looks like in different cultures, Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from earth moves. https://hbr.org/ The similarity between Galileo Galilei’s time and today Chomsky, N. (2014). How America’s Great University System Is Being is that this time around, there is another external threat. Destroyed. Retrieved from https://www.alternet.org, 28th March 2014. It is no longer called the Catholic Church; rather it is Cowell, A. (1992). After 350 Years, Vatican Says Galileo Was Right: It neoliberalism. There is also a crucial difference. Today, Moves. New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com universities face a more hideous form of control over truth, Cronin, A. M. (2016). Reputational capital in ‘the PR University’: namely an internally operative managerialism. Unlike public relations and market rationalities, Journal of Cultural Economy, in the past, the attack no longer comes exclusively from 9(4), 396-409. outside. Neoliberalism has planted a corrosive agency inside Davis, M. (2007). Planet of Slums, London: Verso. universities. Worse, this time around we might not have Deresiewicz, W. (2014). Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the 350 years to correct certain misbeliefs (Shulman 2006). American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life, New York: Simon and What we are facing is the rapidly looming prospect of the Schuster. Uninhabitable Earth (Wallace-Wells, 2017). Scientific truth Dobson, I. R. (2014). Using Data and Experts to make the Wrong is facing (Oreskes & Conway, 2010) an interesting symbiosis Decisions – The Rise and Fall of Journal Ranking in Australia, in M. E. of corporate mass media (Smythe, 1977), conservative and Menon, D.G. Terkla, & P. Gibbs. (eds.). Using Data to Improve Higher Education: Research, Policy and Practice. Rotterdam: Sense Publishing. populist politicians, and the $200 million spent annually by oil and gas corporations to defeat knowledge about Edmondson, M. (2012). The Trouble with Online Education. New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com, 19th July 2012. global warming (McCarthy, 2019). Universities, science, Einstein, A. (1908). knowledge and truth are under threat. Über das Relativitätsprinzip und die aus demselben gezogenen Folgerungen. Jahrbuch der Radioaktivität und Elektronik, (IV), 411–462. Thomas Klikauer teaches MBAs at the Sydney Graduate Enteman, W. F. (1993). Managerialism: the Emergence of a New Ideology. School of Management, Western Sydney University, NSW Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. Australia. Federici, S. (2009). Education and the Enclosure of Knowledge in the Contact: [email protected] Global University. ACME, 8(3), 454-461. Fleck, C. (2013). The impact factor fetishism. European Journal of Catherine Link is a lecturer at WSU specialising in Sociology, 54(2), 327-356. hospitality and work integrated learning (WIL), in Ginsberg, B. (2011). The fall of the faculty. Oxford: Oxford University particular, simulations and student outward mobility. Press. Giroux, H. (2017). Prof Henry Giroux address – UWS Hamilton References Graduation. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=8eFTbsbYlEA ABC. (2019). Cash Cows: Australian universities. Retrieved from Gorz, A. (1970). Destroy the University. Retrieved from https://www. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sm6lWJc8KmE marxists.org/archive Abella, A. (2008). Soldiers of Reason: The RAND Corporation and the Gove, J. (2015). Stefan Grimm inquest: new policies may not have Rise of the American Empire. New York: Harcourt. prevented suicide. Times Higher Education, 9 April 2015. Amsler, S. S. & Bolsmann, C. (2012). University ranking as social Govindarajan, V. (1986). Decentralisation, strategy, and effectiveness exclusion, British Journal of Sociology of Education. 33(2), 283-301. of strategic business units in multibusiness organisations. Academy of Aspromourgos, T. (2012). The Managerialist University: An Economic Management Review, 11(4), 844-856. Interpretation. Australian Universities’ Review, 54(2), 44-49. Grubb, W. N. & Lazerson, M. (2005). Vocationalism in higher Avigur-Eshel, A. & Berkovich, I. (2019). Introducing managerialism education: The triumph of the education gospel. Journal of Higher into national educational contexts through pseudo-conflict: A Education, 76(1), 1-25. discursive institutionalist analysis, International Journal of Educational Habermas, J. & Blazek, J.R. (1987). The idea of the university: Learning Development, (68), 1-8. processes. New German Critique, (41), 3-22. Baig, J., Soon, N. K., Elmabrok, A. A. & Ahmad, A. R. (2018). High- Harding, N. (2003). The Social Construction of Management – Texts and Performance Work System or “Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing?” A Mediating Identities, London: Routledge. Effect of Organisational Cynicism and Its Outcome, Advanced Science Letters. 24(6), 4649-4651. Hayek, F. A. (1944). The Road to Serfdom, London: G. Routledge & Sons. Bowles, S. & Gintis, H. (1976). Schooling in Capitalist America: Educational Reform and the Contradictions of Economic Life. New York: Hayek, F. A. (1978). In support of Pinochet. Letter published in Times Basic Books. of London: 11 July 1978.

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Hil, R. (2015). Selling Students Short: Why you won’t get the university McCarthy, N. (2019). Oil and Gas Giants Spend Millions Lobbying To education you deserve. Sydney: Allen & Unwin. Block Climate Change Policies. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www. forbes.com Hoyle, E. & Wallace, M. (2005). Educational leadership: ambiguity, professionals and managerialism. London: Sage. Michels, R. (1915). Political Parties: A Sociological Study of the Oligarchical Tendencies of Modern Democracy. New York: The Free Press. HR, (2010). Human Resource Social Engineering 1:59min video. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rnJEdDNDsI Micocci, A. & Di Mario, F. (2018). The fascist nature of neoliberalism. London: Routledge, p. 54. Kant, I. (1784). An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment? Retrieved from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kant/ Murray, C. & Frijters, P. (2017). Game of Mates: How Favours Bleed the Nation, Brisbane, Queensland: Cameron Murray. Kellner, D. (2000). Habermas, the Public Sphere and Democracy, in L. E. Hahn (ed.) Perspectives on Habermas. Chicago: Open Court. Nybom, T. (2003). The Humboldt legacy: reflections on the past, present, and future of the European university. Higher Education Policy, Kimbrey, M. (2015). University of Western Sydney to get new name 16(2),141-159. and logo. Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved from https://www.smh. com.au 7 August 2015. Oreskes, N. & Conway, E. M. (2010). Merchants of doubt: how a handful of scientists obscured the truth on issues from tobacco smoke to global Kindsiko, E., (2018). Organisational Control in University Management: warming. New York: Bloomsbury Press. A Multiparadigm Approach. Bingley: Emerald Publishing. Orwell, G. (1948). Nineteen Eighty-four. London: Secker & Warburg. Klikauer, T. (2013). Managerialism – Critique of an Ideology, Basingstoke: Palgrave. Robinson, K. (2010). Bring on the Learning Revolution. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks Klikauer, T. (2015a). The Ghost of Education. Australian Universities’ Review, 57(1), 93-95. Rosenfeld, P., Giacalone, R .A., & Riordan, C. A. (1995). Impression Management in Organisations – Theory, Measures, Practice. London: Klikauer, T. (2015b). What is Managerialism? Critical Sociology, 41(7- Routledge. 8), 1103-1119. Rosenow, E. (1992). Bourgeois or Citoyen? The Democratic Concept Klikauer, T. (2016). Selling Students Short. Management Learning, 47(5), of Man, Educational Philosophy and Theory, 24(1), 44-50. 629-633. Salmi, J. (2009). The Challenge of Establishing World-Class Universities. Klikauer, T. (2018a). Between paternalism and academic freedom, Washington: World Bank. Australian Universities’ Review, 60(1), 62-65. Sandel, M. J. (1998). What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Klikauer, T. (2018b). Hannibal Lector goes to work: The Psychopath Markets, The Tanner Lectures on Human Values. Oxford: Brasenose Factory – How Capitalism Organises Empathy. Organisation, 25(3), College, May 11 and 12 1998. 448-451. Shepherd, S. (2018). Managerialism: an ideal type. Studies in Higher Klikauer, T. (2018c). Managing People in Organisations, London: Red Education, 43(9):1668-1678. Globe Press. Shulman, S. (2006). Undermining science: suppression and distortion in the Klikauer, T. (2019). A Preliminary Theory of Managerialism as an Bush Administration, Berkeley: University of California Press. Ideology. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 49(4), 421-442. Smythe, D. W. (1977). Communications: Blindspot of Western Klikauer, T. (2020). Responsible Academics, Australian Universities’ Marxism, Canadian Journal of Political and Society Theory, 1(3), 1-28. Review. 61(1), 74-77. Stieglitz, J. (1999). Knowledge as a global public good. Retrieved from Lemov, R. (2006). World as Laboratory – Experiments with Mice, Mazes https://www.ses.unam.mx/curso2014/pdf/Stiglitz.pdf and Men, New York, Hill and Wang. Thaw, J. (2013). Inspector Morse misses a promotion. Retrieved from Lewis, D. (2004). Bullying at work: The impact of shame among https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQV9Cxcl5CM, university and college lecturers. British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 32(3), 281-299. Wallace-Wells, D. (2017). The Uninhabitable Earth. Retrieved from http://nymag.com/ 9 July 2017. Lowe, I. (2019). Counting the Coalition’s Failings, Advocate (NTEU- Australia), 26(1). Wills, P. (1977). Learning to Labor – how working class kids get working class jobs. New York: Columbia University Press. Lyons, D. (2018). Lab rats: how Silicon Valley made work miserable for the rest of us. New York: Hachette Books. World Bank. (2009). The Challenge of Establishing World-Class Universities, Washington: World Bank. MacIntyre, A. (2009). The very idea of a university: Aristotle, Newman, and us. British Journal of Educational Studies, 57(4), 347-362. Zuboff, S. (2019). 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The peasants are revolting No Platform – A History of Anti-Fascism, Universities and the Limits of Free Speech by E. Smith ISBN 9781138591677 (hbk.), ISBN 9781138591684 (pbk.), ISBN 9780429455131 (ebook), Routledge Studies in Fascism and The Far Right, Routledge (Taylor & Francis Group), London & New York, 230 pp., 2020.

Reviewed by Neil Mudford

The great thing about this book is that it shows us, in The book concludes that these efforts over so many years abundant detail, the longitudinal development of anti-fascist were a vital factor in keeping Britain free of a mass expression and anti-racist efforts and tactics over the last century. We of fascism. Not that the fight is over, or ever will be, and that rarely hear much at all about left-wing political thought and is part of the importance of this book. Even apart from the behaviours from anyone other than their opponents, so this is immediate events, the problems and challenges are, in essence, a refreshing read. The detailed focus is on left-wing university the same today as they were a hundred years ago and that is students curtailing the spread of fascism, in the first instance, why the book contains important lessons for our times. by preventing its advocates from delivering their insidious Part of the fascination of the topic is the sometimes- message, a practice employed from the 1920s onwards. In imponderable questions behind it. It is the unanswerable the 1970s, the tactic came to be known as ‘no platforming’ nature of these that maintains an endless debate about the and was broadened out to include racism and then to a wider rights or wrongs of banning speakers in a university setting or range of issues and ideas that also cause damage and hurt in the wider world of the public press, television, the internet to the victims. I will consistently use this term in quotation and, now, social media. One central question in all this is marks in this review, just as Smith has done in the book. whether there are some ideas that are indeed so abhorrent At the time of writing, the relevance of this topic could that they should not be propounded. In a university setting, hardly be greater. In 2020 came the huge surge in urgent and in particular, this immediately sounds odd. In the practices passionate mass protests against racism across the United of university teaching, learning and research, everyone agrees States. These were supported by protests around the world that arguing this way and that is the bedrock of sorting the and broadened out to local racism of which there is no ideological wheat from the chaff. shortage. They were also opposed with counter-protests. In A moment’s contemplation, however, brings to mind any January 2021 came the month of alarming incitements by number of ideas that almost everyone can agree are ‘out of the then US President Donald Trump culminating in his bounds’ and must be opposed. Slavery and legalised murder, supporters attempting to violently disrupt and overthrow for instance, would surely be candidates. Just as an aside, a the US Government. Then, perhaps most startling of all, the distant Australian ex-patriot colleague of mine did once say, major social media companies finally responded to this, and at a conference in the 1990s in Virginia, USA, in relation Trump’s years of aggressive, right-wing bullying outpourings, to 19th century USA, ‘Slavery wasn’t so bad, I reckon.’ The by ‘no platforming’ him. other eight of us at the dinner table ‘exploded’. Outraged Much of the book concerns itself with considerable detail and disgusted we gave him a short but comprehensive ‘serve’, of ideological battles within and between left-wing groups stormed out and left him there. We spontaneously ‘no over the anti-fascist and anti-racist struggles. Despite the platformed’ him, I now see. sound of that sentence, the story is engrossing. The author’s Immediately though, in relation to the above example, we skill in story-telling helps carry it off and the intensity of the recognise that slavery was accepted practice for centuries. competing arguments conveys the intensity and dedication of Therefore, we have to recognise that what is beyond the the protagonists. Another factor that kept me glued to the tale pale can vary with time. When a point of view is dangerous, is that those years of political battles and intrigue were really damaging and completely offensive, time-dependent though about the deeper story of a fight for freedom from tyranny this may be, I think a respectable argument can be made and hate. With such a theme and the author’s fine ability to that total opposition is the morally and politically correct bring the story to life, we have a tale that is well worth the read. response. vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 The peasants are revolting Reviewed by Neil Mudford 75 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES’ REVIEW

How best, though, to counter the offending views? This For militant anti-fascists, a victorious fascist movement means book explores the ‘no platform’ approach that seeks to prevent violence and death for those specifically targeted by fascists, as the views being expounded at all, if possible. Would it not be well as the denial of a voice for everyone else. Thus fascism needs to be denied a platform in its embryonic stages. This better, though, to debate, counter and roundly dismiss those was the basis for the original implementation of the NUS’ ‘no views? Surely, if your counter arguments are sound, you can platform’ in the 1970s and a principle maintained to this day. verbally crush your opponents and win in an intellectually (p 215) admirable way? Of course, this alternative is always available and has Though no platforming began as an anti-fascist tactic, it its attractions. For one thing, no-one could accuse you of has been applied more widely in recent decades, beginning denying anyone their ‘free speech rights’. The historical record with explicitly tackling racism in the 1970s. Since then, shows, however, that those involved in anti-fascist and similar sexist, misogynist, homophobic and transphobic speakers struggles have concluded that the debating path is ineffective have found themselves ‘no platformed’. The rationale for this and even a trap. There are a number of reasons for this. is much as for fascism – that the victims of attacks on these For one thing, as the sports of debating and parliamentary grounds can suffer great damage and hardship without any interaction show, if the protagonists’ aims are to win the justification and through no fault of their own. debate, rather than to find the truth, then the logical and Opponents of ‘no platforming’ complain about this factually supported outcome is not guaranteed at all. Rather, expansion by supposing that there was a ‘pure’ time when the result depends strongly on rhetorical skills, emotional only fascism and racism were targeted and contrast this appeals, prejudice, etc. The proponents of the obnoxious views with the present when they say the policy is being ‘misused’ we are thinking of here are interested in persuading rather against transsexual and queer denialists. The book shows than providing logical proof. On top of this, the impression clearly, however, that the current state results from a process conveyed to the audience can vary greatly. Hence, inviting the of constant development, that the policy was always contested group in risks the furtherance of their agenda of persuasion and that the underlying principle is the same – ‘no platform’ and recruitment. ‘No platformers’ would contend that fascists, for ideas that damage people. for example, have no valid arguments and persuade only on One thing that must be said about ‘no platforming’ is that the basis of emotion or misplaced grievance. Smith reports throughout that the tactic was used to exclude Another consideration is that providing a university only the most egregious speakers, although it must have been venue for a group with obnoxious views blesses them with tempting to use it against all one’s opponents. Tories, for the undeserved prestige of having expressed their views in a example, were almost always allowed to speak. There were respected seat of learning. exceptions including explicitly racist conservatives such as Historically, the first and abiding target of the ‘no platform’ Enoch Powell. tactic is fascism. Why should this idea be, or not be, ‘banned’? The central complaint from the targets of ‘no platform’ The arguments are several. throughout its whole history is that they are denied their right Fascists wanting to expound their beliefs argue that of free speech. Apart from the injustice that can be caused by universities ought to be willing to debate all and any beliefs. free hate speech, the truth is that the targets seem to get loads They say that banning the presentation of fascist arguments of other opportunities to spread their ideas. This is abundantly exposes the weakness of their opponents’ counter arguments evident in our own time. We hardly ever stop hearing these and that the ‘no platformers’ are hypocritical in supporting complaints in the mainstream media, for instance, from free speech in most areas of debate while blocking it for those who would be ‘no platform’ candidates if they chose fascism. One of the latest jibes is that students, or others, are to speak at universities. Smith cites Sara Ahmed (Ahmed, ‘snowflakes’ – that they are, supposedly, ‘naïve and politically 2015) expressing this in a most pointed and satisfying way: correct students who are unable to engage with “challenging” ‘Whenever people keep being given a platform to say they have ideas’ (p 2). no platform, or whenever people speak endlessly about being Those favouring the use of ‘no platform’ against fascism silenced, you not only have a performative contradiction; you counter this by arguing that implementing fascism would end are witnessing a mechanism of power.’ all free speech. Therefore, curtailing free speech to combat Smith points out that ‘no platform’ is itself an expression fascism in fact protects the broader right to free expression. of free speech. It is a way of debating the unhealthy views by Additionally, the advent of fascist government would cause demonstrating that there are people who passionately disagree many people suffering and injury on a national scale and with the speakers. It might not be the most articulate method the benefit of avoiding this fate more than outweighs any but it gets the message across just like other protesting actions free speech considerations. The latter is arguably the more do. When it comes to lack of platform, you have to wonder important principle. The author puts it nicely as follows: about left-wing political activists. Are they not continually

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‘no platformed’ by the mainstream media? When do you hear debates that did go ahead were some of the most favoured ‘no socialist notions conscientiously examined in the mainstream platform’ enforcement actions. A unique protest technique media, let alone communist ideas? Our major trading partner was employed by student Philip Gratier at Cambridge has a nominally communist government but all that is said University in 1960 during a speech on South Africa by the about this is that its government is authoritarian. There is prominent fascist Sir Oswald Mosley. According to a report never any discussion about how or whether their communist in the Cambridge student paper, Varsity (30 April, 1960, p 1), political system was a factor in them becoming the world’s Gratier was ‘one of the twenty-strong bodyguard’ deployed factory, for example. by the Cambridge University Conservative Association who Mainstream media is controlled and run by big business. hosted the event. In spite of this, Gratier ‘walked up to Sir Consequently, they are inherently opposed to ideas that Oswald and said, “Have a jelly my friend.” Then he thrust the inhibit their power and earnings and consequently do green jelly into his face.’ Innovative, but it never caught on. not publish them. In fact, they go further than failing to As usual, when it comes to active, physical protest, the explore the ideas. Instead, at the mere mention of a left idea, protesters are often portrayed as violent though it seems such they disparage it in the strongest terms as unrealistic, old- acts were rare. This and the enforcement tactic of ceaselessly fashioned and discredited. Whereas, Laissez-Faire Capitalism heckling the toxic speakers no doubt made the demonstrators is promoted as sensible, natural, the only workable way, good seem unruly and uncouth but that is the story of all protesting. for everybody, etc. and even the ‘modern way’ in spite of this The irony is that the ‘no platform’ policy was instigated partly model being hundreds of years old. because of the violence done to the victims of the political By contrast, when there is a racist issue, for example, the beliefs it is designed to suppress. reaction is to report that the instigator denies the racist tag. On the other hand, Smith reports many violent acts by the ‘I am not a racist,’ says the purveyor of racist talk. A bit of tsk- pro-fascist groups and the police against the left students. tsking might follow but we rarely, if ever, see fulsome pieces Indeed, one student died as a result of a clash with police at in the mass media saying how abhorrent, unacceptable and the Red Lion Square protest in 1974. damaging racism is. There is also the fact that those complaining about the ‘no Part of the asymmetry in the images of the left and right platform’ policy use middle class methods of newspapers and in the public imagination derives, I believe, from the ability parliamentary speeches, outlets that are largely unavailable of conservatives to successfully mock and belittle left-leaning to student protestors. This raises a question concerning the people. Conservatives seem somehow to have a well-honed matters canvassed in the book. I don’t remember seeing much ability to develop or purloin words and phrases and use them at all about support for the students by parliamentarians or in sly ways to denigrate progressive thought and attitudes other public figures. Surely, though, the students were not while reinforcing the notion that everyone is irritatingly alone in opposing fascism. After all, the period covered spans cramped by left morality and politics. ‘Politically correct’, the Second World War fought against fascist regimes. for example, is the term you use to mock any progressive In the 1980s, moderate student groups had some success attitude, such as inclusivity or gender-neutral language. The in using ‘polite’ methods of ‘no platforming’ by convincing long standing African American Vernacular term, ‘woke’, has universities to officially block or uninvite toxic speakers. The lately been quickly transformed from denoting awareness, Thatcher Government, however, attempted to counter this especially of racial discrimination, to being used, it seems to by passing the Education (no.2) Act with clauses designed to me, to intimate that someone has recently become irrationally force universities to allow all speakers in, in the name of ‘free sensitive and comically adheres to progressive notions that are speech’. Fortunately for progressive politics, the Act proved innately puerile. ‘Social justice warrior’ is another example of to be ineffective. The students ignored it and continued with the same ilk. Laughter might be the best medicine, but it can their protests. In the final chapter, Smith records that, as of also be a powerful poison. 2017, the UK Government’s Office for Students is trying to The considerable power of mockery is used against the left replicate the intentions of Thatcher’s Act in response to the in these terms but I can’t think of any equivalent terms that current conservative push to champion ‘freedom of speech’ mock and belittle the right. Somehow the left is always seen as but he doubts that this will be any more effective than the Act. looney but the rabid right, even while unfair, narrow, perverse The book is a most interesting contribution to political or misguided, always seems to be credited with holding its history but there are a number of related issues I would like views earnestly and with conviction. to hear something about. For instance, the author provides The arguments amongst the political organisations in the an abundance of detail concerning the arguments within and book about how to counter the damaging views went through between the left groups who developed and enforced ‘no cyclic changes, as you would expect. Street demonstrations, platforming’ and their actions are reported thoroughly as well. leafletting, picketing and incessant heckling in the lectures or By contrast, we hear only the bare bones of the actions of the vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 The peasants are revolting Reviewed by Neil Mudford 77 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES’ REVIEW

fascists and other like groups attempting to field their speakers All in all, though, the work is a most interesting contribution at universities and other venues let alone their thinking. Is to our knowledge of progressive action. I wonder what the the author enforcing a printed version of ‘no platforming’, I world would be like now without those efforts? wonder? He doesn’t say so and there must be ways to convey the gist of their behaviours while avoiding advertising their wares. Neil Mudford is an Adjunct Senior Fellow with the Another question I have is whether the right-wing student University of Queensland. He is also a member of the clubs ever tried to ‘no platform’ left-leaning speakers? The Australian Universities’ Review editorial board. absence of any mention of people in the 50s and 60s trying to Contact: [email protected] muzzle Communists seems strange when anti-Communism was at its height in those years. Did Communism’s many Reference opponents consider that the raging anti-Communism of the Ahmed, S. (2015, February 15). You’re Oppressing Us! Retrieved from mainstream media was sufficient suppression? Feminist Killjoys: https://feministkilljoys.com/2015/02/15/you-are- Another gap in the book’s reportage is that it says very little oppressing-us/ about what the public thought of the ‘no platform’ tactic and policy and the associated political action.

And the students are revolting, too Berkeley: The Student Revolt by Hal Draper (Author), Mario Savio (Introduction) ISBN 978-1-64259-125-5. Haymarket Books, Chicago, IL, USA, 298 pp., 2020.

Reviewed by Neil Mudford

Introduction The huge and dramatic actions profoundly affected the nature of student protest in the USA and around the world This is a book written 55 years ago and yet the lessons it can teach and have been said to have largely defined student protest us are just as relevant and the stories it tells are just as riveting as in the 1960s. Besides the huge scale of the actions, the mass when the type bar last hit the ribbon for the original manuscript. student involvement, the arrests and trials and the associated So many things have changed since then but the need to police violence, much of their actions’ significance consists campaign and protest to retain, establish or recover political in the students’ use of the non-violent protest techniques and other human rights never ends. Primary author Hal Draper, learned during participation by some of their number in the contributor and foremost student leader Mario Savio and others Civil Rights Movement itself. provide us here with eye-witness accounts and incisive analyses It is timely that this work is being republished, especially of the Free Speech Movement (FSM) struggle by university with the advent of the Black Lives Matter movement the students at the University of California Berkeley to assert their rise of which emphasises the fact that African-Americans are right to engage in political action. They fought an intelligent, still denied the rights and social standing of Euro-Americans noble and, on their side at least, non-violent fight for the right of even where such rights are theirs on paper. On top of that, students to organise, campaign, work and collect donations on there seems to me to be a surge in public protest action over campus for causes such as the Civil Rights movement that was other issues such as climate change and refugees. Extinction in full swing back then. Well, almost non-violent; Draper notes Rebellion (XR), for example, is an active and determined that ‘Savio was charged with biting a policeman in the leg during group whose techniques bear more than a passing resemblance the October 1 [1964] scuffle around the Sproul [Hall] doors to those used at Berkeley. – an act which he admitted to be ‘excessive’ and informally The techniques and strategies of the Berkeley struggles are explained as due to momentary irritation at having his head still powerful tools for change and this book is a rather rare trampled by policemen’s heels.’ (p. 109). chance for us to learn about them and be inspired by them.

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The book has several sections. The first is written by Mario This state of affairs was at odds with Berkeley’s reputation, Savio. It is referred to as an Introduction but it is, above and in the world beyond the campus gates, as a ‘liberal’ campus; beyond that, a thoughtful and broad-ranging summary of that is, ‘small-l liberal’ in Australian parlance. Similarly, the the importance for all social groups of the struggle for free UC’s Chancellor, Edward Strong, and President, Clark Kerr, speech and civil rights and the place of the Berkeley events in were considered ‘liberal’ administrators. As central players in this struggle. Savio provides us with a sweeping perspective the administration’s role in the dispute, however, they behaved of the state of social oppression and discontent of his time as anything but liberals. that, unfortunately, seems to quite accurately describe current Draper explores in detail Kerr’s character and belief system, troubles and dilemmas as well. in relation to universities, in his extensive pamphlet The Mind Hal Draper authors the book’s 188 page main section of Clark Kerr – His View of the University Factory and the ‘New in which he recounts, in marvellous detail and style, the Slavery’, written in the thick of the dispute and reproduced chronology of the dispute from its origins in the Berkeley in the final section of this book. In his Introduction, Mario administration’s repression of undergraduate political activity Savio acknowledges this pamphlet as ‘contributing mightily to through to the huge student sit-in at Sproul Hall, the violent the movement’s understanding of the extent and depth of the pre-dawn mass arrests by 600 police and the student strike injustice by which the “multiversity” runs’. (p. 7). that finally won the day for the students. Draper acknowledges that Kerr had a liberal side to him, Throughout, Draper acknowledges the vital aid provided more so in his younger days, and still in his rhetoric and by Pacifica Radio, station KPFA which broadcast live from the public pronouncements but now largely absent in his actions scenes of protest, extensively interviewed the participants and of relevance here. Draper encapsulates the contradiction clearly amassed a significant collection of oral history recordings nicely when he says, ‘...Kerr is sensitive to the real relations on the spot. Draper was able to draw on these recordings as a between Ideals and Power in our society. Ideals are what you rich and vibrant source of information for the book. are for, inside your skull, while your knees are bowing to The last third of the book consists of a section entitled Power.’ (p. 26). ‘Voices of Berkeley’ in which are presented key contemporary Draper’s analysis focusses in part on Kerr’s published documents, pamphlets and reflective analyses concerning the theories on the contemporary and future role of the modern actions. Like Savio’s Introduction, these short works reveal a university as expounded in The Uses of the University (Kerr, great depth of understanding of the events’ political dynamics 1963) of which he is chief author. This work seems to have and the broader context of the uprising. It is clear that those had a profound influence on the development of universities participating in the actions thought deeply about them and over the intervening decades and ran to its 5th edition before developed an impressive understanding of what they were Kerr’s death in 2003. doing, as you would hope to see from the denizens of an According to Draper, Kerr’s view was that the modern institution of higher learning. university is destined to serve society and industry as a producer of tertiary educated workers. In many ways, this has The origins of the revolt now become the standard model for a university. As part of this model, the corporate world outside the university would Over the years leading up to the revolt, the University naturally become the arbiter of what students should be of California (UC) administration had imposed severe learning at university and aiming to become on graduation. restrictions on political activities by student clubs. For It is then a short step for a compliant university to yield to example, the student ‘government’, the Associated Students pressure from that sector to curb students’ political activities of the University of California (ASUC), was forbidden to lest these interfere with the production of desirable graduates take stands on ‘off-campus’ issues, ‘except as permitted by or the sector’s more immediate business interests. Certainly, the administration’ (p. 20). Clubs with an interest in social the UC administration’s clear preference was to repress the issues were labelled ‘off-campus clubs’ and were prevented students rather than rebuff the urgings of these external from holding organisational meetings, collecting funds or interests. recruiting on campus. Draper points out that other facets of Kerr’s view of the Only a few years before these events, Berkeley staff had modern university are that it should primarily exist as a been subjected to McCarthyist demands that they sign business and that administrator quality is a critical factor in loyalty oaths. Some refused and lost their jobs. Draper ensuring its business success. Sounds familiar now but it seems comments that the university lost many good staff because to have been a new idea in 1963. of this. In spite of this, practically no-one believed the Reactions to The Uses of the University are many and varied. FSM, formed as part of the actions here, was communist This may well be because, irrespective of the desirability of the dominated or led. model, Kerr’s description of what universities were becoming vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 And the students are revolting, too Reviewed by Neil Mudford 79 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES’ REVIEW

was quite perceptive and therefore illuminating. Draper and Draper points out that this tremendous incompetence on the FSM considered the vision abhorrent and de-humanising. the part of the administration helped immeasurably in the The campaign by the groups that banded together and ultimate triumph of the students’ efforts, especially at some created the FSM began as a struggle for the right to engage crucial junctures. At times, the student movement was on in political activities. As the protestors’ understanding grew, the point of exhaustion or despair when the administration they began to see that the university’s operational model as swooped in with another completely outrageous assault that the fundamental source of the problem. The students were reinvigorated the movement. angered by the notion that their role in this scheme was as This brings up something of a puzzle in Draper’s views of feedstock for corporate America’s workforce rather than as Kerr’s political nous. Draper portrays him as clumsy in his human beings possessed of citizens’ rights and deserving of a handling of the dispute with the students, but later credits thoroughgoing and well-rounded education. him with considerable understanding and cunning around During the year before the dramatic actions that form most the time Kerr resigns. of Draper’s history here, the Berkeley students were highly All this is not to say that the students ran a smooth, efficient active in protests centred around the Civil Rights Movement. and straightforward operation. Draper puts it nicely, in the Actions included picketing and protest at various nearby following, concerning the Free Speech Movement: businesses with racially discriminatory hiring practices, a sit-in Even in the first stage, one of the most prominent characteris- at the US District Attorney’s office to protest federal inaction tics of FSM functioning was the interminable, indecisive dis- on investigations into the murder in Mississippi of three cussions of the leading committees at critical junctures. The Freedom Summer volunteers and a picket line at the Oakland picture of the FSM drawn by some in terms of sinister superef- Tribune run by William Knowland. Knowland was the state ficiency and generalship so brilliant as to put the administra- manager for the deeply conservative Republican Presidential tion to rout, is one of the most ludicrous misrepresentations Nominee and later Presidential Candidate, Barry Goldwater. in this story. Time and again, the Executive Committee and Additionally, some students were collecting money on campus Steering Committee of the movement discussed literally for days, coming finally either to no firm decision or to a decision in support of a more moderate candidate. This violated the which was negated the very next day by events, so that the oppressive university rules on engaging in political action and actual policy was improvised. At such times the policy prob- on seeking donations for the same. Note that the students in lems of the FSM were most often solved not by its councils these particular actions must surely have been Republicans, but by some new ‘atrocity’ by the administration. (p. 190). illustrating that all shades of the political spectrum were being affected. Nevertheless, the FSM campaign was run with high levels These last student actions against Knowland’s newspaper of inclusivity and thoughtful analysis, as the Voices from and Goldwater are thought to be the trigger for the piling Berkeley section of the book shows. on of pressure on the UC administration to come down hard Draper also advances another reason for the students’ on the students which it duly did. Clearly, the students were success and that is ‘They were able to win so much because annoying a wide range of powerful establishment figures who they didn’t know it was ‘impossible.’ A certain amount of responded by exercising their own free speech rights in the naivete and inexperience was as a shield and a buckler to hidden and highly effective ways available to the powerful them.’ (p. 189). Had the students known the power of the and influential. They insisted that the university curb their forces ranged against them, they might well have given up students. before they started. Certainly, they were told by many that The administration then embarked on heavy handed they couldn’t win or were ‘asking too much’. enforcement of its rules with a level of ineptitude that almost defies belief. For example, they would attempt to About the students impose harsh penalties while circumventing any disciplinary procedures prescribed in official and long-established Several notable comments can be made about the university rules. They would impose these penalties on a participating students’ attributes and their behaviour as the selected few ‘offenders’ (read ‘student leaders’) while rebuffing revolt unfolded. others who were openly confessing to the same rather trivial In his Introduction, Savio says of the student population, crimes and demanding to be similarly punished. They would ‘Of course, there is a natural receptivity for politics at Berkeley unilaterally alter the rules but, so often, would shortly after simply because this is a state-supported university: a good have to retract or modify them because of flaws within them percentage of the student body comes from lower-middle- such as logical impossibilities. The litany of missteps just goes class or working-class homes; many who can afford to pay on and on from the start to the finish of the whole affair. The more for an education go, for example, to Stanford.’ (p. 3) administrators seemed never to learn from their mistakes. Thus the students were drawn from social backgrounds likely

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to predispose them to take action on issues bearing on social Initially, only undergraduate students were involved. justice. Indeed, Savio was a machinist’s son. Part of the reason for this was that the administration, The broader US political and legal environment also played under President Kerr, had managed to hive off the graduate a part. The United States Constitution confers a number of students from ASUC some time before. Once the movement rights on its citizens. Among these are the 1st Amendment gathered pace though, graduate students became interested which protects free speech against government censorship and involved. Many graduate students worked as Teaching and the 14th which provides for equal treatment under the Assistants (TA) and were therefore both students and staff law and prohibits the imposition of laws that deny citizens members. One of the longer term outcomes of the action was their rights. As we keep hearing, these protections are taken that the TAs formed a union affiliated with the American very seriously by US citizens. Elsewhere in the world, protests Federation of Teachers. aimed at overturning unjust laws or demanding fair and equal Faculty support was slow in coming but was fulsome when treatment do so on the grounds of natural justice. By contrast, it did and played a significant supporting role in the final the students undertaking the protest actions of interest here stages of the main events of the revolt. were in fact demanding that the law be upheld. This didn’t stop opponents charging that Anarchy was breaking out at Mario Savio Berkeley or that Law and Order must be enforced, meaning their protests ought to be suppressed. Mario Savio’s role in the actions deserves special mention (see They were a very intelligent group and brought their Wikipedia, 2020). As mentioned above, he had experience intellectual prowess to bear on solving the problems they gained with the Freedom Summer project in Mississippi. faced during the campaign. In fact, surveys showed that there More than that, he was clear and firm in his views on the need was a positive correlation between student involvement and to tackle the social problems he saw around him, and he knew high academic achievement. They produced canny tactics, how lead in the best sense of the word. clear thinking and flexible manoeuvring that outshone their The students seem to have quickly recognised his leadership opponents in the university administration time and again. talent and responded enthusiastically to him. There were a Many of them were ‘first timers’, that is, they had not number of other influential leaders, but he was pre-eminent previously engaged in any similar action. In spite of this, among them. So much so that, according to Wikipedia, the they showed tremendous discipline, sense of community news media in 1999 revealed that the FBI tracked him over and mutual support with their fellow students. Even when the decade following as the nation’s most prominent student the going became intense with students threatened with leader, covertly collecting information on him and placing him disciplinary action, with significant police brutality, with the on a list of people to be detained without a judicial warrant in need for longitudinal commitment, they were steadfast. the event of a national emergency. The students’ detractors had difficulty berating and Draper attributes Savio’s natural elevation to leadership and dismissing them outright. Typically, the students were high the students’ acceptance of it by saying of Savio, that he is achievers rather than ‘drop-outs’ or ‘beatniks’. Also, the Not a glib orator, retaining remnants of a stutter, rather tend- movement was clearly not directed or led by Communists or ing to a certain shyness, he yet projected forcefulness and deci- other establishment bêtes noires. sion in action. This was the outward glow of the inner fact The movement was supported by clubs and students that he was not In Hiding – he was in open opposition, and of all political colours even though the public generally he had no doubts about it. (p. 44) thought of the movement as left-wing. Although many were politically inexperienced, there was nevertheless a solid core of The Board of Regents experienced activists whose knowledge of protest techniques and campaigning were vital to the movement’s success. In In mid-November 1964, the University of California Board particular, there were those, such as Mario Savio, who had of Regents also played a direct and open role in the affair experienced the political turmoil and violence of the Freedom supporting the ‘no negotiation’ approach of Strong and Kerr Summer project that was part of the Civil Rights struggles in that pertained throughout the whole period. The Board Mississippi. The techniques of passive resistance learned there acceded to Strong and Kerr’s suggestions to launch new legal were a vital element of the students’ armoury at Berkeley. actions against the students, to shrink the already narrow Then there were those, such as Draper, with skills in limits of their political freedom and to increase the severity of political analysis as demonstrated by the extensive analysis the administration’s response to protest. In his article the ‘The from Draper and others in the final section of the book. Thus, Regents’, in the book’s last section, Marvin Garson provides those directing the movement’s progress gained from a refined a long list of the links of many of the Regents to powerful analysis of the issues and options available to them. business interests. He then argues that, when students and vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 And the students are revolting, too Reviewed by Neil Mudford 81 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES’ REVIEW

faculty challenge vested interests, they should expect the protests. This is but a book review after all. The lengthy court Regents to side with the latter rather than support university proceedings were nevertheless, in themselves, considerable independence of thought and free speech. punishment for peaceful protesters trying to secure their Indeed, this is the subject that makes up the bulk of Savio’s political rights. famous and inspiring ‘bodies on the gears’ speech at a noon rally on December 2, 1964 (see Wikipedia, 2020) made, Conclusion unrehearsed, as he reported on the Board’s complete rejection of the protester’s demands ahead of the huge sit-in, mass The Revolt was a highly influential action that made great arrests and police brutality in the pre-dawn of the next day. strides for the cause of the right to peaceful protest. The book provides us with a great deal of information about the Big sit-in, mass arrests, trials & convictions actions and times and conveys the excitement, uncertainty and passion of the Movement. The students certainly received The students won their fight but at quite a cost. In the an important and unexpected education. penultimate mass action of the revolt, approximately 1000 students staged a peaceful and mostly self-organised mass Neil Mudford is an Adjunct Senior Fellow with the sit-in in Sproul Hall. Governor Brown sent in 600 police at 2 University of Queensland. He was a ‘first-timer’ student a.m. on December 4. Brown, by the way, was ex-officio on the protester at La Trobe University in the late 1960s and a UC Board of Regents. The police allowed anyone who wished veteran of the second Waterdale Road anti-Vietnam War to depart to do so and avoid arrest. About 200 students left march of 16 September 1970 (www.moadoph.gov.au/ after warnings from the Chancellor and the police but 800 or blog/asserting-the-right-to-protest-the-waterdale-road- so remained and were arrested. It is a tribute to the passion, marches/#). This had significantly less international conviction and bravery of the students that they suffered what influence than the Berkeley protests but did have a single ‘one they did for their beliefs. The police spent the next 24 hours up’ on Berkeley: one La Trobe protestor, Larry Abramson, arresting the remaining students, with considerable police was arrested at gunpoint. He was charged with offensive brutality, and carting them off to a nearby prison for charging. behaviour. As Draper notes, in spite of vindication of the students’ Contact: [email protected] struggle, the arrested sit-inners were convicted of trespass and resisting arrest – going limp = guilty, mind you – and References punished with fines and, in some instances, gaol sentences. Kerr, C. (1963). The Uses of the University. Harvard University In keeping with the University’s approach of targeting the Press. Retrieved from https://books.google.com.au/ leaders, the list of penalties shows that Court punished leaders books?id=RSGdAAAAMAAJ more severely than others. Wikipedia. (2020, November 25). Mario Savio. Retrieved from Appeals were pending at the time Draper was writing. I Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Savio haven’t been able to chase down the result of these amongst the mountain of information on the Movement and the

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The tower of pong Bullshit Towers – Neoliberalism and Managerialism in Universities by Margaret Sims ISBN: 978-1-78997-812-4, Peter Lang Publisher, Oxford, x+196 pp., 2020.

Reviewed by Thomas Klikauer and Norman Simms

Ever since neoliberalism and managerialism arrived at of managers who merely self-aggrandise and self-perpetuate). universities, the ivied halls have deliberately been changed They transfer the ideology of neoliberalism into the idea of from places where people wanted to go to places that a university to the point that it becomes not just another people endure. As a new caste of managerialist, corporate ideology to compete for mental and bureaucratic space, but apparatchiks, and CEOs – albeit the latter with a range of titles the very ideology of managerialism (Klikauer, 2013), the one – took over (Murray & Frijters, 2017), students eager to learn that replaces knowledge, tradition and intellectual ambition. became customers eager to get the stamp of approval for a job Sims is correct when saying, ‘Neoliberalism…is an ideology’ (Hil, 2015). Inside The Toxic University (Smyth, 2017), the (p. 5). Reading through the godfather of neoliberalism F. von most willing executors of managerialism (always to be found Hayek’s catechism The Road to Serfdom (1944), indeed one in administration) were promoted into management. Others, gets the distinct impression that his short(ish) booklet isn’t less manageable, were downgraded, side-lined, dismissed, on academic economics at all but an insidious ideological retrenched, and casualised. Simultaneously, academics, who pamphlet. At the end of his long life, Hayek himself admitted originally constituted ‘the university,’ became a necessary that his main success had been the influence he had on evil, a cost, but one to be reduced. Based on her decades of journalists, working economists, and politicians. One of experience in academe, Margaret Sims’ book outlines how this Hayek’s outstanding successes was ‘the removal of state process was inexorably and relentlessly carried through. responsibility’ (p. 7), which is now to be read as ‘the state or Today, many academics go to work, to a place that ‘makes status of responsibility.’ In neoliberalism, this new condition [their] stomach churn and [their] blood pressure sky-rocket’ of statelessness means privatisation. In managerialism this (p. 3). Sims says, she got the idea of using the word bullshit means shifting responsibilities (liabilities, consequences and from reading management emails, something she has done burdens of guilt) to workers, ideologically camouflaged as for the better part of the last twenty-five years. While the empowerment (another meaningless buzz word, like agency). term bullshit has become ever more prevalent ever since For university managers, it means taking credit for what the US philosopher Harry Frankfurt wrote a book On academics have achieved (as scholars and teachers) while Bullshit (2005), the word has entered the scholarly arena, the blaming them when things (the financial and structural champion of the dispossessed, ready to take on the lions (liars integrity of the institution) go wrong. This remains one of the and their prevarications) of managerialism. Recently, bullshit most important rules management has ever invented. became truly popular in other gladiatorial combats through Of course, in the old days of a more equal (collegial) life Graeber’s Bullshit Jobs (2018) and Spicer’s Business Bullshit at university, to be an academic was to enter into venerable (2018). learned profession, a career in creating and evaluating There are many very justifiable reasons to call universities knowledge and passing on the improved ideas and the refined bullshit towers, places run by those with bullshit jobs skills to the next generation; therefore, it could not continue engaged in the business of bullshit. What corporate once managerialism moved in lock, stock and barrel. From apparatchiks in universities do may appear as bullshit, it is then on, it proclaimed to the animals in the farm: ‘No one nevertheless dangerous bullshit (in the sense of meaningless believes more firmly than Comrade Napoleon that all animals and obscurantist discourse). Much of the bullshit we see are equal’ (p. 8). Any university boss or corporate henchman – many see it not just from afar as a theoretical ‘cloud of will tell you that empowerment and collegiality are important. unknowing’ but experience it first-hand as a traumatic shock And, of course, at the same time, they say that ‘any viable sense to the system – is created by a corps of corporate apparatchiks. of agency [is] undermined’ (p. 8). Simultaneously, ‘dissent These corporate apparatchiks do not really work in a proper is perceived as traitorous, and as such, a legitimate target for corporation (one that produces or distributes things) but punitive action’ (p. 8). That’s just because some animals are have taken on the ideology of a corporation (a consolidation more equal than the others. vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 The tower of pong Reviewed by Thomas Klikauer and Norman Simms 83 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES’ REVIEW

This managerial gobbledegook comes along with a For the corporate apparatchiks running universities, ‘curriculum [that] is simplified, so that students obtain academics are not much more than human resources, materials, good grades and respond with high customer satisfaction tools, chattels, (unfortunately) still a necessary and above all a ratings’ (p. 13). Both are important for academic promotion costly ‘function,’ the rest is pretence. The occasionally issued and for the marketing of The PR-University (Cronin 2016). invitation to participate in the university’s organisational Surveys (not objective, careful meditations on the subject) affairs means nothing to managerialists except gaining insights are also used to indicate quality (a diaphanous mode of into academia and the gathering of information to be used bovine excreta). In that game, everyone, except (naturally) the against those down Fayol’s chain of command (1916). From student (or customer), is a winner. The ideology of quality the standpoint of the managerialist, academic involvement is assurance (Aspromourgos, 2012) is highly useful to force unwarranted, as it simply gets in the way. Nothing should get academics into ‘standardising their teaching’ (p. 13). This between a managerialist and his maker. Based on decades of is not the only reminder of Henry Ford’s car factory with excruciating experience, Sims is correct in saying, ‘Once in the assembly-line manufacturing. What in a car factory is called management group, the language of bullshit must be spoken SOS (Standard Operation Sheet) is called standard teaching to maintain one’s position. The language of bullshit speaks and the ‘standardisation of assessments’ (p. 13). Following the neoliberal managerial culture into reality’ (p. 21). Ford, it creates standardised academics and students, ready- Using the mystifying language of managerialism means made for the standardised world of consumer capitalism. Best expressing a manager’s conformity to the esprit de corps of all, it creates a standardised illusion of thinking, bullshit of managerialism and a readiness to further the spirit of framed within appropriate jargon. managerialist culture. This culture, by the way, isn’t culture Self-evidently, the language of managerialism ‘often sounds at all. It is ‘organisational’ pathology (Schrijvers, 2004) sold profound but its weighty sounding words hide a complete as ‘culture’ [sic], a key term when enforcing the ideology of lack of clarity and meaning’ (p. 17). Managerialism does this Managerialism. Managerialism assumes that organisational deliberately. It is a valued strategy to obscure issues so that culture means shared values. These are the values of the managerialists can blame academics when things do not managerialism – not the values of academia or students. turn out as planned. It allows corporate apparatchiks to claim Still, when all is said and done, ‘language [is] a powerful misunderstandings and to extract (or abstract) themselves tool used to shape and re-shape realities, beliefs, and from the scene. The advancement of the learned language of worldviews … it acts as a complete tool of social control’ managerialism can be gauged in rafts of managerial buzzword (p. 21). This is exactly what managerialism is about and generators available on the Internet (Watson, 2004; 2009). how it sees language. The language of managerialism is a It is equally important for corporate apparatchiks to master vital tool to establish social control over universities. This the babble of managerialism because it shows ‘leadership is even more the case in organisations in which profit- potential’ (p. 18) and belonging. Managerialists have no maximisation, euphemistically labelled ‘shareholder value’ problem at all with ‘spreading not only the bullshit language, under managerialism, is not the prime goal of a university. but the meaningless ideas upon which it is based’ (p. 18). This Free from the demand to generate profits, university is a crucial point. While academics are trained to examine managerialists can freely go about cementing managerialism words and concepts, to detect holes and contradictions, into all the nooks and crannies of higher education. Much of for managerialism all of this is worse than irrelevant. It this ‘concretisation’ (or intellectual constipation) comes at is threatening. Managerialism operates on ideology and the detriment of students and academia as a (w)hole. That power. Holding power allows managerialists to blame all of this is damaging to Alexander von Humboldt’s idea academics when they misunderstand the bullshit language of of the university is of no concern to corporate apparatchiks managerialist obfuscation. It forces academics into a position so long as they can fly business class and get picked up by a of having to interpret what is said by corporate apparatchiks. chauffeured blue Maserati with license plates depicting the Beyond that, it reinforces a much-valued power asymmetry corporate logo of the university. in which managers tell academics what to do, as though a Of course, the language of managerialism has been sent to gang of monkeys typed out the lectures for the lecturers to earth by higher beings ‘further privileging’ (p. 31) the new cast read out to their students. It is power play which corporate of managerialists. In the simplistic world of managerialism managers enjoy, as academics, not just students, are regularly where in-group is set against out-group, ‘those who are not on the receiving end. They are the winners, further cementing fluent in bullshit language are positioned as undeserving their power. In a second move, academics can be exposed as outsiders’ (p. 32). For the in-group, it means that ‘managers incompetent. Thirdly, whatever the once-respected professors gain confidence through having the right words to say and say provides valuable information that can be used against rarely seek to delve into any deeper meaning (partly because fellow academics. Big Brother is always watching you. such a deeper meaning rarely exists)’ (p. 42). Managerialism

84 The tower of pong Reviewed by Thomas Klikauer and Norman Simms vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES’ REVIEW

remains a shallow affair based on ideology and power, not nothing is either lost or wasted, since the whole process makes deeper meaning. it more necessary that managerialists run the whole show, The lack of deeper meaning reaches into the teaching part thus demonstrating their sublime power to create nothing (ex of the university as well. Sims says, ‘In many instances senior nihlo). They can dream up endless funding plans, conjure forth managers are completely unable to define what learning funding criteria, generate new assessment procedures, appoint actually is’ (p. 57). Of course, top managers in a car factory are more judges to vet proposals, etc. This keeps academics busy unable to define how an ABS braking system actually works, with filling in forms while corporate apparatchiks can set up or American presidents to understand the workings of the US special management departments assisting academics in the Constitution. This mere technicality of knowing what you writing of funding proposals. are talking about is of no concern to corporate apparatchiks. Meanwhile, the underlings of the corporate apparatchiks These mechanical things are for people down the line. What have also been kept busy with inventing ever more policies and concerns the managerialists is ‘the development of policies procedures. Sims’ own university has no less than ‘64 policies, and procedures designed to standardise the ‘product’, and 62 rules, 106 procedures, 31 guidelines (plus an additional standardised tool to measure compliance and performance’ 17 guidelines) … eight protocols, four codes, three plans, two (p. 57). Performance management remains a vital component statements … 328 documents specifying how things should of managerialism and for corporate apparatchiks. be done and by whom’ (p. 69). For what purpose? one might The fact that performance management is quite useless is well ask. To camouflage the neoliberal ideology. In brief, to irrelevant (Klikauer, 2017). The point is to use the illusion as a respond to the demand for less red tape. tool to further the cause of managerialism and to demonstrate To oversee all this, corporate apparatchiks have invented to academics who ‘runs the show’. The point is power – not plenty of managerial positions such as ‘a sourcing and organisational performance (Guest et al., 2013). As William category manager, an asset compliance manager, a content Shakespeare would have his dramatis personae explain at the optimising officer, a process innovation co-ordinator’ (p. end of their performance, ‘We are such stuff as dreams are 76f.). Consequently, universities are full of managers and made of.’ increasingly fewer (full time equivalent) academics, casualised Beyond that, the system of performance management gives or otherwise. At Sims’ university, the apparatchik component managerialists yet another punitive tool to be used against was a staggering 62% in 2006. By 2017, it had grown to more academics. If a management-defined failure lies in the area of than 68%’ (p. 78). Increasingly this is a common feature teaching and research, it will ‘generate…a Unit Action Plan’ that defines today’s universities as sacred spaces for bullshit (p. 59) or, even worse, a performance improvement plan (PIP) managerialist and not ivory-towered academics. – the first step to dismissal. Corporate managerialists call this, Much of this gives managerialists tremendous power we will performance manage her out of here and my way or beyond their sheer numerical strength. Therefore, ‘dissenters the highway (Ryan, 2016). The system has other benefits for are casually dismissed as poor team-players, trouble-makers or managerialism because ‘academics spend more and more of malcontents’ (p. 95). Of course, the system of managerialism their time each day demonstrating to managers what they are and its overpaid university bosses (p. 107) can call upon doing, rather than having time to actually do it’ (p. 63). This external assistance, usually framed as ‘independent advisers’ creates ‘accountability’ (p. 63) – a key term for managerialism. (Klikauer & Campbell 2020). One such support agency is What is relevant is accountability, not teaching, research and Price Waterhouse Coopers which in 2016 stated, ‘Academic attending an academic conference, for example. freedom and democratic governance of universities interfere In the good old days (for lecturers) or the bad old days (for with the efficient exercise of managerial prerogative and managerialists), an academic ‘would pop [his or her] head must be reduced in influence’ (p. 95). Unlike neoliberalism around the Head of School’s door to get approval and sign a that seeks to use democracy, managerialism is outright anti- piece of paper’ (p. 63) to attend an academic conference. Now, democratic. What managerialism seeks is efficiency, not as Sims shows, managerialists have turned this into a 15-step democracy. Like the Fascists, they will make the trains run application, vetting, and reporting process. On her list, Sims on time. (p. 63f.) hasn’t even mentioned the final conference report to It relentlessly advances what Sims calls ‘PICO, which be submitted to management. stands for power, influence, control’ (p. 111). The increased Of course, there are ‘millions of dollars…wasted by excessive power of corporate apparatchiks inevitably leads to bullying compliance demands’ (p. 65). The European Union has even (p. 113). Expectedly, ‘around 80% of bullying in higher calculated the millions of euros lost and the time wasted every education is perpetrated by managers’ (p. 114). It gets even year as academics are forced to apply for funding grants for better as ‘management perceive themselves as the university’ research projects. Regularly, if one project applicant gets (p. 122). In the end, ‘the educational environments…are funding, plenty of other applicants do not. More than that, increasingly dogmatic and oppressive, and worse still, dogma vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 The tower of pong Reviewed by Thomas Klikauer and Norman Simms 85 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES’ REVIEW

and oppression are being delivered in the name of freedom Hayek, F. A. (1944). The Road to Serfdom. London: G. Routledge & Sons. and creativity’ (p. 128). Sims’ exquisite book ends with the inevitable necessity of ‘challenging the system’ (p. 169). Hil, R. 2015. Selling Students Short: Why you won’t get the university education you deserve. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.

Thomas Klikauer teaches MBAs at the Sydney Graduate Klikauer, T. (2013). Managerialism – Critique of an Ideology. Basingstoke: Palgrave. School of Management, Western Sydney University, NSW. Contact: [email protected] Klikauer, T. (2017), Eight fatal flaws of performance management. Management Learning, 48(4), 492-497. Klikauer, T. & Campbell, N. (2020). The Politics of Framing and Norman Simms is a retired professor of the English and the Framing of Politics. Counterpunch. Retrieved from https://www. Humanities Department at the University of Waikato, counterpunch.org/2020/05/11/the-politics-of-framing-and-the- New Zealand, and is the editor of an online journal called framing-of-politics/ Mentalities. Murray, C. & Frijters, P. (2017). Game of Mates: How Favours Bleed the Nation. Brisbane, Queensland: Cameron Murray. References Ryan, L. (2016). The Truth About ‘Performance Improvement Plans’. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/ Aspromourgos, T. (2012). The managerialist university: an economic lizryan/2016/04/08/the-truth-about-performance-improvement- interpretation. Australian Universities’ Review, 54(2), 44-49. plans/#455b4b8d3b36 Frankfurt, H. G. (2005). On Bullshit. Princeton: Princeton University Schrijvers, J. (2004). The Way of the Rat – A Survival Guide to Office Press. Politics. London: Cyan Books. Fayol, H. (1916). Managerialism Industrielle et Générale (Industrial and Smyth, J. (2017). The toxic university: zombie leadership, academic rock General Managerialism). London: Sir I. Pitman & Sons, Ltd. (1930). stars and neoliberal ideology. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Cronin, A. M. (2016). Reputational capital in ‘the PR University’: Spicer, A. (2018). Business Bullshit. London: Routledge. public relations and market rationalities. Journal of Cultural Economy, 9(4), 396-409. Watson, D. (2004). Watson’s dictionary of weasel words, contemporary clichés, cant & management jargon. Milsons Point: Knopf. Graeber, D. (2018). Bullshit Jobs. New York: Simon & Schuster. Watson, D. (2009). Bendable Learnings: The Wisdom of Modern Guest, D., Paauwe, J., & Wright, P.M. (eds.) (2013). HRM and Management. Sydney: Knopf. Performance: Achievements and Challenges. Chichester: Wiley.

86 The tower of pong Reviewed by Thomas Klikauer and Norman Simms vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES’ REVIEW

Downhill for universities since Menzies? Australian Universities: A History of Common Cause by Gwilym Croucher and James Waghorne ISBN: 9781742236735 (pbk.), New South Publishing, Sydney, Australia, 278 pp., 2020.

Reviewed by Paul Rodan

This history, commissioned by Universities Australia (UA, Universities Commission in 1942 as reflecting this enhanced formerly the Australian Vice-Chancellors’ Committee – role. the AVCC) deals largely with universities’ relationships An important milestone was the 1946 referendum which with each other and with state and (later) commonwealth gave the Commonwealth power to provide ‘benefits to governments. They are seen as the key players in the creation students’ – allowing for the provision of scholarships and of today’s university system and in overseeing the key policy living allowances after this could no longer be covered under developments in the sector. Thus, this is an account at the war powers. institutional and leadership levels rather than one delving Commonwealth reviews and inquiries (notably the into the social and political aspects which would be found three Ms- Mills, Murray, Martin) played a prominent part in a more broadly-based approach, such as Hannah Forsyth’s in the post-war growth period and these are covered in A History of the Modern Australian University (see Rodan, considerable detail. The figure of Prime Minister Robert 2015). Menzies looms large in this era. His present-day Liberal The authors remind us that the first universities in the successors would probably find quaint his contention in 1950 colonies were as much a part of the British network as of that ‘the University’s function was to educate individuals in anything distinctively Australian. They trace the development culture and learning and not to create technical experts’ (p. of a more formalised cooperative relationship (within the 78). Importantly, he maintained the Chifley Government’s obvious constraints of distance) to 1920, when a Conference Commonwealth scholarship scheme, which was the only of Australian Universities was held in Sydney. Federation and means of entry into university for many students. then World War I had played an important role in promoting The importance of these scholarships cannot be a more national outlook. The AVCC would be formed in overemphasised. Mythology tends to suggest that prior to 1935, but it is worth noting that it was not until 1949 that Gough Whitlam’s abolition of university fees, it was mostly every university employed a full-time vice-chancellor. the fee-paying children of the rich who walked the hallowed Wars complicated life for universities, with the need to halls. This is simply not true. By 1972, around three-quarters manage categories of exemptions from conscription (which of students were either on commonwealth scholarships (with in WW II could include overseas service), course completion means-tested living allowances) or on quite generous teacher rates and the like. Political oversight and intrusion were ever- training bonded scholarships. As an undergraduate in the early lurking, and one wonders at the extent to which course failure 1970s, I knew no-one paying fees, although it was possibly rates were minimised by the risk that such failure could result not something one was likely to own up to, since it invited the in earlier military call-up for the poorly-performing student. conclusion that for some, parents’ wealth was making up for Government funding of universities varied from state to inability to secure a merit-based scholarship. state (some students paid fees; some were on various sorts of On the international level, the 1950s and 1960s saw the scholarships), but all were affected by the Great Depression height of the Cold War and its impact on universities included as governments imposed savage cuts on expenditure. But the the growth of suspicion in some conservative circles about Commonwealth had commenced its inexorable move towards the loyalty of staff. Australia’s first foray into the provision of greater involvement (with research grants) in the 1920s and, education for ‘overseas’ students, through the Colombo Plan, as in other policy areas, this grew during WWII, with the represented some soft power diplomacy in that ‘war’. introduction of student financial assistance being a significant The authors devote considerable space to outlining the development. The authors highlight the creation of the creation of the Colleges of Advanced Education (CAE) vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 Downhill for universities since Menzies? Reviewed by Paul Rodan 87 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES’ REVIEW

sector in the late 1960s; useful reading, given ongoing The book’s subtitle – A History of Common Cause – reflects misunderstandings of the binary system which existed pre- the authors’ contention that the Australian university system Dawkins. is essentially a success story, owing much to cooperation The Whitlam and Fraser Governments are dealt with in the and collaboration between institutions and overall positive same chapter which emphasises organisational and funding relations with government. For some, this may be too sanguine arrangements as well as the impact of Labor’s fee abolition a view, overlooking the contested nature of much of what is and the efforts of Fraser to reverse some of those reforms. This chronicled. There seems to be minimal acknowledgement section is especially acronym-heavy, a reminder of the special that a clash of values between political actors plays some place of that feature in Australian post-secondary education. role in how policy debates and decisions evolve from era to For the historical record, it might have been helpful era, with the demand-driven system being an example which if the authors had included more complete details of the comes to mind. Similarly, there is no exploration of the CAE mergers imposed by Fraser’s ‘razor gang’ as they have potential for the existence of university sub-groups (GO8, (very helpfully) done with the University/CAE mergers/ ATN et al.) to expose UA members to government ‘divide and amalgamations enacted under John Dawkins. And, they omit conquer strategies’. Granted, the book does not claim to be a to record that Fraser’s proposal for the reintroduction of fees political history, but there is almost a politics-averse approach for second and higher degrees (p. 151) in fact failed to become which may leave some readers concerned that the picture is law, being defeated in the Senate – to the distinct benefit of incomplete. this reviewer and (I suspect) more than a few readers of this That said, the book is a valuable contribution within the journal. focus it adopts. It is commendably free of typo and editing The authors do well to identify the role played by the errors, with one exception. In the index, the NTEU is Western Australian Institute of Technology (WAIT) in recorded as the National Territory Education Union – which securing university status (a state government prerogative), would seem to suggest specialist representation for members becoming Curtin University in 1987. This highlighted the in the NT and ACT! contradictions within the binary system and left Dawkins A commissioned history is unlikely to offer a robust facing similar ‘conversions’ in every state unless he took some critique of the hand that feeds it, but the celebratory tone of national action. This is not to defend everything Dawkins the volume possibly jars more at the end of 2020 than might did, but to acknowledge an important part of the context. have been the case a year earlier. The COVID-19 pandemic His other ‘reforms’ are recounted in considerable detail, but has exposed universities’ flawed risk management with their consistent with the theme of the book, the focus is more on over-dependence on international students in general, and on the funding and organisational aspects than on the social those from China in particular. Moreover, the inability of vice- and political implications (including Labor differences of chancellors to offer a serious challenge to the Government’s opinion) of the end of free tertiary education. culture-wars-driven assault on the humanities and social Sections on the Howard, Rudd/Gillard and current sciences (through massive fee increases) serves as a reminder government policies deal mostly with the emergence of their modest record in terms of advocacy and defence of and role of the internet, more inquiries, funding models, their institutions. Harsher critics might ponder why most of participation rates, contested notions of the university and them are paid more than the prime ministers and ministers internationalisation. It is a useful account of a period of who routinely do them over. substantial change, with commonwealth government control well-established, a far cry from the commencement of the Paul Rodan is an NTEU life member and was a member of narrative in 1920. the AUR editorial board from 1999 to 2020. The book was obviously written before the devastating Contact: [email protected] impact of COVID-19 in universities and the Federal Government’s contentious changes in institutional funding Reference and course fees, and its refusal to provide financial support Rodan, P. (2015). Review of Hannah Forsyth’s A History of the for university employees. This reflected an ongoing Coalition Modern Australian University. Australian Universities’ Review, 57(1), hostility to the sector (evident long before the pandemic), but 72-73. this animosity is unaddressed by the authors.

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