Australian National University held talks with John Howard over Ramsay Centre donation but says ‘there was no prospect of’ agreement

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The vice-chancellor of the Australian National University has spoken out about the decision to pull out of negotiations with the John Howard-backed Ramsay Centre to set up a controversial degree in western civilisation.

Late on Tuesday the vice-chancellor Brian Schmidt released a lengthy statement in which he defended the decision to pull out of the lucrative set-up.

Schmidt said that following negotiations with Howard he had come to the conclusion that the university had a “fundamentally different vision for the program than the Ramsay Centre, and that there was no prospect of us reaching agreement”.

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“In that context, the only responsible course of action was to withdraw and focus our university on our many other priorities,” he said. “I understand this caused disappointment to some, but my first duty is to advance the university I am so proud to lead.”

The university announced on Friday that it would no longer go ahead with the western civilisation degree after six months of negotiation. The course was the brainchild of the late health care mogul Paul Ramsay, and was part of a $3.3bn bequest.

But the lucrative donation was mired in controversy. In April the former prime minister Tony Abbott – also a member of the Ramsay Centre board – published an article in the conservative publication Quadrant stating that the Ramsay Centre was “not merely about western civilisation but in favour of it”.



In the article Abbott criticised contemporary university education, writing that “every element of the curriculum … pervaded by Asian, Indigenous and sustainability perspectives”.

“Almost entirely absent from the contemporary educational mindset was any sense that cultures might not all be equal and that truth might not be entirely relative,” he wrote.

That sparked a backlash against the degree from the National Tertiary Education Union and students over fears about its academic independence of the degree. There was concern from within academia about the influence the Ramsay Centre would have over the curriculum and fears that it would push one narrow view of history.

In a letter sent by the president of the ANU branch of the NTEU, Matthew King, to the vice-chancellor a week before the decision to withdraw from negotiations, the union said it held “grave concerns” about the degree.

King wrote that Abbott’s article suggested the course would “pursue a narrow, radically conservative program to demonstrate and promulgate the alleged superiority of western culture and civilisation”.

He said the union was concerned the Ramsay Centre would “wield considerable influence over staffing and curriculum decisions”.

After the university pulled out of the negotiations, Howard wrote a letter in which he said the Ramsay Centre had “fully endorsed the principles of academic autonomy” and accused the university of bowing to pressure from the union.

He told the Australian that negotiations had gone “very well indeed and then the academics’ union got involved”.

But in his statement on Tuesday, Schmidt said the university had “approached the opportunity offered by the Ramsay Centre in a positive and open spirit” before deciding to pull out of the deal over concerns about academic integrity.



“In all cases, we retain, without compromise, our academic integrity, autonomy and freedom, and ensure that any program has academic merit consistent with our status as one of the world’s great universities,” he said.

“These core principles drive our research excellence and are key to our outstanding global reputation.”



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He also hit back at reporting in the Australian on Tuesday which criticised the university’s decision to accept $2m each from Dubai, Iran and Turkey for a centre for Arab and Islamic studies.

“I’m disappointed to see that our globally renowned centre for Arab and Islamic studies has been singled out today,” he said.

“The centre is an important national institution that has received bipartisan support since its establishment. It makes a significant contribution to Australian knowledge of regional challenges and issues in the Muslim Middle East and central Asia, including providing training to many of our federal government departments interested in the region.

“ANU centres have received donations from a range of countries in addition to funds from government and industry. In all cases, ANU retains control of both curriculum and staffing decisions.”