Australian Universities in Crisis

That this book, having been recommended for publication by the editors of Melbourne University Press, was subsequently rejected through the intervention of the University authorities, is a symptom of the very malaise which the contributors address. Since the Dawkins 'reforms' to Australian higher education the university system has come under increasing surveillance by government functionaries, and university 'managements' have been subverted through their desire to win favour from government and to display their 'competitive edge' against other 'institutions'. The 'reforms' have mandated the wholesale introduction of business techniques, and a pervading business ethos, which is quite inappropriate to the traditional function of universities. The very word 'traditional' is rejected as contrary to the commitment to change required of expanding businesses. That universities have a role in conserving and transmitting a public culture is all but repudiated by university managements in their desire to appear at the 'cutting edge' of government privatization agenda. The authors of this book affirm a public role for universities, and reassert the conviction that they must protect a threatened independence in the search for truth, and in the responsibility to 'speak truth to power'. Since 'managements' are now unlikely to uphold these duties, it becomes the responsibility of the members of the community of scholars to maintain independence of thought and to expound the truth.