A row over academic influence is brewing at one of Australia’s top universities as the University of Melbourne holds secret talks over a partnership with a controversial philanthropic program.
The Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation, established in 2017 with a $3.3 billion endowment from late healthcare magnate Paul Ramsay, has been in discussions with the university about providing scholarships to arts students.
The university says the proposed deal would give its students access to one of the nation’s most generous scholarships, but its main workplace union has criticised the behind-closed-doors talks as being about a conservative, Eurocentric group trying to gain influence on campus.
The centre, which has close links to the Liberal Party, remains controversial in the higher education sector over the “bachelor of Western civilisation” courses it tried to establish on campuses around Australia a decade ago.
The move sparked a fierce backlash from academics and students, who argued the centre was promoting Western, European culture and values over those of other races and civilisations, a position the Ramsay Centre has consistently denied.
Only the Australian Catholic University, the University of Queensland and the University of Woolongong agreed to teach the courses.
In 2018, the Australian National University walked away from a potential deal with the centre, chaired at the time by former prime minister John Howard, saying it could not agree to the centre’s demands for oversight of curriculum, reading lists and lecturer selection.
The University of Melbourne confirmed on Thursday that talks were under way with Ramsay and said the scholarship program would allow students from non-privileged backgrounds access to what would be “one of the most generous undergraduate scholarships in Australia”.
A spokesperson for the centre, where another former Liberal prime minister, Tony Abbott, remains on the board, said on Thursday that it “is committed to academic freedom, and program and institutional autonomy”.
The National Tertiary Education Union, which represents the University of Melbourne’s workers, says any deal would have implications beyond just awarding scholarships.
“This is not just about funding. It is about influence,” the union’s branch president at the university, David Gonzalez, said.
The union said it was worried the scholarship program could concentrate funding and opportunities in what it calls a narrow band of subjects, including history, philosophy, classics, English literature and art history, and potentially exclude areas such as Indigenous studies, Asian studies, Arabic and Islamic studies and Jewish studies.
“When external organisations shape who gets opportunities and which fields are prioritised, it raises real questions about academic independence,” Gonzalez said.
“Any partnership that elevates one tradition above others needs to be openly examined and debated.”
A spokeswoman for the university said any agreement with the Ramsay Centre would be confined to offering scholarships through current Faculty of Arts degrees.
“The scholarship program will support students already studying current academic offerings … No new degrees or majors will be developed,” she said.
“The Ramsay Centre will have no influence on the Faculty of Arts curriculum and no involvement in teaching … we continue to be deeply committed to anti-racism and Truth Telling, nothing about this announcement changes or compromises that commitment. ”
The university has faced several racially charged controversies in recent years. A court case brought against the university by law school professor Eric Descheemaeker, whom the university tried to sack over what it alleged was a pattern of racist behaviour, was settled in January.
The case followed the high-profile 2023 resignation of Law School associate Dean Cubillo, who described the school as “the most culturally unsafe place I’ve worked”.
Professor of Australian Indigenous studies Marcia Langton claimed in December that that university was employing neo-Nazis in senior academic positions, forcing the institution to defend its record in combatting antisemitism.
The Ramsay Centre first approached the University of Melbourne in 2017 and proposed a partnership, but this was declined by the institution’s management, led by then vice chancellor Glyn Davis and chancellor Allan Myers, KC.
Myers is now the chair of the Ramsay Centre, while Davis is serving as acting vice-chancellor after the death of Emma Johnston late last year.
The union is demanding that university management make the negotiations public, release full details of any proposals and consult staff and students.
“Universities should not be making decisions of this significance behind closed doors,” Gonzalez said.
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