From the Vice-Chancellor
[ UniNews Vol. 14, No. 6
18 April - 2 May 2005 ]
A university should always be a forum for the debate of ideas.
That’s why each year, the University of Melbourne hosts around 200 public lectures and every day of each semester, faculties and departments offer seminars, symposiums, colloquiums and forums which are open to the public.
This is all in addition to the University’s formal teaching program.
These lectures, seminars and workshops are offered by members of the University staff and by visiting academics. They may be given at lunchtime or after the usual University hours and they cover a broad range of often topical and sometimes controversial issues.
University academic staff also draw on their areas of expertise to write opinion articles for newspapers and to take part in interviews and debates on topical issues on radio and television. They give papers at conferences, talk to people in industry and government, and students in schools.
Why do they take on this additional role? Most likely it is because they believe the University should be publicly engaged with the wider community. After all, universities are communities of scholars and scholarship is something which is shared.
Universities are places of enquiry, where new ideas are developed but never accepted unquestioningly. They are tested, tried and debated – within the academy and without.
Just as rational academic enquiry and the pursuit of truth are fundamental to universities so too is their responsibility to provide a forum in the community for topical, even controversial subjects.
The University of Melbourne community is fortunate to have many international leaders who are highly-esteemed in their disciplines.
This week we are celebrating the arrival of two Nobel Laureates – economists Professor Sir James Mirrlees and Professor Sir Clive Granger – and we look forward to their public lectures. Just a couple of weeks ago distinguished philosopher, public commentator and Laureate Professor in the University, Professor Peter Singer, from Princeton University, gave a well-attended lunchtime lecture.
It would be naïve to believe that everyone will agree with the views of every speaker at a public forum in the University, but surely no one would deny those speakers the right to express their well-considered views. There is always question time.
Glyn Davis
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