From the Vice-Chancellor
[ The University of Melbourne Voice Vol. 1, No. 19
26 November - 10 December 2007 ]
Censorship has a ‘chilling effect’ on freedom of speech.
If academics stop tackling controversial topics for fear of losing funding, they surrender a key advantage of academic freedom – that academics take on the subjects too hot for others to handle.
In a political culture where politicians are punished for admitting policy failure, the incentives for rigorous program evaluation are weak. An informed public must rely on academics and others outside government to provide a truly independent analysis of government performance.
Fortunately there is at least one simple reform which could strengthen academic freedom.
The next government should strengthen legislation shaping the Australian Research Council (ARC) so it enjoys autonomy equivalent to a university in choosing which research projects to fund. As now, the government would set the ARC’s broad budgetary parameters. It would appoint, according to set and appropriate criteria, the CEO, the college of experts, and a governing council. But beyond that role, government would not interfere with which projects the ARC decided to fund.
Such legislative change would address perceptions about the independence of Australian research. It would set aside lingering concerns about the trajectory for approving peer-assessed grants – and so remove any incentive for academics to self-censor possible research projects on contentious issues. The line between what was a political, and what was an academic, decision would be drawn more clearly.
Though all is not perfect for academic freedom in Australia, we have cause for optimism. We have devised powerful political norms that, by and large, allow universities which are financially dependent on government, or potentially subject to its control, nevertheless to operate in ways that run counter to the wishes of the government of the day.
Still some academics might say the rough treatment they receive from politicians and the media crosses a boundary, and so limits the range of topics that they are prepared to research.
Yet despite these drawbacks to participating in public discussion, it is important academics do so.
Like most freedoms, academic independence is best preserved by exercising it regularly.
GLYN DAVIS
From an address to an NTEU forum on academic freedom.
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