From the Vice-Chancellor
[ The University of Melbourne Voice Vol. 5, No. 3
8 June - 12 July 2009 ]
Informing the solution
In an address to Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson once argued that a great university “shapes the nation through engagement with contemporary public problems … When the times demand action, the university dare not keep aloof”.
Fine words, true today still. Because while it was once common to hear universities described as ‘ivory towers’, today there are few academic communities untouched by their external environment.
Amid climate change, global financial crises and pandemics, seeking solutions to complex problems and pressures requires the expertise of diverse people drawn from many different disciplines – inside academia, and from the wider community.
Today, universities willingly accept responsibility to ensure that research, student learning and external engagement all serve public needs.
Melbourne is a public-spirited university. It is a complex public institution with both public and private aspects but with its private activities supporting its public purposes. It exists for public, not private, benefit.
One of those public purposes is to take up Woodrow Wilson’s challenge to help “shape the nation through engagement with contemporary public problems”.
Many Melbourne scholars regularly engage in discussion and debate on present-day issues outside the University; they contribute to the generation of new ideas in our community through opinion pieces in our newspapers, public forums on dilemmas such as Swine Flu, and as members of public panels and committees.
And next week at the University’s inaugural Festival of Ideas, leading University of Melbourne scholars will be engaging with experts from diverse external bodies to consider one of the major issues facing our society – climate change.
The program for the week-long Festival recognises that climate change is not just a science issue but one that will impact – and in fact, is already impacting – on many aspects of our society and our lives.
So writers and musicians, urban planners and medical scientists, former diplomats and China experts, environmentalists, political scientists and historians will be amongst the participants discussing and generating ideas that might eventually inform the solutions.
Glyn Davis Vice-Chancellor
Program and bookings for the Festival of Ideas: ideas.unimelb.edu.au/ It’s free.
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