Long-suffering readers may recall some words about concerns over the grand tradition of conferences where high ranking people say very little and why the model needs to change.
Even so, Future Campus expressed some surprise yesterday when the main Tweets covering Jason Clare’s much-heralded appearance at the latest higher education talkfest highlighted that the Education Minister did not say anything much new but instead promised yet more admonishments of the sector’s conduct and possibly also some detail on international student caps within a week.
Mr Clare’s speech writer is pursuing a key theme of class warfare this week, if you weed through some dot points of the few bits of the Accord so far delivered and yet more slagging off of unis for handling of sexual harassment on campus in yesterday’s speech, you’ll see some common themes with the sound bite he dropped from a UNSW speech, painting the Albanese government as storming the moat of despair and breaking down barriers to entry so that university access is no longer the preserve of privileged folk, so that more people like him can make it through to the starting line for a tertiary qualification.
It’s a nice seam, personalising the narrative and trading on traditional labour values that middle Australia can really get behind, but the Minister can’t rely on his tough-talking immigration sheriff persona to gel with his poor boy from the west made good story if the former robs the sector of cash and the latter is unfunded.
Setting aside policy reality for the bigger discussion about what the Minister is contributing to perceptions of higher education, Mr Clare has demonstrated undying fealty to the term ‘shonks’ when coupled with actors of ill repute in the education sector. A quick search of his formal media appearances and speeches lovingly curated on the Minister’s Media Centre reveals 18 uses of ‘shonks’ since he was sworn in on 1 June 2022, 12 of ‘dodgy’ and just 8 of unscrupulous. There are no results for genius and just one for clever.
If you missed yesterday’s speech, you can read it here, or read yesterday’s more learned analysis here – or alternatively just wait for the actual announcements due within the next 7 days.
If you want to see a conference which doesn’t seek to drive you to the branded coffee cart (and not just because the branded coffee cart people turned us down), join us in Adelaide at HE FEST. We can’t snag Jason Clare on the program, but we have an extraordinary load of other expertise and engagement in store; ready to dive into realms where regular conferences don’t often go.
If you aren’t booked in yet, we are having our one and only 24-hour pop up sale with discounted conference tickets today.
