I think Australia has the most effective and efficient health system in the world.
I’m bewildered when people complain about it.
But some points are valid. Workers are human, pressures are high, budgets are finite. As more sophisticated treatments and equipment become available, those budget pressures keep mounting.
Things are not perfect. Taking criticisms seriously can help us to be better.
But fundamentally, we should all get behind our system, and keep improving it, not chipping away at it.
I think our university system is good too.
I’m bewildered when people complain about it. Though some criticisms can help us to be better.
We just need to separate out those complaints that can make us better, from those that are based on misunderstandings, or are designed to chip away at us, and bring us down.
Our universities are big, providing opportunities for many students. This means we have to keep working to improve the student experience. Thousands of students have a great experience, but we must ensure that every student feels like an individual. We need to support our student societies, and to shape our courses so that students feel a sense of belonging. We have to celebrate our most inspiring teachers more.
If our classes are too big, and the influx of international students is too rapid, we should slow it gradually. If the rapid rise has caused problems. Let’s not add to them by over-correcting with a rapid drop. Let’s wait a little, so we can get alternative research funding measures in place.
We should strive for the highest academic standards. I know my colleagues care immensely about this – sometimes to the point of pedantry. As universities have expanded, we have welcomed students with varying preparedness for higher study, so we must work extra hard to get everyone up to speed, and then stretch students to reach their maximum potential. (If you think academic standards are falling, I challenge you to attempt Electrical Engineering at UNSW!).
We should keep our students safe. Most places in Australia are safe, and on campus students are generally safe too, but it takes constant work to maintain civil discourse, allow respectful disagreement, and to ensure that power imbalances do not lead to harassment or bullying. We need to keep working on our culture, on reporting, and on maintaining the best behaviours.
We should look after our staff too. University work is complex and for years scholars worked invisibly – reading, writing, teaching, marking, and researching in different times and places. We need to develop clearer systems to ensure that all our staff, especially casual academics, are paid correctly for all the types of work they do. We must respect our professional staff too. I have been supported by, and could not operate without, superbly smart and capable professional colleagues.
Universities are becoming a political target, partly because of the pace of change in society.
The famous molecular biologist Sidney Brenner explained that “Science advances, via new technologies, new discoveries, and new ideas, probably in that order”.
Society is advancing. Many developments are positive. In the last 100 years there has been progress related to basic things, like warmth, food, water, health, and more complex things, like international trade, and human rights. But there have been downsides. The environment is suffering, inequities are stark, and shifts in power can be threatening.
Like Brenner I think that new technologies drive new ideas. Most staff and students at universities work on technology in science, or in applying it in engineering, medicine, or business. But for some reason it has become fashionable to characterise universities as the home of sometimes absurd postmodern ideas – that are occasionally aired (because universities are open to all), but which don’t fairly reflect what we do.
Populists take advantage of the extremes, and the perceived intellectual, and sometimes moral, superiority that universities inadvertently project, and amplify fringe ideas to promote resentment against so-called elites.
We are meant to learn from history, but I worry about another anti-intellectual tide. It’s not new. Teachers: Socrates, Jesus, learned monks, and many scholars in the French revolution, were targeted. It is not hard to frame hard-earned, expert knowledge, as elitism.
But hopefully we can convince Australians that attacking our universities, or our hospitals, while it might erase some annoying blemishes, can’t possibly make our country more prosperous, healthier, or more secure. Undermining these institutions will do the opposite.
Instead, we should build on strength and be confident about what has been and what can be achieved, as we continue to develop as the Scandinavia of Asia.
The Universities Accord has measures related to student access, support, and research funding. It provides a vision for making Australia better.
Former leaders – Bob Hawke and Barry Jones – talked about us becoming the clever country. I think we can be proud of what we are achieving in teaching and research. We can aim to be healthy in body and mind.
We should stop undermining universities, and instead start implementing the rest of the Accord, especially Chapter 5 which provides a plan for funding research – something more urgent than ever if international student numbers are to be capped.
Professor Merlin Crossley is Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic Quality) at UNSW
