Senator Mehreen Faruqi, the Australian Greens spokesperson for Education and a former academic, reacted to this morning’s news that the University of Wollongong has accepted the John Howard-led Ramsay Centre’s funding for a degree in ‘Western Civilisation’.
She said:
“Today’s news is a blow to academic freedom in Australia.
“As a former academic, I can unequivocally say that allowing any organisation to influence curriculum, let alone one as shady as this centre, is a huge mistake.
“The Ramsay Centre wants nothing more than to churn out students with an uncritical view of Western Civilisation, and they’re willing to shower our public universities with money to make that happen.
“We must push back hard against this idea of cultural supremacy and stand strongly for academic freedom and critical thinking.
“The University of Wollongong can still do the right thing and reject the Ramsay Centre’s money and the ideology that comes with it,” she concluded.
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