ON CAMPUS
campusreview.com.au
Christian calling
Can university residential
colleges contribute to a renewal
of moral and intellectual
leadership in Australia?
By Paul Oslington
T
here is not much doubt that we
need a renewal of moral and
intellectual leadership in Australia.
Where might it come from? Perhaps from
surprising places. While we have lots of
bright young people committed to positive
change, three additional ingredients are
needed to transform this into a renewal of
moral and intellectual leadership.
Firstly, a compelling story to ground
moral and intellectual leadership. Without
a compelling story, a leader has no map of
change, no map of where they fit into the
change process, nor resources for inspiring
their followers and themselves, especially
through the inevitable tough times.
The most powerful story in our history
has been the Christian story. This is not
to claim that the record of the churches
is all rosy or that the Christian story is the
only one that can provide the map and
resources needed by leaders.
Secondly, formative communities. This
is especially important in our individualistic
age where institutions such as the family,
the church and the government have
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decayed. Formative communities are
important to develop the people skills and
character necessary to survive the hard,
long-term work of leading change.
Communities also create opportunities
for the long-term friendships that leaders
need. Working together out of community
is so much more powerful than working as
an individual.
Thirdly, high standards. Our bright young
people are short changed when standards
are fudged and intellectual challenge
is removed in favour of uniformity and
mediocrity that serves the financial and
political interests of educational institutions.
Where can we find these ingredients in
the Australian higher education system?
Our public universities have a mixed
and deteriorating report card in relation
to these three ingredients. The suspicion
of grand narratives, especially those told
by white males, and anything religious,
has left the students without much in
the way of compelling stories in their
courses. The demands of paid work to
support themselves (or CV building for
the more affluent), and the growth of
lecture recording have been corrosive
of community.
Few academics would dispute that
standards have been falling, with the largest
declines at the bottom end of the system,
especially where universities depend on
fee-paying international students.
For the last seven years, I’ve been part
of Alphacrucis, a project to create a new
Christian university, building on the college
that has educated Australian Pentecostal
pastors for the last 50 years. We are short
of money, and the rapid growth and huge
cultural transformation brings inevitable
issues, but we’re trying to be a high quality,
firmly Pentecostal Christian alternative to
what is on offer in the Australian public
university system.
The college’s mission is educating
Christian leaders to change the world,
embodied especially in our Master of
Leadership for those in business, church
leadership, educational and not-for-
profit leadership. What we are doing
at Alphacrucis complements the good
things that are happening in parts of our
public university system, and provides an
alternative to some of the less good things
that are happening in the public system.
Another alternative that embodies the
three ingredients for renewal of moral and
intellectual leadership is Campion College
in Sydney. This project is firmly grounded
in the Catholic Christian tradition, with a
huge emphasis on community formation
taking advantage of many students living
on campus, and high standards in the
undergraduate liberal arts program it offers.
Perhaps the investment that the
Ramsay Foundation is making in Western
civilisation courses at public universities
will bear similar fruit. The animating story
of Western civilisation is not the same
thing as Christianity. Jesus after all was
a Middle-Eastern Jew who inspired a
movement which spread through Asia
into Europe then North America, with its
centre of gravity now moving from Europe
and North America to Africa, Asia and
Latin America. The modal world Christian
is probably now a Nigerian woman who
is part of a Pentecostal church. Despite
this, so much of the Christian story is
embedded in Western civilisation that the
Ramsay programs will bring to a substantial
number of Australian university students.
Standards will no doubt be high. Will