policy & reform
campusreview.com.au
Is this in some sense ideological, where
traditionally humanities have been thought
of as not as important as STEM subjects?
I think it’s more economic. In other words,
universities are putting money in where
there is money to be made, and that is
obviously in STEM areas like medicine and
engineering. Humanities don’t command
that level of [short-term] return, other than
students and perhaps postgraduates.
Long term, the benefits are much more
enduring than the immediate financial return
of investing in the STEM areas. I don’t think
it’s necessarily ideological; I think it’s where
the universities are at the moment in terms
of their budgeting and their finance.
I think universities see it as a necessary
part of what they do to be a broad university.
But beyond that, we don’t see evidence
of increased or prioritised funding in the
humanities area. The returns are limited, and
the focus seems to be elsewhere.
Are we unique in relation to other Western
countries in terms of this lack of funding and
focus at the moment?
CR: Why and how do you think we got to
this low point in the humanities in terms of
funding and focus?
JD: There’s a fairly direct and easy answer
to that: disinvestment. Disinvestment over a
considerable period of time – by universities
and by the higher ed sector more generally.
When that becomes a pattern, you can
feel the impact over the short and long term.
I think this is often a function of institutional
decision-making, where what we see is
an emphasis on the short term rather than
taking a long-term view of the knowledge
base and the capability that Australia
needs nationally.
What this points to is, in universities, the
humanities are valued really only insofar as
they bring in students and funding – and
those are short-term goals. Beyond that,
we have seen a decline in commitment and
policy in the long term about the humanities
and what contribution they make to the
Australian economy and society.
Those dual issues of disinvestment and
short-termism bring about the situation we
have today – which is not a satisfactory one.
Countries such as Sweden, Canada,
the US, Germany and France have a far
more sophisticated approach to research
priority setting. Here in Australia, we have
a very outdated science and research
priority framework.
So the short answer is yes, globally we
are way back when we benchmark in other
countries about the level of investment
and the priorities that those countries are
putting in the HSS area in terms of future
development.
We can probably all acknowledge that
there’s an importance in understanding the
humanities and offering them, but we need
to take the next leap up and appreciate that
the humanities offer social and economic
value, and make a fundamental contribution
to culture, society and wellbeing – and the
economy as well.
Countries that appreciate this invest in
HASS way above Australia’s investments –
both in terms of infrastructure and in terms
of identifying that the skill set that humanities
bring is unique.
The other area where there’s been value
put on HASS is in social inclusion and
wellbeing. You can look at the economics of
it, and the importance and contribution of
the skill set of humanities, but also broader
questions around social inclusion and
wellbeing are fundamentally addressed by
the humanities. Other countries appreciate
that. Particularly in the UK, a lot of programs
have been structured around those two
principles, which Australia has yet to do.
Are you concerned by what Australia might
stand to lose in those social, cultural and
economic areas if we don’t reconsider the
importance we’re placing on humanities?
Absolutely. This is why we put together this
platform of eight fundamental principles,
because we believe that humanities is
essential for the development of the skill set
for the future.
We all know that AI is about to explode,
if it hasn’t already. The skills we train our
humanities students on – critical and creative
thinking, communication, collaboration and
ethics – are high-order skills that are not
imparted through STEM.
In the humanities disciplines, these are
really important skill sets that we nurture
and develop. The issue has increasingly
come to the fore with reviews, assessments
and reports about the impact of tasks
that are becoming more automated, with
emphasis put onto these sorts of skills
around synthesis, articulating complex ideas,
judgements and so on.
There are also lots of studies looking at the
direct correlation between social cohesion
and economic growth. Again, there’s been
quite a discussion around that.
Another area – one of the points in our
eight-point plan – is building language
capacity. We live in a global world, we’re
international, we’re transnational: it’s
fundamental that we build our language
capacity in this country in the short and
longer term.
Without that capacity, Australia is going
to suffer dramatically – economically in
The skills we train our
humanities students on ...
are high-order skills that are
not imparted through STEM.
terms of a whole range of areas, but also
just being an international player in research,
in the workplace, in innovation. Without
that language capacity, it’s fundamentally
problematic.
Those are the summit areas in terms of
the impact we can expect if we don’t start
addressing some of these issues. ■
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