policy & reform
campusreview.com.au
A vision for radical university change
A new book suggests how we
can make universities more
productive and democratic.
Raewyn Connell interviewed
by Kate Prendergast
T
he world over, the higher education
sector is booming. The number of
global students attending higher
education has doubled since 2000, and a
recent study predicts that by 2040, nearly
600 million students will be enrolled.
Such statistics glimmer with utopian
possibility. They suggest we are on track
towards a highly skilled future workforce,
where a legion of diverse, super-educated
powerhouse individuals and teams will
10
push forward frontiers of progress, wealth,
knowledge and humanity.
Paeans of excellence sung by university
upper management everywhere further
give the impression that higher education
is tackling modern challenges with
unmitigated success. Yet beneath the
jubilatory public relations-speak, some
hear a critical dissonance with what’s
really going on.
Raewyn Connell is one. In her many
years as a researcher, the leading
Australian social scientist has seen
universities drift from their core purpose.
Increasingly – by dint of the enormous
market pressures placed upon them –
they are putting profits before the people
they employ, the students whose dollar
they take, and the society they serve.
To give just one example, workforce
casualisation has ballooned in tandem
with job insecurity, to the detriment of
teaching quality, career progression,
workplace morale and job satisfaction.
Research has found that in some
Australian universities, 80 per cent of
undergraduate courses are taught by
sessional academics.
As the competitive spirit is thrust into
overdrive, Connell also argues we’re
losing out on the enormous benefits
of collaboration.
On a broader scale, she also critiques
the fundamental structures of the
‘knowledge economy’, which prioritises
certain ideas and discoveries above others
according to which region in the world
they’re produced.
These issues and more have led
Connell to believe the system requires
radical change. In her bold new book,
The Good University (Monash University
Press), she performs a comprehensive
analysis of what a university is, who it’s
made up of, the reasons behind its current
dysfunction, and what needs to be done
to build a more equitable, engaging and
productive model.
Campus Review spoke with Connell
about the premises and proposals of her
book and what they mean for universities.
CR: Much of your book is a critique of the
ways in which, in the last 50 years or so,
universities worldwide have increasingly
come to resemble corporations allied