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vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 Special Issue
Published by NTEU ISSN 0818–8068 Academic freedom’s
precarious future
AUR
Australian Universities’Review
AUR
Australian Universities’ Review
Editor Editorial Board
Dr Ian R. Dobson, Monash University Dr Alison Barnes, NTEU National President
Professor Timo Aarrevaara, University of Lapland
Guest Editor
Professor Jamie Doughney, Victoria University
Professor Kristen Lyons, University of Queensland
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vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 Special Issue
Published by NTEU ISSN 0818–8068 Academic freedom’s precarious future
Australian Universities’ Review
2 Letter to the editor 45 Slippery beasts: Why academic freedom and
media freedom are so difficult to protect
3 Letter from the guest editor Fred D’Agostino & Peter Greste
Kristen Lyons Through an analysis of both academic freedom and freedom of
the press, Fred D’Agostino and Peter Greste explore a diversity of
4 Introduction to the Special Issue: Academic threats that bear down upon the search for ‘truth’.
freedom’s precarious future. Why it matters and
what’s at stake 53 Beyond the usual debates: Creating the
Kristen Lyons conditions for academic freedom to flourish
Sharon Stein
ARTICLES & OPINION In the afterword to the special issue section of this issue of AUR,
Sharon Stein explores some of the intellectual, affective and
8 What crisis of academic freedom? Australian relational conditions that might foster a vision for academic
universities after French freedom that is also within the context of our ‘complex,
Rob Watts uncertain and unequal world’.
This paper is an exploration of a series of themes related to
Hon. Robert French AC’s recent review of freedom of speech 57 ATARs, Zombie ideas & Sir Robert Menzies
in Australian universities, and critically explores whether Robert Lewis
universities face a ‘crisis in academic free speech’.
BOOK REVIEWS
19 Corporate power and academic freedom
Andrew G. Bonnell 65 The Idea of the University – A review essay
In this critical appraisal of corporate influence across universities, The Idea of the University: Histories and Contexts by
Andrew Bonnell examines the impact of corporate power for Debaditya Bhattacharya (ed.)
academic freedom and argues for the urgent need for transparent Public Universities, Managerialism and the Value of
and accountable governance and oversight. Higher Education by Rob Watts
Politics, Managerialism, and University Governance:
26 Precarious work and funding make academic Lessons from Hong Kong under China’s Rule since
freedom precarious 1997 by Wing-Wah Law
Jeannie Rea Reviewed by Thomas Klikauer & Catherine Link
In her opinion piece, Jeannie Rea describes how university staff
and students who speak out against state, military, religious and 75 The peasants are revolting
other powers face an increasing threat of attack, and reports on No Platform – A History of Anti-Fascism, Universities and
the vital work of Scholars at Risk (SAR) in defending rights and the Limits of Free Speech by E. Smith
interests. Reviewed by Neil Mudford
31 Freedom in the university fiefdom 78 And the students are revolting, too
Richard Hil Berkeley: The Student Revolt by Hal Draper (Author),
Richard Hil is a scholar widely known for his erudite opinions. In Mario Savio (Introduction)
this piece, he explains how constraints on academic freedom are Reviewed by Neil Mudford
built into governance structures of universities, as well as arguing
that academics’ acquiescence to certain constraints upon their 83 The tower of pong
freedom is part of the slow violence of the managerial university. Bullshit Towers – Neoliberalism and Managerialism in
Universities by Margaret Sims
34 A self-selection mechanism for appointed Reviewed by Thomas Klikauer and Norman Simms
external members of WA University Councils
Gerd E. Schröder-Turk 87 Downhill for universities since Menzies?
Through his careful analysis of university governance and Australian Universities: A History of Common Cause by
legislation in Western Australia, Gerd Schröder-Turk exposes Gwilym Croucher and James Waghorne
the enabling environment for a concentration of power and the Reviewed by Paul Rodan
maintenance of governance echo-chambers and argues that good
governance is the basis for academic freedom.
vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 1
A U S T R A L I A N U N I V E R S I T I E S ’ R E V I E W
Letter to the Editor
Dear Editor, The vast majority of HRM is dedicated to what Habermas
calls an empirical-analytical understanding of work. Here,
Thanks to Paul Rodan for his thoughtful comments on my HRM wants to control workers by using performance
review of David Graeber’s Bullshit Jobs (AUR, 62(2), p. 2). management (KPIs, etc.). A minor part of HRM’s teaching
Sadly, unexpectedly, and as widely reported in the international and research portfolio is dedicated to an historical-
press, David Graeber passed away on 2 September 2020. I hermeneutical understanding. Mostly, this is what critical
agree wholeheartedly with Graeber’s book and Paul Rodan’s management studies (CMS) does (e.g. Klikauer, CMS
comments, particularly on the issue of human resource & Critical Theory, 2015). Finally, there is a truly critical-
management (HRM) that falls into Graeber’s category of emancipatory understanding dedicated to ending domination
being ‘bullshit’. Just three items might be mentioned in and working towards emancipation.
support of this commonly agreed notion: Placed in Graeber’s framework, one might say, HRM’s first
1. In her 2006 book, Shelley Gare singled out HRM as a approach (control) is bullshit – albeit very dangerous bullshit;
particularly good example of what she calls The Triumph the second one (interpretation) is semi-bullshit; while the
of the Airheads (Media21 Publishing). third one (emancipation) is a worthwhile enterprise. As
2. Research by the Tasmanian author Rob Macklin found someone once said, I am a pessimist 80 per cent of the time and
that one of the most important things for HR managers an optimist 20 per cent of the time and I live and work for these
is to remember the lies they told yesterday (HRM – 20%. One might be inclined to argue that David Graeber,
Ethics and Employment, Oxford); and finally, Jürgen Habermas, Paul Rodan, myself and many readers of
3. Perhaps the best illustration of a workplace under HRM AUR are working for these 20 per cent and have an interest in
remains Schrijvers’s The Way of the Rat (Cyan Books). ending domination and enabling emancipation.
All three paint a pretty grim picture of HRM, but it is not
all bad in the land of HRM. Thomas Klikauer, Western Sydney University
In his book Knowledge and Human Interests (1987), German
philosopher Jürgen Habermas developed three knowledge-
creating interests which guide not only knowledge and
research but also the teaching of HRM. In my 2007 book
(Communication & Management at Work), I applied Habermas’
theory to management – and by inference to HRM.
2 vol. 63, no. 1, 2021A U S T R A L I A N U N I V E R S I T I E S ’ R E V I E W Letter from the guest editor Kristen Lyons As guest editor, it is my pleasure to introduce this issue of Book reviews are an important part of AUR’s agenda, and Australian Universities’ Review. Most of the issue is ‘special’, this issue has several such reviews from ‘hardy perennial’ book on the extremely important topic of academic freedom and reviewers Neil Mudford, Paul Rodan and Thomas Klikauer. its precarious future. My introduction to the special issue All in all, this issue of Australian Universities’ Review is a introduces the papers and their eight authors. These papers ‘must read’ in the challenging times in which universities and have been written from a range of perspectives, which cover their workforces find themselves. the topic in detail. Of course, AUR is AUR, and it is a journal that preaches to Kristen Lyons, Guest Editor a broad church. There is also a timely article on the low entry scores required to get into education programs at Australian Kristen Lyons is a Professor of Environment and universities. Robert Lewis describes how the Australian Development Sociology in the School of Social Science at the Tertiary Admissions Rankings system works (ATARs), and University of Queensland. his stated aim is to highlight the profound systemic problems of falling standards in school student outcomes; in part due to lowered ATARs as well as problematic standards in teacher education. vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 Letter from the guest editor Kristen Lyons 3
A U S T R A L I A N U N I V E R S I T I E S ’ R E V I E W
Academic freedom’s
precarious future. Why
it matters and what’s at
stake
Kristen Lyons
University of Queensland
Introduction What’s at Stake – engages with these, and other issues and
questions. In strident and lucid ways, each of the authors
Academic freedom – however elusive – is widely championed that have brought this special issue to life offers analysis and
as the foundation of a good university. Academic freedom is opinion that is set to shape the contours of contemporary and
held up as vital, to borrow from Hannah Arendt, in speaking future debates and thinking on academic freedom.
‘truth to power’, and axiomatic in the pursuit of the public, A special issue on this topic is indeed timely, given
or common good. More broadly, it is understood as being amendments to the Higher Education Support Act were
vital for ensuring a healthy functioning democracy, and as an made in March 2021, just weeks prior to finalising this special
antidote to the contemporary dis-ease of post truth politics. issue. The insertion of definitions of ‘freedom of speech’ and
But just what is meant by ‘academic freedom’, and why has ‘academic freedom’ – a dream realised for Queensland Senator
its defence – or at least some critical exploration of its politics Pauline Hanson as quid pro quo for lending her support
– become so important? What forces threaten that freedom to the Government’s steep fee increases for humanities
from both within and without the university sector, how degrees – (again) illustrates how acutely politicised academic
have debates about academic freedom become fodder in the freedom, and universities, have become. Similarly, the recent
culture wars, and with outcomes that continue to drive the politically fuelled freedom of speech furore – demonstrated
weaponisation and politicisation of universities? In guarding via protests on university campuses in response to a number
against the assault on academic freedom and its ripple effects, of ‘reactionary speakers’, including widely disgraced men’s
including the erosion of democratic systems of knowledge activist, Bettina Arndt – exposes how intertwined universities
production, what forms of collective organising are being are in the culture wars (Funnell & Graham, 2020; Napier-
marshalled? More broadly, how might critical debates about Raman, 2021).
academic freedom open up opportunities for a revitalised Each of the contributing authors to this special issue – in
university that is equipped to grapple with the contemporary rich and diverse ways – showcases the contestations related
challenges that shape our ‘uncertain and unequal world’ (see to discourses of academic freedom, as well as the right/
Sharon Stein, this volume)? left ideological schisms and culture wars these ignite. In so
This special issue of Australian Universities’ Review – doing, they locate academic freedom – and its curtailment
Academic Freedom’s Precarious Future? Why it Matters and – within broader structural processes and dynamics that are
4 Academic freedom’s precarious future. Why it matters and what’s at stake Kristen Lyons vol. 63, no. 1, 2021A U S T R A L I A N U N I V E R S I T I E S ’ R E V I E W
reimagining universities, both in Australia, and worldwide. denying salary supplements via its national JobKeeper scheme
Corporatisation, neoliberalisation and managerialism, as for the sector’s 130,000 staff (Garnaut, 2021). Its hostility was
examples (themes well documented by critical university further unmasked via skyrocketing fees to study humanities
studies scholars, and previous articles in AUR), are each (as named above), while at the same time reducing the
variously situated as bearing down upon the freedoms costs for science, technology, engineering and mathematics
of individual academics, research agendas, institutional (STEM) degrees. These reforms have added to the Federal
governance structures, and more. Coalition Government’s sustained use of its arsenal against the
Various contributors also tease out the interconnections humanities (Brett, 2021) and its politicisation of universities,
between defence of academic freedom and the capacity of with outcomes that fuel a climate of anti-intellectualism.
universities to play a part in building solidarities, relations and But it is women of all ages who continue to be
responsibilities to diverse peoples and ecologies. This includes disproportionality affected by the global health pandemic,
the responsibilities of universities in the context of the global and the Federal Government’s responses to it, including
climate crisis, structural racism – as rendered bare via the global across the university sector (Wenham et al., 2020).
Black Lives Matter movement – and the culture of misogyny Demonstrating this, women are amongst those most affected
and sexual violence that pervades contemporary societies, by the haemorrhaging of appointments across universities;
including in the highest offices of the Australian Parliament. conditions tied to our high representation as casual employees,
In the midst of these where the largest staff cuts have
multiple and intersecting to date occurred (Wenham
crises (Lyons et al., 2021),
... it is women of all ages who continue et al., 2020). Additionally,
contributors to this special to be disproportionality affected by the the COVID-19 global health
issue provoke thinking about global health pandemic, and the Federal pandemic has exposed the ways
what the purpose of universities Government’s responses to it, including in which women’s academic
could be, and whose rights (if across the university sector work is systematically
any) and interests they might rendered invisible; evidenced,
support? Similarly, they invite for example, via the
consideration of the ways academic freedom is intertwined disproportionate citing of men as experts on COVID-19
with opportunities for fostering forms of teaching, research, quoted in the media in 2020-21 (Moodley & Gouws, 2020).
advocacy and service that respond – with purpose, care, and Gendered structural forces have also driven the decrease in
even love – in the face of current inequalities and injustices. women’s publications, a set of dynamics that – despite our best
The hope, in some small way, is that this special issue will efforts otherwise – have persisted in this special issue.
further move academics, policy makers and others, towards This special issue aims to draw attention to some of the
engagement with these ideas. particular vulnerabilities facing women, alongside early career
and First Nations researchers, and the intersectionality of
Academic freedom and the COVID-19 these impacts for academic freedom. However, as editor of
global health pandemic this volume I must provide a caveat for the analysis presented.
Despite a commitment to create space for the inclusion of
The impetus for this special issue was sparked just months diverse voices to ground this special issue, the COVID-
before the onset of the COVID-19 global health pandemic 19 global health pandemic had other plans. A number of
turned all our worlds, including our universities, upside down. potential authors had intended to submit to this special issue,
Australian universities, alongside universities worldwide, have but multiple pressing commitments – exacerbated in the
been pounded by the shock waves of this pandemic. But the context of COVID-19 – meant they were unable to do so.
aftershocks are expected to reverberate long after the onset of Future collaborations on this topic will no doubt be enriched
this crisis, with implications that will likely bear down upon via the inclusion of additional perspectives – including
academic freedoms for many years to come. showcasing the lived experiences of more women, Indigenous
In Australia, the Federal Coalition Government’s response scholars and early career researchers – who can be expected to
to the dire challenges facing the higher education sector have different experiences of academic freedom compared to
because of the COVID-19 crisis is one of a number of those in this special issue, myself included.
triggers for these aftershocks. In the face of haemorrhaging
revenues tied to the loss of international students (estimated Contributions to this Special Issue
at up to $7.6 billion nationally between 2020-2024 (Larkins
& Marshman, 2020), the Federal Government repeatedly In the face of sustained structural inequalities across the
refused to back the higher education sector, including by university sector – including as exposed in the context of the
vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 Academic freedom’s precarious future. Why it matters and what’s at stake Kristen Lyons 5A U S T R A L I A N U N I V E R S I T I E S ’ R E V I E W COVID-19 global health pandemic – academic freedom tangible ways this bears down upon the bodies of academic remains an urgent priority. The contributors to this special staff and teachers, has come at great cost for some. As part issue take up an array of themes related to this. of this inquiry, educators described various consequences Starting in Australia, the growing appetite for answers to of speaking ‘truth to power’; including being removed from questions related to academic freedom was signalled via the internal communications and email lists, and losing work commission, in 2018, of Hon Robert French AC to report (Zhou, 2021a). Speaking up, and speaking out, is arguably on the state of academic freedom in Australian universities. even more risky in the current university sector, in which over The outcome of this led to French’s (2019) Review of 17,000 staff have already lost their jobs, with more job losses Freedom of Speech in Australian Higher Education Providers, expected (Zhou, 2021b). which recommended the adoption of a Model Code to In addition to these macro-level structural constraints ‘ensure a culture of free speech and academic freedom is upon academic freedom, Richard Hil describes the various strongly embedded in institutions across the Australian pernicious small ways in which university staff experience higher education sector’ (Department of Education, Skills the erosion and/or denial of freedoms, with outcomes that and Employment, 2020). Rob Watts (this volume) takes leave staff with barely space to breath. He sets out the ways up a series of issues related to this review, including how constraints to academic freedom are built into governance French understood ‘academic freedom’, and whether, in fact, structures of the so-called ‘modern university’, with graduate universities face a ‘crisis in academic free speech’, as a ‘small attributes and e-portfolios each turning critical thinking into but noisy claque of neoliberal commentators would have us commodified products, while performance reviews demand believe’. academics ‘sell’ themselves and their products. In this hyper- Andrew Bonnell then examines the impact of corporate individualised work environment, stopping ‘productive work’ power on academic freedom, through a critical appraisal to share a cup of tea with a colleague – who, heaven forbid, of corporate influence across universities. He singles out might be a friend or ally – has become a radical act. That big tobacco, big sugar and big pharma as each wielding academics acquiesce to constraints upon their freedom is, power and influence across universities via funding, gag as Rob Watts also explores, part of the slow violence of the clauses and ghost writing, amongst other means. He also managerial university. carefully traces some of the ways big philanthropy has been So how might we gesture towards the conditions of weaponised to advance the cause of particular commercial possibility for a freedom of inquiry that these contributors interests, including Rupert Murdoch, the Koch Brothers and variously call for? the John M. Olin Foundation in the United States, and the Gerd Schröder-Turk potently makes the case for good Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation in Australia. In the governance as the basis for academic freedom. In its simplest face of such incursions across universities, Andrew Bonnell form, this should include governing bodies and structures that reminds us that ‘sunlight is a good disinfectant’, pointing to ensure a diversity of views, including – not surprisingly – the the urgent need for transparent and accountable governance perspectives from the academic body itself. Yet in his careful and oversight. analysis of university governance and legislation in Western Yet bringing the dark corners of the university into the Australia, he describes how a self-selecting mechanism sets light requires ‘freedom of inquiry, and a safe and peaceful the conditions for a concentration of power and, somewhat environment’ ( Jeannie Rae, this volume). As she sets out, ironically, the maintenance of governance echo-chambers university staff and students who are engaged in teaching, that exclude those with firsthand experience of working in researching and speaking out against state, military, religious universities. and other powers, face increasing threat of attack. Reporting Fred D’Agostino and Peter Greste then invite us to move on the internationally significant work of Scholars at Risk beyond the boundaries of the academy to explore the slippery (SAR) in defending the rights and interests of staff and beasts of academic and media freedoms. By anchoring their students worldwide, Jeannie Rae makes interconnections analysis of academic freedom in relation to consideration of between the erosion of academic freedoms and the demise of journalistic freedom, they provoke thinking about academic democracies. freedom that moves beyond the current line-of-sight, to Such risks are brought to life in diverse ways across understand the diversity of threats that bear down upon the international settings. It is also exposed in the Australian search for ‘truth’ better. They conclude that the battles that context. A recent Senate inquiry into underpayment and journalists have fought in defence of press freedom are only casualisation in Australian workplaces, for example, was told marginally removed from those the academy continues to that underpayment was ‘embedded in the business model of struggle with. In bringing these diverse perspectives together, Australian universities’ (Zhou, 2021a). The consequences of they offer new pathways and opportunities for considering calling out this structural inequality, however, including the academic freedom. 6 Academic freedom’s precarious future. Why it matters and what’s at stake Kristen Lyons vol. 63, no. 1, 2021
A U S T R A L I A N U N I V E R S I T I E S ’ R E V I E W
In an afterword to this special issue, Sharon Stein then References
shifts our focus by asking what the necessary conditions might
Brett, J. (2021). The bin fire of the humanities. The Monthly. March.
be for academic freedom to flourish? Alongside reflecting
Department of Education, Skills and Employment. (2020).
upon the contributions of each of the authors to this special
Independent Review of Adoption of the Model Code on Freedom
issue, she explores some of the intellectual, affective and of Speech and Academic Freedom’. Retrieved from https://www.
relational conditions that might foster academic freedom. education.gov.au/independent-review-freedom-speech-australian-
In so doing, she centres approaches that: embrace ecologies higher-education-providers
of knowledges and intellectual humility; lean into difficult French, R. (2019). Review of Freedom of Speech in Australian
conversations without compromising collegial relationships Higher Education Providers. Canberra: Department of Education
and Training. Retrieved from https://www.dese.gov.au/
and acknowledge the interdependencies (between humans
uncategorised/resources/report-independent-review-freedom-
and the non-human world) as the basis for building speech-australian-higher-education-providers-march-2019
meaningful relationships. These approaches, she posits, may Funnell, N. & Graham, C. (2020) Psychologist, clinical psychologist,
provide a vision for academic freedom within the context of doctor or none of the above? Will the real Bettina Arndt AM
our ‘complex, uncertain and unequal world’. please Stand up! New Matilda. ( Jan 28). Retrieved from https://
Overall, the hope is that this special issue of Australian newmatilda.com/2020/01/28/psychologist-clinical-psychologist-
doctor-or-none-of-the-above-will-the-real-bettina-arndt-am-please-
Universities’ Review – Academic Freedom’s Precarious Future. stand-up/
Why it Matters and What’s at Stake will feed national – and
Garnaut, R. (2021). Reset: Restoring Australia After the Pandemic
international – curiosity and debate related to academic Recession. Melbourne: La Trobe University Press.
freedom, as well as critical thinking in regard to the
Larkins, F. & Marshman, I. (2020). $7.6 billion and 11% of researchers:
responsibilities of universities for the common good. our estimate of how much Australian university research stands to lose
by 2024. The Conversation. (Sept 22).
Acknowledgement Lyons, K., Esposito, A. & Johnson, M. (2021 submitted December
2020) ‘The Pangolin and the Coal Mine: Challenging the Forces of
I acknowledge the Traditional Custodians and Elders past, Extractivism, Human Rights Abuse and Planetary Calamity’, Antipode
Intervention. Retrieved from https://antipodeonline.org/2021/02/01/
present and emerging, of the lands upon which we live and
the-pangolin-and-the-coal-mine/
work, and recognise these lands and the sovereignty of the
Moodley, K. & Gouws, A. (2020). How women in academia are feeling
First Nations have never been ceded.
the brunt of COVID-19. The Conversation. (August 7). Retrieved
I wish to thank each of the anonymous peer reviewers who from https://theconversation.com/how-women-in-academia-are-
gave generously to the process in ensuring the timely publication feeling-the-brunt-of-covid-19-144087
of this special issue, as well as all contributors, including those Napier-Raman, K. (2021) Tudge introduces uni free speech laws, a
who considered submitting papers, but for various reasons were throwback to forgotten culture wars. Crikey. (March 17).
unable to do so. AUR will welcome your papers at a future time Wenham, C., Smith, J. & Morgan, R. (2020). COVID-19: The
so that we might continue this dialogue, including in ways that gendered impacts of the outbreak. The Lancet. 395(10227), 846-848.
expand the diversity of issues and themes discussed. Sincere Zhou, N. (2021a). Australian University Staff Say They were Blacklisted
thanks to Ian Dobson, for careful editing and review of all after speaking out on underpayment. The Guardian (10 March).
Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/
papers in this special issue: we would be three full stops short of
mar/10/australian-university-staff-say-they-were-blacklisted-after-
a picnic if not for you, so many thanks. Thank you to the entire speaking-out-on-underpayment?fbclid=IwAR2_xk_RnHnxiW_
editorial board of Australian Universities’ Review for supporting ci-ixk_ziciRHsUXJANHqV8BlSd7IH2yeoXmenskrekg
this special issue and crafting the contours of its brief; like all Zhou, N. (2021b). More than 17,000 jobs lost at Australian universities
good ideas, this special issue is a reflection of a collective of during Covid Pandemic. The Guardian, (3 February). Retrieved from
energies and efforts. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/feb/03/more-
than-17000-jobs-lost-at-australian-universities-during-covid-pandemic
Kristen Lyons is a Professor of Environment and
Development Sociology in the School of Social Science
at the University of Queensland. She has over 20 years’
experience in research, teaching and service that delivers
national and international impacts on issues that sit at the
intersection of sustainability and development, as well as
the future of higher education. Kristen works regularly in
Uganda, Solomon Islands and Australia, and is also a Senior
Research Fellow with the Oakland Institute.
Contact: kristen.lyons@uq.edu.au
vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 Academic freedom’s precarious future. Why it matters and what’s at stake Kristen Lyons 7A U S T R A L I A N U N I V E R S I T I E S ’ R E V I E W What crisis of academic freedom? Australian universities after French Rob Watts RMIT University They [the young] are asking for the truth. If we respond correctly, can’t we perhaps interest them in freedom? (Arendt & Jaspers, 1993, p. 451). In 1988 hundreds of universities world-wide signed onto the If we accept, as readers of crime fiction understand, that Magna Charta Universitatum (1988). The Charter declared there is no such thing as a coincidence, we have a puzzle. in stirring tones that ‘to meet the needs of the world around How are we to make sense of the coincidence of a global it, [a university’s] research and teaching must be morally discourse of academic freedom and the rise of what some call and intellectually independent of all political authority and the ‘neoliberal university’ triggering persistent and serious economic power’. In the same year this declaration of academic concerns about the relationship between neoliberalism and freedom was issued, the Hawke-Keating Labor Government ‘academic freedom’? Given that relationship, how should we published a White Paper called ‘Higher Education: A Policy respond to the proposition that we face a crisis of ‘free speech’ Statement’. This paper launched the ‘Dawkins reforms’, a in our universities? program of neoliberal policy changes that among many The idea that our universities are now caught in a crisis of effects would render Australia’s public universities, including freedom of speech, has been tirelessly repeated by spokespeople the nine Australian universities that had signed the Charter, from the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA), the Centre for more accountable to the Australian government than ever Independent Studies, journalists associated with Murdoch’s before (Bessant, 1995; Thornton, 2014; Connell, 2019). News Ltd., such as Andrew Bolt and Janet Albrechtsen, and The line of neoliberal policies unfolding since the late 1980s by the weirdly ‘conservative’ journal Quadrant (Bolt, 2016; has been accompanied by persistent expressions of concern Albrechtsen, 2020). Oddly enough most of those propagating about the negative impact of these policies on academic this idea have been non-academics. That said, a small number freedom, affecting everything – the identity of universities of ‘conservative’ academics such as Kevin Donnelly, Mervyn (Considine, 2006; Gare, 2006), academic identity (Parker Bendle, and Sinclair Davidson unsuccessfully tried in 2008 & Jary, 1995), academic teaching (Thornton, 2014; Hil, to persuade the Senate inquiry into allegations of academic 2015), and academic research (Sardesai et al., 2017). Finally, bias that there was a hegemonic project in universities to and three decades on, a small but noisy claque of neoliberal promote a Marxist, postmodernist, and feminist worldview and conservative commentators has been busily fabricating a (Senate Standing Committee on Education, Employment and furore around the notion that Australian universities are now Workplace Relations, 2008). By 2018, this idea had morphed caught up in a ‘crisis of academic free speech’. into the defence of free speech. The IPA had released no fewer 8 What crisis of academic freedom? Australian universities after French Rob Watts vol. 63, no. 1, 2021
A U S T R A L I A N U N I V E R S I T I E S ’ R E V I E W
than three audits of ‘free speech’, relying on a mixture of anecdote High Court, that there is no absolute ‘right to free speech’ either
and a spurious quantitative audit of ‘free speech’ in Australian in Australia or in its universities. That said, he also reminded
universities (Lesh, 2016; 2017; 2018). Displaying a talent for everybody that Australia’s Higher Education Support Act (at
graphic misrepresentation that should have earned him a job in S.19‑115) (Commonwealth, 2003) requires all universities
the Trump White House, Lesh claimed that he had given thirty- to have a policy upholding ‘free intellectual inquiry’ making
five of Australia’s 42 universities (83 per cent) a ‘Red rating’ for ‘free intellectual inquiry in relation to learning, teaching and
their policies or actions that were hostile to ‘freedom of speech’. research’ a condition of being registered as a university (French
This claim relied on Haidt’s (2017) unwarranted assertion that 2018; French 2019). Instead, French recommended that
universities cannot be simultaneously ‘social justice institutions’ ‘academic freedom’ be protected by the voluntary adoption of
and be committed to practising free intellectual inquiry. Lesh a Model Code to be embedded in higher education providers’
and Haidt relied on the all or nothing fallacy that there are only institutional regulations or policies – a draft version of which
two choices which, in this instance, relies on the non-credible he duly provided. Since then, many universities have adopted
assumption that when university X, for example, declares it this framework.
supports actions to mitigate Unlike some of the
global warming, no member of Unlike some of the protagonists, French protagonists, French refused
the university may thereafter to conflate ‘academic freedom’
either criticise this policy or
refused to conflate ‘academic freedom’ and and ‘freedom of speech’. French
the scientific basis of the policy. ‘freedom of speech’. French well understood well understood the conceptual
A preliminary observation is the conceptual issues at stake in these issues at stake in these
warranted here: like so many categories. categories. French carefully
of his fellow defenders of free distinguished between
speech, Lesh conflates ‘free ‘freedom of speech’, ‘academic
speech’ with ‘academic freedom’. freedom’ and ‘free intellectual inquiry’. He acknowledged
On one reading, this confection was just another minor initially that he had been asked to carry out an independent
skirmish in the so-called ‘culture wars’. Yet the fabricated review of ‘freedom of speech’ in Australian higher education
furore elicited a sympathetic hearing from the Morrison providers. In the second paragraph of his report, French
Government. In November 2018, the Australian Government acknowledged that ‘contention about freedom of speech and
commissioned Robert French, a former Chief Justice of academic freedom – what they mean and what are their limits –
the High Court, an active scholar and Chancellor of the has varied in content and intensity from time to time’ (French,
University of Western Australia, to report on the state of 2019, p.13). French also observed that the Higher Education
academic freedom in Australian universities. In particular, Framework (Threshold Standards) 2015 (HE, 2015) also
French was also asked to assess the effectiveness of university referred to something called ‘free intellectual inquiry’.
policies and practices to address ‘the requirements of the French offered a thoroughly scholarly discussion in which
Higher Education Standards Framework to promote and he distanced himself from the advocacy by right-wing think-
protect freedom of expression and intellectual inquiry on tanks, commentators, and MPs like Senator James Patterson,
Australian campuses’. all busily trying to weaponise a certain conception of free
In this essay I address several questions. How did French speech (French 2019, p. 30-2). This may explain why his
(2019) understand ‘academic freedom’? Does the impact of Model Code did not engage with ‘freedom of speech’. This
neoliberal policies on Australia’s universities raise questions does not mean French ignored freedom of speech. French
about academic freedom? How then should we understand observed that every member of the staff and every student at
academic freedom? the university has the same freedom of speech in connection
with activities conducted on university land or otherwise,
French on ‘academic freedom’ in connection with the university, as any other person in
Australia subject only to the constraints imposed by:
The French report was released in April 2019. Unsurprisingly, • The reasonable and proportionate regulation of conduct
French found there was no ‘freedom of speech crisis’ on necessary to the discharge of the university’s teaching and
Australian campuses (French, 2019). Equally predictably, research activities.
like most of his former High Court colleagues who • The right and freedom of all to express themselves and to
uphold Australia’s legal positivist tradition, French did not hear and receive information and opinions.
recommend introducing legislation guaranteeing a right to • The reasonable and proportionate regulation of conduct to
‘academic freedom’ or ‘freedom of speech’. This reflected his enable the university to fulfil its duty to foster the wellbeing
understanding-cum-doxa acquired during his years on the of students and staff (French 2019, p. 297-98)
vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 What crisis of academic freedom? Australian universities after French Rob Watts 9A U S T R A L I A N U N I V E R S I T I E S ’ R E V I E W
French observed that ‘free intellectual inquiry’ was a term ‘globalisation of universities’ (Orr, 2006; Marginson & van de
of uncertain meaning but seemed to cover ‘some elements of Wende, 2006; Dagen & Fink-Hafner, 2019). Others highlight
“academic freedom”’. While allowing that ‘academic freedom’ the ‘internationalisation’ of universities (Knight, 2006; Brooks
‘had a complex history and apparently no settled definition’, & Waters, 2014). The most recent trend has been to represent
French treated ‘freedom of speech’ as an aspect of ‘academic universities as somehow being subjected to neoliberal policy-
freedom’ (French, 2019). making, while some even talk about universities becoming
Apart from allowing that ‘freedom of speech’ is a necessary, neoliberal institutions. There is now a sizeable literature on
i.e., essential, element of ‘academic freedom’ (French, 2019), the ‘neoliberal effect’ in Australian higher education – some
French simply declined to enlarge on his understanding of of it benign (Marginson & Considine 2000), much of it more
‘freedom of speech’ in his Model Draft. Most of his attention critical (Bessant 2002; Thornton 2014; Weller & O’Neill
was given to ‘academic freedom’. Without clarifying the 2014; Hil 2012, 2015; Watts, 2016; Sims, 2019; and Connell,
specific practices and evaluative criteria conceived e.g., in 2019).
terms of the possibly different goods the practice of ‘academic It can be agreed safely that Australia’s universities were
freedom’ (and ‘free speech’) might give rise to, his Model Code subjected to a full-scale neoliberal policy assault after 1988-
simply offers an omnibus conception of academic freedom. 89. Until then, Australian governments had fully funded
French (2019) understands ‘academic freedom’ as the universities while leaving them largely to manage their own
freedom of academic staff to teach, discuss, and research and affairs (Forsyth, 2014). The ‘Dawkins revolution’ initiated a
to disseminate and publish the results of their research without policy process that inflicted purposeful and often deep cuts
restriction by established scholarly consensus or institutional in government-funding to universities in parallel with the
policy, in ways constrained only by scholarly standards: expectation that universities would increase their student
• The freedom of academic staff and students to engage in intakes and fund that increase by reintroducing tuition
intellectual inquiry, to express their opinions and beliefs, fees backed up by a student loan scheme. There were also
and to contribute to public debate, in relation to their government-led exhortations that universities needed to
subjects of study and research. produce more employment-ready graduates. This neoliberal
• The freedom of academic staff and students to express their project was essentially a ‘performative discourse’. By reducing
opinions in relation to the university in which they work or public funding, the expectation was that this would trigger a
are enrolled free from institutional censorship or sanction. wave of ‘market reforms’ in higher education (Bessant 2002).
• The freedom of academic staff and students to make public However, there are many basic conceptual and empirical
comment on any issue in their personal capacities, not problems when trying to work out what has happened. (For
speaking either on behalf of the university or as an officer the long version of this discussion, see Watts, 2016). The short
of the university. version goes like this. Many observers including academics and
• The freedom of academic staff to participate in professional policy-makers are now convinced that neoliberal polices have
or representative academic bodies. created a ‘higher education market’ that has ‘commodified’
• The freedom of students to participate in student societies higher education (Dill et al., 2004; Chau, 2010). Even
and associations. critics like Ronald Barnett (2000) argue that ‘marketisation’
• The autonomy of the university which resides in its promoted a trend towards the commodification of teaching
governors, executive and academic staff in relation to the and research (Noble, 1998; Foskett, 2011; Ball, 2012).
choice of academic courses and offerings, the ways in which Others even talk up the idea of the ‘McDonaldised university’
they are taught and the choices of research activities and the (Nadolny & Ryan, 2015). Others sensibly hedged their bets
ways in which they are conducted (French, 2019 p.226). and preferred to talk about ‘quasi-higher education markets’
How then might we think about academic freedom in a (Le Grand & Bartlett, 1993; Marginson, 2007)
time when many argue our universities have been subjected to Yet, as writers like Roger Brown (2011; 2015) and Nick
a neoliberal makeover? Foskett (2011) insist, even though policy-makers, university
managers, and many academics talk about a ‘higher education
The neoliberal university? market’, or the ‘commodification of knowledge’ this does not
mean there is a real higher education market. For example,
There is now consensus that ‘something happened’ to Kirp (2003, p. 2) says that ‘the notion that higher education
universities in countries like Australia to say nothing of is a “market” needs to be unpacked, because the system
universities in Europe, Africa and South America over the past doesn’t look like the market portrayed in any Economics
few decades (Altbach et al., 2009; Evans & Nixon, 2015; Curaj 101 textbook’. So too does the claim that, in ‘neoliberal
et al., 2018). There is less agreement about how this should be universities’, knowledge and/or education have been
described, explained or evaluated. Some have pointed to the commodified. This involves an elementary category mistake.
10 What crisis of academic freedom? Australian universities after French Rob Watts vol. 63, no. 1, 2021A U S T R A L I A N U N I V E R S I T I E S ’ R E V I E W
As Stiglitz (1999) has argued, even under the conditions of adoption of the ethos, behaviours and language of business
a fully functioning capitalist economy, knowledge remains as and competitive markets has also produced plenty of glossy,
close to being a pure public good as possible, and definitely albeit meaningless, corporate strategies and big advertising
not a commodity. budgets contributing to what Alvesson calls a ‘culture of
Then there is the argument that many universities have grandiosity’ (Alvesson, 2014; Courtois & O’Keefe, 2015). As
been corporatised. This has introduced novel elements such a result, our universities now are caught between
as a ‘culture of audit’, a preoccupation with marketing, and …two narratives; one that prizes academic freedom, independ-
attracting ever increasing numbers of fee-paying students, ence of thought and expression, heterodoxy and exploration
especially international students (Apple 2007; Giroux, 2002, to create new knowledge frontiers, [and] on the other hand,
2009. In Australia, Margaret Thornton makes the case that an increasingly intrusive series of regulatory regimes that seek
the forms and functions of the modern university have to manage, steer and control the sector in ways that serve the
altered as ‘the model of the for-profit corporation began to interests of the state and the economy by applying specific
take over from the not-for-profit corporation as the primary ideational motifs about efficiency, value, performance, and
meaning of the incorporated university’ (Thornton 2012, p. thus the economic worth of the university to the economy
( Jervis, 2014, p. 156)
7). See also Thornton (2014); Weller and O’Neill (2014);
Hil (2012, 2015); Sims (2019); and Connell (2019). One Without denying the impact of neoliberal policies, or the
obvious concern was raised early by Kayrooz et al. (2001) effect of the corporatisation ethos, and if we follow the line
and dramatised by the sacking of Ted Steele by the University of inquiry initiated by William Clark (2006), our universities
of Wollongong when he made public comments about ‘soft today are best represented as palimpsests of three ideal-typical
marking’, involving the awarding of undeservedly high grades institutional forms: scholarly institutions, bureaucracies, and
to students (Martin, 2002). corporations. Each of these forms has its own distinctive
Though there is not the space to make the case here, practices and logics and each will be found within the one
a judicious view is that Australia’s universities have been organisational frame, to a greater or lesser extent depending
subjected to a neoliberal policy make-over, driven by real on the university being examined.
budget cuts imposed by governments especially since 1999, This makes it important to acknowledge that academics
along with a real shift to mass enrolments that has remade can orient to one or other of these logics of practice. Angelika
these universities. However, this has not resulted in anything Papadopoulous argues that any conflicts or ‘tensions in
deserving of being called a neoliberal university operating in a strategy and practice can be understood as conflicts between
higher education market. Rather we need to acknowledge the bureaucratic, corporate and scholarly logics’ (Papadopoulous
many often contradictory effects. 2017, p. 515). Equally, as Henry Giroux (2012) notes, academic
One result has been the massification of many traditionally workers can elect to become bureaucratic clerks administering
small universities, funded by student debt: aggregate domestic or managing various systems. Some may become corporate
student debt was heading towards $69 billion by 2020. As boosters tirelessly engaging in self-promotion, pursuing career
the advent of COVID-19 has shown, the increasing reliance advancement in universities where research is now measured
on international fee-paying students after 1997 has left many in terms of research dollars earned.
universities hostage to fortune, while unleashing significant Of particular interest here is this question: what are the
levels of corruption in source countries like India and concerns options for those who elect to take the scholarly path and
about the quality of the education being offered in Australia. what does the idea of academic freedom look like in our time
The pursuit of budget surpluses and the diversion of teaching- for those who do this? It is to this question that I now turn.
based revenue to research outputs so as to boost the research
output thereby enabling Vice-Chancellors to indulge in Academic freedom: a revisionist account
bragging about their university’s position in some global
league ladder of ‘Great Universities’, has eroded ‘academic Sharon Andrews (2007) notes usefully that a conception of
tenure’ and encouraged the increasing use of cheap, casualised ‘academic freedom’ continues to be an important part of the
academic teaching labour. For all the talk of freeing universities modern Australian academic’s self-portrait. It seems that many
to compete in a market, universities have been subjected via a academics still aspire to be understood as people committed
‘culture of audit’ to a significant level of government scrutiny: to ‘nurturing critical thought’ and ‘advancing knowledge’ and
in 2019 two universities (Charles Sturt and the University of believe that a conception of ‘academic freedom’ is still central
Tasmania) were given only provisional registration status by to any defensible idea of the university. This conception
the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency after of ‘academic freedom’ still refers to aspects of the ‘public
failing to satisfy the national regulator on a number of issues. university’ such as the claim that it serves a role as ‘critic and
The corporatisation of public universities, involving the conscience of society’ or as a site of ‘public scholarship’. What
vol. 63, no. 1, 2021 What crisis of academic freedom? Australian universities after French Rob Watts 11You can also read
