Culture Schmultzer, Who Needs It? (May 24, 2007)

    The University of New South Wales is licking its wounds regarding the collapse of its Singapore campus at the cost of tens of millions of dollars, with Vice-chancellor Fred Hilmer reasoning for The Australian, "The idea was to have [eventually] a new campus with 10,000-plus students and... it just wasn't going to happen. If you look at foreign campuses generally they struggle to get to 3000".

Trevor Row, Chancellor, Bond University

Meanwhile the university's arts and social sciences faculty in Sydney is sacking its casual teaching staff for the second semester, citing budget cuts caused by insufficient federal funding. Funding to rehire some of them may become available in 2009.

Senior associate dean of arts and social sciences, Dr Sarah Maddison, told The Sydney Morning Herald, "We are in a very tight budgetary environment and we're dealing with those budgetary constraints by not having a casual teaching staff for next semester. The Federal Government has abandoned the humanities in higher education funding and we are bearing the brunt. It has consistently underinvested in this area over the past decade and we are now at a structural disadvantage when compared with other disciplines."

Dr Maddison went on to say, "We are asking our current permanent teaching staff to take up some of the burden … [but] some subjects will not be offered next semester."

In short, a double whammy, less time for the faculty to do research and fewer course offerings for the students.

But then we have Trevor Rowe, who is, The Australian tells us, "chairman of investment bank Rothschild Australia Limited, a director of the Australian Stock Exchange, a member of the Future Fund board of guardians, chairman of the state Government's Queensland Investment Corporation ($58 billion funds under management) and chairman of the United Group Ltd, a publicly listed engineering and business services company with 12,000 employees" and since March 2003 has been the chancellor of Bond University.

The Australian's Catherine Armitage reports the Mr Rowe spends a day and a half per week on Bond University matters. He told her, "There has previously been a cultural divide between businesses and university. That is changing because universities need to engage more with business both from a financial point of view, and to understand business needs.  I would like to think people like myself and David Gonski [chancellor of the University of NSW who holds, in addition to other commitments to the big end of town, the chairmanship of Coca-Cola Amatil.] are bringing about a change in the focus of universities because of our business backgrounds."

Mr Rowe says, "One of the problems that constrain public universities is, they are funded by one government (federal) and governed by another government (state). In a business context, that is a nonsense. Whoever funds it, there should be accountability.".

Interesting point since these days its the students and their parents and guardians who cough up 60% of the funding, while the taxpayers collectively  contribute the other 40%.

And to make an exemplary point of a good thing, Bond's governing council is limited to 10 members and of the present council of nine, "apart from the vice-chancellor, only one, Dennis Gibson, is a career academic."

Mr Rowe concludes, "Too many people coming out of university don't really have any practical understanding of the job they are about to undertake. What we are trying to do is maintain that linkage and understand what business needs are".

As to matters of broadening the intellect of the students?

Culture, Schmultzer Who Needs It?