UC centre to focus on public debate, not enrolments

“Bill Shorten has leveraged his political experience to open a new centre for ideas at the University of Canberra to foster healthy debate, exemplify public sector leadership and educate the next generation of public sector leaders. The University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor’s Centre of Public Ideas (CoPI) will promote public understanding of Australian politics through a historical lens, providing context and depth to major public issues and policy. It will combine the functions of an academic centre and a think tank. CoPI will produce reports and papers, host conferences and public forums, but also enrol PhD students, employ researchers and develop education programs. The centre sits within the vice-chancellor’s portfolio, so it can engage with all academic faculties at the university. Vice-chancellor Bill Shorten has been outspoken about the importance of universities remaining intellectual institutions where students and staff can debate the world’s problems without fear of reprisal. As dissatisfaction with democracy and intolerance of different political views grow in Australia, it has never been more important to discuss issues like Middle Eastern conflicts, the economy and good policy, he has said. A former Labor party leader and union boss, Mr Shorten has called on his former political colleagues to engage in long-term thinking and bipartisan solutions to Australia’s most pressing issues. The inaugural director of CoPI, respected historian and Australian politics expert Frank Bongiorno, is in agreement with Mr Shorten about the need for robust debate. Professor Bongiorno was awarded the Donald Horne Professorship to honour late Professor Donald Horne, a former UC chancellor and leading Australian journalist who coined the ironic term ‘the lucky country.’ Donald Horne on the steps of the Victorian Parliament. Picture: Fairfax/Michael Clayton-Jones. “The broader context here is an assertion of the role that universities need to play as civil society organisations,” Mr Bongiorno said. “This is a major challenge for universities at present. They often operate like businesses, competing against one another for students, particularly international students, for research funds and all the rest of it. More on this story: Meet UniSQ’s new VC Paul Mazerolle | 1% business levy could fund universities: Shorten | Students ‘yearn’ to be taught how to disagree “[At CoPI] we’re not expected to go out and recruit hundreds of international students. We are expected, though, to contribute to public debate and … grapple with contemporary social questions and problems.“ CoPI’s first undergraduate course will focus on public leadership, and will invite eminent public-sector leaders to speak to, and be interviewed by, students: Mr Shorten’s name is already on the list. In light of the results of the South Australia state election, where the populist party One Nation achieved never-seen-before success, Professor Bongiorno said now is a better time than ever to promote research and long-term thinking. “Anyone working in fields like humanities and social sciences, and perhaps many of the hard sciences, too, is aware of the role anti-science is playing in populism,“ he said. “We ’ re very conscious of working in an environment where democracy is under pressure and respect for expertise is being eroded. “We will certainly be involved in projects that are about civics education.“ Professor Bongiorno said teaching in a university is a great way to refine knowledge and understanding of the political system in Australia. “We are going to be strategic. I've been [teaching in universities] for well over 30 years. The best starting point for anyone like me is your own students,“ he said. “Even in the books I write, those ideas are developed in a classroom, and I ’ d like to continue that model as far as possible. “There ’ s a danger in imagining you can do a lot of public outreach without also being grounded in your own institution, with your own students.“

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