Philosophers in Australia are on the warpath against the government’s plan to hike fees for the course and other courses in the humanities. Member of Parliament and Australia’s Federal Minister for Education, Dan Thomas Tehan, has been arguing that doing so is warranted by the need to expand education of Australians in jobs the government considers would be in demand in the future. Among those are information technology, engineering, nursing and sciences, a decision that is occasioning the reduction of charges for university education in these areas but the hiking of the costs in other areas such as Philosophy and subjects in the Humanities Complex, (arts and social sciences). The degree of the hike is being put at as over 100%.
In response to this, over 130 Philosophy educators (see list below) released a massive protest note some 12 hours ago (large chunk of Australia are 10 hours ahead of Nigeria), philosophically crafting their discontent with the policy direction. The letter and the signatories is published below for whatever it offers governments, others elsewhere:
In defending massive fee increases for HASS students, the government claims that these students “will still pay less for those degrees in Australia than they would for a similar degree in similar countries, like the USA and the UK.” This is disingenuous. What’s relevant are the changes to the incentive structure for students attending Australian universities. One stated ambition of the proposal is to divert students interested in philosophy, and other HASS disciplines, to other courses of study. Even more misguided is the claim that the plan’s authors are “encouraging students to embrace diversity.” While science degrees are highly valuable, they do not markedly improve students’ cultural competence. The humanities celebrate diversity in an inimitable way. It is perilous to neglect their outstanding contributions to our liberal democracy, which is one of the most successful multicultural experiments in the world.
The government’s stated emphasis is on preparing students for jobs in growing sectors, but its suggested interventions are unpromising. A growing education sector does not rationalise lowering the cost of English and other language courses while dramatically increasing the cost of other humanities courses. History majors, for example, are at least as prepared for a career in teaching as are English majors. More generally, the government’s most recent analysis of trends in the labour market lists ten sets of qualities most likely to be in demand in the near future. The document is at pains to note that these qualities are “highly transferable, meaning that they will be valued by many different employers across a range of industries and roles.” For eight or nine of these ten highly valued qualities (such as “active learning,” “complex problem solving,” “reasoning”) there is a strong case to be made that philosophy provides equal or better training than any other major. On the government’s own terms, then, philosophical study should be encouraged rather than discouraged.
If the aim is to promote growth, to fortify job markets and communities, then universities, which are an engine of growth, should be supported. To support an institution involves respecting the organisational expertise built up in the institution over time. Dividing universities into “job ready” and “not job ready” faculties, degrees, and courses will undermine the holistic culture of knowledge production so critical for research excellence in all fields of inquiry. It will hamstring important disciplines — whether or not they are the ones intended by the proposal’s advocates. It will deepen unnecessary and counterproductive culture wars by branding humanities students as leeches on the nation.
Employability is one significant aim of tertiary education. Yet it should not be allowed to trump other aims, even in strained economic times. An educated citizenry is the backbone of democratic culture. Just as training is needed before one can successfully build a bridge, or perform a surgery, or teach a class on Australian history, so too is training needed before one can successfully express complex ideas in clear language, rigorously evaluate policy arguments, or build coalitions between interest groups with distinct but overlapping interests. The standards of public discourse would be improved by wider access to philosophical training in both schools and Universities, and would be immeasurably impoverished in a future world where significantly fewer citizens engaged with philosophy in a meaningful way.
Some people take heart from research suggesting that student selection of courses of study is relatively insensitive to fee adjustments. This implies that the government’s plan is unlikely to be effective in drawing students away from the humanities. But incentives do matter, and financial incentives matter more to less financially privileged people. Even if the overall impact on the distribution of enrolments is marginal, this marginal change will exacerbate socioeconomic disparities: poor students, who are more constrained by the prospect of a high HECS debt, will have less freedom in choosing courses of study. The proposal also threatens to deepen culture wars that mire politics in petty resentments by entrenching class-based differences in intellectual experience and perspective.
Democratic governments, and the voters they represent, must increasingly confront extraordinarily difficult ethical issues, many of them unprecedented: for instance, issues about how we should tackle climate change, fairly distribute the costs of pandemics, and respond to refugee crises. Progress on ethical problems like these cannot be accomplished by scientific and technological research alone. These issues are the subject matter of moral and political philosophy. One consequence of our distinctive subject area, and of our pedagogy, is a distinctive role in inculcating democratic virtues. Philosophy students are particularly influential in student governance precisely because they are effective at communicating, strategising, compromising, and implementing sensible changes. Philosophy majors make up a tiny fraction of university students, yet our graduates exert an astounding influence in journalism, the arts, politics, and the legal profession.
Ironically, the world has far more respect for Australian philosophy than the Australian government does. At Harvard and Oxford, at the National University of Singapore, at Cambridge and the Sorbonne, at Toronto and Princeton and Edinburgh, at the LSE and Berkeley and McGill, and at most other elite universities around the globe, Australian philosophy is held in the highest regard. Australian philosophers such as Peter Singer (Princeton), David Chalmers (New York University), and Rae Langton (Cambridge) are in many places household names. Students from our universities routinely go on to pursue postgraduate degrees, and professional careers, at the world’s most prestigious institutions. Decreasing enrolments in philosophy programs, and lending credence to shallow ideas about the impracticality of philosophical study, functions to undermine a discipline that should be a source of national pride. There is a particularly painful sting to this ingratitude, which could equally be described as a deficit of self-love. Many commentators have already observed a further irony, relevant in this connection: a great many of the plan’s architects themselves benefitted from highly subsidised degrees in law and the humanities.
The government’s attack on the humanities comes at a particularly difficult time, when staff have taken on extra, unpaid work to facilitate a tremendously difficult and rapid transition to online learning as a result of COVID-19. This transition is appreciably harder for subjects like philosophy whose teaching involves structured conversation and debate; we cannot simply post online lectures and automated quizzes and claim to be doing right by our students. The government’s attack also comes on the back of staggering losses of casual staff, and their wide expertise, which may never be recovered. The University sector faces short-term job losses of over twenty thousand. At this time of great precarity for Australia’s third largest export industry — an industry whose role in innovation and productivity is not disputed even by its most feverish critics — the government is decreasing per-student support, refusing access to the Jobkeeper scheme, and undermining public confidence in the value of what we do.
The increasing diversity of the problems we confront presents us with a choice. We can invest in making the next generation insightful and creative and wise. Or we can shrink in the face of unprecedented challenges. Universities are a force for good, and supporting them should be a national priority. We call on all Australian citizens to take pride in the rich philosophical tradition of this nation. We call on all citizens to likewise respect and honour the essential contributions of all academic disciplines to civic life. And, most urgently, we call on all citizens to reject the government’s misguided approach to the funding of undergraduate education.
Signatories:
Dr Miri Albahari, University of Western Australia.
Associate Professor Mark Alfano, Macquarie University.
Professor Peter Anstey, University of Sydney.
Dr Aurelia Armstrong, Head of Philosophy, University of Queensland.
Professor Han Baltussen, Hughes Professor of Classics and Ancient Thought, University of Adelaide.
Professor Dirk Baltzly, University of Tasmania.
Dr Miriam Bankovsky, Director of the Politics, Philosophy and Economics degree, La Trobe University.
Professor Rick Benitez, University of Sydney.
Dr Kaz Bland, University of Western Australia.
Dr Sandy Boucher, University of New England.
Associate Professor Michelle Boulous Walker, University of Queensland.
Dr Sean Bowden, Deakin University.
Professor David Braddon-Mitchell, University of Sydney.
Dr Stewart Braun, Australian Catholic University.
Associate Professor Jacqueline Broad, Monash University.
Dr David Bronstein, University of New South Wales.
Dr Petra Brown, Deakin University.
Dr Rachael Brown, Director of the Centre for Philosophy of the Sciences, Australian National University.
Associate Professor Diego Bubbio, Western Sydney University.
Dr Yuri Cath, La Trobe University.
Dr Jake Chandler, ARC Future Fellow, La Trobe University.
Dr James Chase, University of Tasmania.
Dr Millicent Churcher, University of Sydney.
Associate Professor Steve Clarke, Charles Sturt University.
Dr David Coady, University of Tasmania.
Professor Tony Coady, University of Melbourne, Australian Catholic University (Honorary Professor), Oxford University (Honorary Fellow, Uehiro Centre).
Dr Daniel Cohen, Charles Sturt University.
Associate Professor Stephanie Collins, Dianoia Institute of Philosophy, Australian Catholic University.
Professor Mark Colyvan, University of Sydney.
Dr Ryan Cox, University of Sydney.
Dr Anna Corbo Crehan, Charles Sturt University.
Professor Roger Crisp, Australian Catholic University (Honorary Professor), Oxford University.
Associate Professor Andrew Crowden, University of Queensland.
Dr Leesa Davis, Deakin University.
Dr Oisin Deery, Macquarie University.
Professor Jean-Philippe Deranty, Macquarie University.
Dr Antony Eagle, Head of the Department of Philosophy, University of Adelaide.
Dr Peter Ellerton, University of Queensland.
Dr Peter Evans, ARC Research Fellow, University of Queensland.
Dr Luara Ferracioli, University of Sydney.
Professor Stephen Finlay, Dianoia Institute of Philosophy, Australian Catholic University.
Dr Bronwyn Finnigan, Australian National University.
Associate Professor Paul Formosa, Macquarie University
Professor Peter Fritz, Dianoia Institute of Philosophy, Australian Catholic University.
Dr Dmitri Gallow, Dianoia Institute of Philosophy, Australian Catholic University.
Dr Denise Gamble, University of Adelaide.
Professor Moira Gatens, Challis Professor of Philosophy, University of Sydney.
Emeritus Professor Stephen Gaukroger, University of Sydney.
Professor Paul Griffiths, ARC Laureate Fellow, University of Sydney.
Dr Daniel Halliday, University of Melbourne.
Dr Richard Paul Hamilton, University of Notre Dame Australia.
Dr Brian Hedden, University of Sydney.
Dr Remco Heesen, University of Western Australia.
Professor Stephen Hetherington, University of New South Wales.
Dr Keith Horton, University of Wollongong.
Dr David Hunter, University of Adelaide.
Dr Katrina Hutchison, ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA), Macquarie University.
Associate Professor Karen Jones, University of Melbourne.
Dr Suzy Killmister, Monash University.
Dr Nin Kirkham, University of Western Australian.
Dr Laura Kotevska, University of Sydney.
Associate Professor Karyn Lai, University of New South Wales.
Dr Holly Lawford-Smith, University of Melbourne.
Dr Christopher H. Lean, University of Sydney.
Associate Professor Alex Lefebvre, University of Sydney.
Dr Chris Letheby, University of Western Australia.
Professor Neil Levy, Macquarie University.
Dr Alex Ling, Western Sydney University.
Dr Matthew Lister, Deakin University School of Law.
Professor Clayton Littlejohn, Australian Catholic University.
Dr Mianna Lotz, Macquarie University.
Associate Professor Morgan Luck, Charles Sturt University.
Associate Professor Simon Lumsden, University of New South Wales.
Associate Professor David Macarthur, University of Sydney.
Associate Professor Sally Macarthur, Western Sydney University.
Emeritus Distinguished Professor Jeff Malpas, University of Tasmania.
Dr Christopher Mayes, Deakin University.
Professor Victoria McGeer, Australian National University.
Dr Glenn McLaren, Swinburne University of Technology.
Professor Richard Menary, Macquarie University.
Associate Professor Jennifer Mensch, Western Sydney University.
Associate Professor Melissa Merritt, University of New South Wales.
Associate Professor Kristie Miller, ARC Future Fellow, University of Sydney.
Emeritus Professor Chris Mortensen, University of Adelaide.
Professor Jeremy Moss, University of New South Wales.
Dr Daniel Muñoz, Monash University.
Dr Joseph Naimo, University of Notre Dame Australia.
Dr Dalia Nassar, University of Sydney.
Emeritus Professor Graham Nerlich, University of Adelaide.
Dr Toula Nicolacopoulos, La Trobe University.
Dr Michael Nielsen, University of Sydney.
Dr Ignacio Ojea, Australian National University.
Dr Michael Olson, Macquarie University.
Dr Jon Opie, University of Adelaide.
Dr Tyler Paytas, Australian Catholic University.
Professor Philip Pettit, Australian National University, Princeton University.
Associate Professor James Phillips, University of New South Wales.
Dr Louise Richardson-Self, University of Tasmania.
Professor Dean Rickles, University of Sydney.
Professor Wendy Rogers, Macquarie University.
Dr Emma Rush, Charles Sturt University.
Professor Gillian Russell, Dianoia Institute of Philosophy, Australian Catholic University.
Associate Professor Luke Russell, University of Sydney.
Professor Wojciech Sadurski, Challis Professor of Jurisprudence, University of Sydney School of Law
Associate Professor Howard Sankey, University of Melbourne.
Professor Dennis J. Schmidt, Western Sydney University.
Dr Miriam Schoenfield, Australian Catholic University.
Dr Anne Schwenkenbecher, Murdoch University.
Dr Sebastian Sequoiah-Grayson, University of Sydney.
Dr Michael Sevel, University of Sydney.
Dr Sam Shpall, University of Sydney.
Associate Professor Robert Sinnerbrink, Macquarie University.
Professor Nicholas Smith, University of Sydney.
Dr Clifford Stagoll, University of Notre Dame Australia.
Dr Marilyn Stendera, Deakin University
Dr Steven Stolz, University of Adelaide.
Dr Margot Strohminger, Australian Catholic University.
Professorial Fellow Janna Thompson, La Trobe University.
Associate Professor Lubica Ucnik, Murdoch University.
Dr Lachlan Umbers, University of Western Australia.
Professor Suzanne Uniacke, Charles Sturt University.
Dr Markos Valaris, University of New South Wales.
Associate Professor Dimitris Vardoulakis, Western Sydney University.
Dr George Vassilacopoulos, La Trobe University.
Associate Professor Anik Waldow, University of Sydney.
Dr Elena Walsh, University of Wollongong.
Dr Kevin Walton, Director of the Julius Stone Institute of Jurisprudence, University of Sydney.
Dr Clas Weber, University of Western Australia.
Dr Caroline West, University of Sydney.
Professor Robert A. Wilson, University of Western Australia.
Dr Jennifer Duke-Yonge, Macquarie University.