Australian Idea of the University

Professor Glyn Davis, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Melbourne, will speak on his new book The Australian Idea of the University, at the Australian National University, in Canberra, 6pm 31 October 2017.

"The lecture by Professor Davis will draw on his forthcoming MUP 2018 book, The Australian Idea of the University, which asks why a nation scattered across a continent, in a world with so many competing visions of the University, is content with a single type?
2017 has seen criticism of universities in Australia, the United States and United Kingdom, essentially around their perceived distance from community and national imperatives. Academic work is characterised as unconnected with the concerns of society, universities as wealthy and unresponsive.
Are we approaching a Henry VIII moment, when a future government decides to dissolve the familiar public university?"

I spent much of the last three years contemplating the Australian idea of the university, as a Masters of Education student (ironically studying on-line in Canada). Australian higher education was founded to provide both academic scholarship and vocational skills, which is something many academics choose to forget.