The University of Wollongong will partner with the John Howard-headed Ramsay Centre to deliver a controversial new degree already rejected by one other institution.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
On Monday UOW became the first Australian university to sign a deal with the Ramsay Centre to offer a Bachelor of Arts in Western Civilisation.
The late healthcare magnate Paul Ramsay left a $3 billion bequest to establish a “great books course” at as many as three universities.
The UOW degree will be funded through this bequest, which includes the appointment of 10 academics to teach it and around 150 scholarships for students.
According to a statement from UOW, the degree “will focus on a detailed examination of the classic intellectual and artistic masterpieces of the Western tradition that demand and repay careful philosophical attention”.
The degree created controversy earlier this year when the Australian National University pulled out of negotiations out of concerns about academic freedom.
The ANU vice-chancellor Brian Schmidt claimed the philanthropic organisation – which also included Tony Abbott on its board – had wanted to sit in on classes to monitor content and veto any curriculum decisions it disapproved of.
Professor Schmidt claimed "the Ramsay Centre simply did not trust the ANU … to deliver a program they were comfortable with”.
A spokeswoman for the Ramsay Centre denied it was seeking any control over the teaching of the course.
The degree has also caused controversy at the University of Sydney, where around 200 academics signed an open letter calling it “chauvinistic”.
In October ANU Chancellor Gareth Evans issued a warning that other universities approach the Ramsay Centre offer with caution.
"I would respectfully suggest to my colleagues elsewhere that they may need to look as cautiously as we did at the teeth of this particular gift horse," Mr Evans said.
However, UOW Vice-Chancellor Professor Paul Wellings was pleased to be partnering with the centre.
READ MORE: Lost Wollongong bushwalker found
“It’s an honour to be the first university to partner with the Ramsay Centre as the recipient of this major philanthropic gift and to be one of a small number of universities selected to offer this sort of unique and transformative program,” Prof Wellings said.
“UOW has long been committed to offering a learning environment that supports academic freedom and equips students to become broad-minded, intellectually fearless, and independent thinking graduates.”
A new School of Liberal Arts will be created within the UOW Faculty of Law, Humanities and Arts on the Gwynneville campus.
The new degree will be offered from 2020.