Time to reset the relationship between universities and the public

Universities play many vital roles in the success and wellbeing of the nation. No clearer example of their central place can be seen than the heavy reliance of all state and federal governments on university-based health advice during the past 18 months – a time of the gravest policy challenge for leaders needing to make daily decisions in the uncharted waters of a global pandemic.

University advice has been front and centre at daily media briefings, with health academics thrust, unaccustomed, into the public eye. Less noticed but equally important has been a widespread drawing on the broader knowledge base of universities by governments and others in the community, in areas that include, amongst many others, housing, wages, domestic violence, mental health, schooling, transport and engineering.

These examples give immediacy to what universities do all the time, not just at times of crisis, and what we will continue to provide for the nation as we build out of the pandemic.?Notably, each fast-developing economy in the Asia-Pacific region has placed universities at the centre of its national development strategy. We should not be blind to the significance of this when considering Australia’s future.

Post-pandemic life will throw up many problems.

The solutions will lie not only in the medical sciences but just as much in the arts, humanities and social sciences. We must be thinking now about educating our emerging generations of thinkers and leaders at the cutting edges of these diverse fields, while instilling a sense of purpose to use their knowledge to improve the lives of their fellow citizens.

An important part of this process is forming people who are skilled in interrogating knowledge. Learning to challenge the status quo and received wisdoms is fundamental to achieving this end.

This process is something in which universities specialise. University academics are engaged in a constant dialogue among themselves, and with their students as they teach their courses and engage in their research.?When we don’t like the ideas being formulated, we need to engage with them even more strongly, so that we understand them better and can either accept them or develop stronger reasoned arguments against them.?Herein lies the importance of universities’ support for academic freedom and free speech.?

This is not about protecting the privileges of universities. It is certainly not about shaping an elite that thinks the same way on every single question.

This is about forming the best minds to lead us, as a nation, on the road to a challenging future.

?The considerable appeal of university education for many families today is hardly surprising given the bigger picture of what we do. Through our educational mission, universities help people and communities deal with whatever gets thrown at them, in every generation. We do this by supporting and enabling people to harness their individual talent, to learn how to think rigorously, and to make significant contributions to the world.

Closely related to this, we must remember that to keep Australia’s businesses and organisations functioning competitively, we need a steady pipeline of highly educated people able to deal with uncertainty, solve complex and unforeseen problems, be adaptable, and keep a bigger picture in view. Developing these cognitive talents is the focus that university academics have when educating their students, and this lays a strong foundation for success among these students in their careers.??The research-infused education provided by universities might well be presented as one of our most vital translational impacts.

We must continue to nurture those who want to learn about the universe and our place in it just for the sake of enquiry, which is a fundamental human urge. We must also nurture those who want to turn their minds to practical problems, to find solutions to them.?We must very clearly enable solutions discovered in universities to be translated into good outcomes for broad society.?We must make sure that, when appropriate, translated research attains maximum benefit for the nation economically, as well as in the many other ways it can be used; the current dialogue about commercialisation of university research is essential.?We must get this right and take care not to misunderstand the complex and essential pathways and support structures that are needed if successful commercialisation has any chance of happening.?

Along with our educational mission, the research translation landscape in universities is absolutely central to the success of the nation.

Whether it be through advising governments or helping form the next generation of citizens, workers and leaders, universities’ contributions are very clear today, and will become more obvious as Australia emerges from the pandemic.

This is a story that universities and their supporters throughout Australia must not be afraid to tell.

This article was published in The Australian newspaper on Wednesday 1 September 2021.