The Australian | 5 January 2014
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Academic extremism risks damaging the standing of Australia’s universities, says education minister Christopher Pyne.
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Pyne’s comments come in the wake of the controversy over the support for the anti-Israel boycott, divestment and sanctions movement by Sydney University’s Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies and that a Sydney University senior lecturer was part of a WikiLeaks Party delegation granted an audience with Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, where they affirmed “the solidarity of the Australian people”.
Syrian president Bashar al-Assad meeting with an Australian delegation including Sydney University academic Tim Anderson (front right)
Pyne said in a carefully coded caution:
The commonwealth government’s highest priority in higher education is quality. Every vice-chancellor should always be reviewing whether their university is meeting high standards of quality in order to protect its reputation but also Australia’s international reputation in education.
He hinted that Sydney University vice-chancellor Michael Spence and bodies such as its senate, which had a string of left-leaning celebrity candidates including columnist Peter FitzSimons, ABC broadcaster Andrew West and former state minister Verity Firth recently elected to its ranks, should act.
Each university is responsible for its own governance, but universities should avoid needless controversies that damage their reputation (and) also make Australia look less respectable to our potential international student market.
