Greg,

Exactly the same (or reverse) can easily be said about the business community in Australia, ie: that it is almost devoid of the types of people you described as dominating universities. This probably has something to do with the interests of people – liberals are more likely than conservatives to be attracted by academia while conservatives are more likely to be attracted by business.

One of the causes of the domination of universities by social liberals is the limited number of attractive career options for those interested in academia. You very rightly point to a scarcity of think-tanks in Australia and I would add to that that most of those only employ a very small number of people and usually economists.

This situation is in turn caused by a lack of willingness to fund social research and academic debate. A recent Online Opinion article described the lack of funding Australian universities receive in comparison to those in the US. The author assumed funding is mostly necessary for scientific research equipment but I would add that the social sciences are possibly the most under funded discipline.

I don’t believe however that it is the sole responsibility of government to create the more favourable environment you mention. Rather, academics should spend more time promoting the work they do to people outside of academia. Society needs academics to take a much more active and public role than most currently do. After all, those in the social sciences are paid to think about the best functioning of society, presumably they can have the most considered contributions.

As Associate Professor you should be (and possibly are) leading your school (in cooperation with other schools and universities) to promote the work of social science academics to the public. It is vastly undervalued in our community.

You often hear the right moaning on and on about this issue. Can you give us any real evidence of how this impacts our society. Given that most of us are products of our parents (however we may whish not so) and most of us follow the same life trend i.e. lean left when young and move right as we age or income increases. Would it really make a difference. Broadly speaking the left is made up of people who whish to help others and the right is made up of people who whish to help themselves. Is it plain to the eye that the left would want to teach while the right would want to do. I think those on the fringes of the left and right can loose sight of were the centre is.

Kenny... thank you.

Hey Kenny, let you friends on the left know that there's a difference between helping people and forcing silly ideas down the throats of the intellectually inferior peasantry.

We've already seen the lack of diversity occurring in our universities, and it's been the result of funding cuts and subject allocations being determined by numbers and not intellectual worth.

The Right encourage diversity as long as it's diversity in right-wing philosophy, in the safe enclave of their own. Any other opinion is, by necessity, incorrect, unfounded or plain old 'silly'.

"There is the obligatory Howard bashing, anti-Americanism and belief in the depraved past of both Australia and Western civilisation."

Really? Oh dear. What if there was a course such as "B.A in Howard-worship, American arse-licking and Western cultural supremacy", would that make things better?

The author's blatant political slant and dogma spoils what could have been a very worthwhile critique.

The real point is that homogeneity is rife where ever you look in our society. As a humanities undergraduate I very quickly learned to repeat the marxist/post modern verities (it got me good marks too). As a manager in large corporates in Australia I learned to regurgitate the modern management jargon (this too has worked well).

As long as one subsumes any individual thought & goes along with the prevailing forms of truth in one's current environment one meets the requirements for success.

Express a real opinion or thought in real life - perish the thought!

geekgirl2 that is your failing not mine. I you want to sell your soul for a buck that is up to you.

My point exactly - express an honest opinion & someone wants to have a go at you over it (at least this was only virtual!) Well I've learned my lesson ;-(

I think what geekgirl might be getting at is the common 'indoctrination' found in liberal education today, as compared to learning real critical thought. I would agree that it is a problem, and possibly created by a tug-of-war; the academy is trying to balance the external influences by setting an opposite and extreme position. It doesn't, however, educate, or help to create a dialogue with those outside of the institution.

I agree that funding to academia needs to be increased in order to give universities the breathing space to diversify. As for an 'academic bill of rights', simply restoring the value of tenure would be adequate. I have no desire to bring academy and 'other' closer, however - only get them talking again. I think Australian academia is already utilitarian enough, and would like to see it supported for its intrinsic values rather than for it's service to a fickle society.