ANUs Withdrawal from the Asian Century

After the Second World War, the Australian Government created the Australian
National University (ANU) with a unique mandate to focus on Asia [1] Now, at the
end of the first decade of the Asian Century, the ANUs College of Asia and the
Pacific (CAP) is adopting a perverse program of reform that will undermine its focus
on Asia.
CAP has taken the unprecedented step of attempting to cut costs by pressuring those
academics with the best reputations and the greatest productivity in the School of
Culture, History and Language (CHL) to accelerate their departures or retirements.
The College Dean, Professor Veronica Taylor, is further requesting the early
retirement of language teachers who provide the only national capacity in languages of
South and Southeast Asia.
It is difficult to reconcile this with the ANUs stated goal that it will continue to
increase our focus on Asia and the Pacific.[2] Removing the capacity of the university
to teach its existing Asian Studies majors and degree by dispersing what is described
as one of the worlds largest collections of Asia Pacific experts[3] will eviscerate
disciplinary expertise that has taken decades to acquire. Removing the expertise in
languages of our ASEAN neighbours flies in the face of the recommendations of the
AsiaLink Commission Report, which stated that we have tended to overlook the
complexity of Asia.[4]
In a discussion of the findings of this commission, the Sydney Morning Herald noted
that The ANU's researchers have provided expert advice to administrations in both
south-east Asia and Australia, having also trained generations of diplomats and
government officials working in the area.[5] Kevin Rudd, Australias first Mandarinspeaking Prime Minister, is a graduate of the Schools Chinese program. This is a
deliberately engineered withdrawal from the ANUs Asia mandate and a loss of
capacity for engagement with Asia that has in the past made the ANU a truly
international university.
The people targeted first have been the Academy Fellows, Laureate Fellows, and
Professors who have distinguished themselves as national and international luminaries
in their fields. These scholars also attract students from all over the world who come to
the ANU to study with them, on the basis of reputations built up over years of highquality research. Most of these staff members are currently supervising PhD students
who will be abandoned when their supervisors are removed. These cuts also remove
any sense of job security for younger staff, regardless of their performance. Will staff
of calibre want to work at a university that slides down the rankings and demonstrates
a callous disregard towards its staff? Will high-quality students want to enroll at a
university that has demonstrated no commitment to retaining professors and lecturers?
These are the questions that the management of the Australian National University
must ask itself, and others, as it pursues modes of practice that fail to address systemic
disfunction, and which rob it of the ability to deliver the core objectives of a university
interested in Asian and Pacific engagement.

References:
[1] Australian Government. 2012. Australia in the Asian Century. Available online at
www.murdoch.edu.au/ALTC-Fellowship/_document/Resources/australia-in-the-asian-century-whitepaper.pdf.
[2] ANU by 2020. Office of the Vice Chancellor. Available online at
http://www.anu.edu.au/about/strategic-priorities/anu-by-2020.
[3] http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au
[4] http://asialink.unimelb.edu.au/asialink_dialogue/asialink_commissions
[5] Blaxland, John. 2012. Our place in the Asian Century. Sydney Morning Herald. Available online
at http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/our-place-in-the-asian-century-20121210-2b5hp.html