As David Gonski leaves the education system, he has one wish for our universities

2 months ago 17

Education guru David Gonski has urged the government to dump a controversial Morrison-era policy that sent the cost of arts degrees skyrocketing to $55,000.

Speaking as he prepares to end his 20-year run as the Chancellor of the University of NSW at the end of the year, the author of the seminal Gonski Review told this masthead that society needs people with critical thinking skills from humanities degrees more than ever.

“I don’t like it,” he said of the Job-ready Graduates scheme, in his strongest comments about the controversial legislation to date.

“I would hope that governments to come will see the error of that and take it away. Labor has talked a lot about how bad it is, but haven’t done anything about it,” he said.

Introduced in 2021, the scheme radically altered degree funding and what proportion of the costs is borne by students. It significantly increased the costs for subjects including arts and law, while fees for subjects including teaching, nursing, science and engineering were cut by up to 60 per cent.

The Albanese government, while being highly critical in opposition, has not repealed the funding model.

“What it did is it actually ignores what a university is about,” Gonski said. “Absolutely, we must train people who can get jobs and do jobs well. But we also must educate people. It’s in the high jump, you’ve got to jump over that bar to get your job. I’d like you to jump really high.”

The rise of AI, he said, has led to an even greater need for critical thinking.

“The machines may be able to snap at what’s below that bar, but they won’t be able to snap at the magnificent thinking of a human being, the creativity, you know, the individual thought, the caring, and that we should be teaching,” he said.

Gonski said that UNSW was well-placed for AI’s march, with smaller class sizes and a changed approach to learning and marking in the pipeline.

“I think it’s going to make the university, not diminish the university,” he said. “It will push us to teach more thinking, it will push us to focus on the things that humans do, and it will push us to teach in ways that actually shore up to the student, rather than allow it by rote learning.”

As he prepares to leave the sector, Gonski is hopeful that the “unloved” universities can turn around their fortunes and has called for more funding and better teaching.

“They’re seen often as rich, elite. They’ve lost, according to some, their finger on the pulse,” he said.

“I think if universities can be more loved or can give good reason why they should be more loved, they’ll do well.”

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