Speech to RMIT University
on being admitted to the award for Doctor of Social Science honoris causa

Friday, May 5, 2006

Receiving this honor has taken me back to remembering my own time at university. And for me, going to university for me was life changing.

In 1965 I was a 17-year-old woman with a disability, coming from a family living in a housing commission estate. University opened up the world. As well as the world of thinking and ideas and the world of aspiration, university opened up the world of activism about justice.

Life at university was great. I initially studied economics and politics with a philosophy minor. The philosophy was accidental - I meant to study psychology … but couldn't spell it and signed on for philosophy. It took me a term to realise Freud wasn't going to appear on our curriculum - instead we had Descartes.

My formal university education had its ups and downs - its excitement and boredom - but my informal university education was endlessly riveting.

As well as frequenting the Nottinghill pub on Friday nights, I joined numerous clubs and societies - some of them were frivolous and mad - but still they helped me meet people, make friends. They certainly helped promote my mental health - very important for any student at risk because of any disadvantage or difference or vulnerability.

And some of the clubs I joined introduced me to ideas about human rights, justice; and some clubs taught me that I could fight for rights - that you didn't have to sit back and accept the status quo about bad treatment for people with disadvantages, you could fight for change.

This was a most important part of my university education and from this I learned about how to get involved in contributing to human rights, including women's rights, disability rights and the rights of other groups.

University gave me the self confidence, courage and passion to become a fighter. I hopefully matured as I grew older and my methods changed, mellowed and in many ways became more effective over the years. But it was university - the informal education at university along with some of the great teachers who inspired me to never give up, to take a strong stand, and to see that fighting for human rights was a life long piece of work - as important as mainstream work.

So here we are today where I am very humbled to receive this honorary doctorate and particularly in social sciences. It is a salutary experience and an opportunity to deconstruct my experience from 40 years ago in terms of today's young people and what they can expect to gain from university. I would like to do this by asking some questions.

1. Do we want an Australian society where universities provide the best opportunity for young and old people to explore ideas, to learn about new ways of thinking about things and seeing the world, to learn about human rights and to wonder what you can do about them?

This question is about the nature and purpose of universities, the importance of informal education through clubs and societies and the time and resources to participate in them instead of students having to work so hard to sustain themselves.

It's also about many of the clubs and societies disappearing becase of voluntary student fees.

And it's also about the degree to which we are prepared (many of us as baby boomers) to have universities protect, indeed encourage, student activism as a training ground for a democratic civil society. This tolerance would enable students these days to learn the same skills and to experience the same radicalism that many of us were able to experience - with no repercussions or dire outcomes.

2. Do we want an Australian society that believes in equitable access to the qualifications that open up opportunities for work and income earning for the rest of life?

This question is about free universal access and what the erosion of free university is doing to the reinforcement of two Australias reflected in a two Australian tertiary education system.

As an aside it is absolutely the case that I would never have been able to go to university if fees - HECS or its upfront equivalent - had been required. I did a mediocre VCE equivalent so would not have won a scholarship for disadvantaged applicants and my family could not have paid. This is also probably the case for most university teachers, Council members and the government members who are making decisions about fees for universities despite the fact that they all went to university free.

3. Do we want all students to learn about history, politics and the social structure of society so that whatever their professional future they have the capacity and inspiration to think about the rights and wrongs of the past and why, and about justice and social morality?

This question is about the way we value the social sciences with their focus on the collective unconscious and the way we are able and willing to analyse unconscionable actions, both historical and present.

4. And the other side of that question is do we want university to fall in step behind, rather than lead the discourse on what sort of society we want to live in?

How do universities themselves help to challenge the current deification of possession, consumerism and property as the primary purpose of a university education with our hopes for the future?

I hold great hope that we all have learned and continue to learn. As my mother (who I am delighted is here today) says - life goes in cycles for societies and the gains for human rights and equity and justice are never completely lost. But the big question remains - what role will Australia's universities play in leading the charge?

I do know that RMIT university - the working man (and women's) college, as well as Australia's MIT, is already leading this charge.