Humanities and social sciences - neglected in the Prime Minister's Innovation Statement last month - have been championed at an international meeting at The University of Queensland this week.
The meeting of senior academic leaders affirmed the importance of humanities and social sciences studies as central to a university's core business of education.
"This was a very lively inaugural meeting of the Deans of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences of Universitas 21 (U21) member institutions," said hosts Professor Alan Rix and Professor Linda Rosenman.
Professor Rix is Executive Dean of UQ's Faculty of Arts and Professor Linda Rosenman, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences at UQ.
"A consistent theme during discussions was the continuing importance of these disciplines," Professor Rix said.
"The number of Arts and social sciences graduates has substantially increased internationally in the past decade. People are not making that choice because they are misinformed: but because they are concerned about themselves and the societies in which they live.
"There is little value in producing graduates skilled in technological knowledge alone without the skills of thinking or compassion to accompany them.
"The humanities and social sciences provide for the work of life itself."
Professor Rosenman said the importance of Arts and Social Sciences would continue to grow in U21 because of the organisation's potential involvement in the global e-learning business.
"In addition, the Deans felt that the responsibility of the university in assisting society to confront and solve its problems, and involving itself in the community, had not diminished, and that Universitas 21 was well-positioned to advance that ethic," she said.
Universitas 21 is a company incorporated in the United Kingdom with a network of 18 universities in 10 countries. Collectively, it enrols about 500,000 students each year, employs some 44,000 academics and researchers, and has a combined operating budget of almost $US9 billion. Australian members are The University of Queensland, the University of New South Wales and the University of Melbourne.
"Our U21 colleagues were keen to talk about initiatives that can be taken and joint activity that we can get under way. We agreed to begin collaboration on a number of specific projects," Professor Rosenman said.
"Specific agreements on future action will involve collaboration on such matters as student and staff exchanges, community engagement, research projects and research funding, disciplinary reviews, plus information sharing on organisational and benchmarking issues."
The Managing Director of U21, Chris Robinson, introduced members to latest developments in the organisation, and the agenda for the meeting ranged over internationalisation, research funding and management, curriculum change, the role of the new media in teaching and research, profiling the humanities and social sciences, workload management and faculty development.
Thirteen of the 18 member universities were represented at this week's Brisbane meeting, with delegates from Asia, Australasia, the UK, Europe and North America.
The group will meet again in Montreal, Canada at McGill University next year.
Media: Further information, Professor Linda Rosenman, telephone 07 3365 7969, Professor Alan Rix, telephone 07 3365 1822 or email: communications@mailbox.uq.edu.au.
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