Flocks of Sheep Roam Our University Campuses

Students sit on the lawn near the Faculty of Law building at The University of Sydney, in Sydney, Australia, on May 8, 2013. AAP Image/Paul Miller

Commentary

Australian universities are now decidedly devoted to passing as many students as possible.

Passing is relatively easy, considering students typically only have to satisfy 50 percent of the requirements on their exams or assignments to pass. Of course, this is a very low benchmark.

If students are allocated a mark of 49, 48, or even 47, they are bound to use the ubiquitous appeal processes to get over the line.

They have access to a swath of bureaucratic solutions, ranging from essay or assignment resubmission to supplementary, or deferred examinations to achieve success.

Many students ask for preferential treatment, examination concessions, or apply for extensions. They may also request an acknowledgment of a “disability,” and some might even resort to illegal means.

It is not uncommon for academics to pass those who should fail because it saves them the unpleasantness associated with appeals procedures and form filling.

To obviate the need for a long drawn-out, and often acrimonious, appeals procedure, it is often convenient for academics to give their failing students a 45.

Yet hard evidence, for example in the form of directions from the University’s Learning and Teaching Committee, confirms that universities will also lean over backward to pass students who clearly shouldn’t be in tertiary education in the first place.

This is a consequence of increased government oversight and novel legislative requirements for universities to reduce the rate of failure for students.

People study at the University of Technology Sydney campus in Sydney, Australia, on April 6, 2016. Brendon Thorne/Getty Images

In a sobering article, Emeritus Professor Steven Schwartz argues that our politicians and universities “look forward to offering voters a world where failure ceases to exist and success requires no effort. A world in which every student gets a degree just for showing up.”

It is an impassioned plea for society to recognise the salutary impact of “failure” because successful people are those who are able to learn from and outlast failure.

Indeed, how is it possible for people to face the harsh realities of life, if they have never learned to live with, confront, and conquer failure?

Professor Andrew Norton argues that, although the government has correctly identified the university student failure rate as a real problem, “its heavy-handed regulation would create unnecessary red tape for universities.”

Nevertheless, the universities’ response to the rate of student failure (and attrition) is often merely a band-aid solution.

Thinking for Yourself Denied on Campus

The reality is that some students might not really be able to read or write English well enough to benefit from, or contribute to, their education because they lack “critical thinking” skills.

Although some of these students are undoubtedly devoted and hard-working, their inability to think critically unfavourably impacts their studies.

While some universities pride themselves on teaching such skills, these efforts are in vain if students lack the capacity or the interest to benefit from it.

Critical thinking is a disciplined way of reasoning. It involves analysis, evaluation, and reflection.

However, on most campuses, critical thinking, which endures only in an unrestricted and uncensored free speech environment, is frequently curtailed by university administrations that impose conformist behaviour, supposedly to preserve “diversity.”

For example, on Australian campuses, students are afraid to criticise The Voice (and other social engineering developments).

A woman walks past posters advocating for an Aboriginal voice and treaty ahead of an upcoming referendum in Melbourne, Australia, on Aug. 30, 2023. William West/AFP via Getty Images

Critical thinking is thus often seen as the natural enemy of the kind of “diversity” that universities impose on students.

In this context, it is useful to remember the words of John Stuart Mill, the 19th-century philosopher and politician, who wrote in his celebrated essay “On Liberty”:

“The disposition of mankind, whether as rulers or as fellow citizens, to impose their own opinions and inclinations as a rule of conduct on others, is so energetically supported by some of the best and by some of the worst feelings incident to human nature, that it is hardly ever kept under restraint … and as the power is not declining, but growing unless a strong barrier of moral conviction can be raised against the mischief, we must expect, in the present circumstances of the world, to see it increase.”

Mill’s analysis also aptly describes the precarious world of our universities.

He derides the sheep-like conformity, which now enables university academics, administrative apparatchiks, and indoctrinated students to impose their freedom-unfriendly views and arbitrary rules on people.

According to Mill, “The only freedom which deserves the name, is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it.”

Surely, there should be an attitude of “openness” that fosters free speech, which is a pre-condition for critical thinking to flourish on our campuses, even if the dark forces of oppression seek to impose a preferred ideology on students.

Undoubtedly, the promotion of critical thinking is the right recipe to combat the ogre of students’ failure and to restore a sense of pride and achievement in those who are seeking knowledge and skills to enhance their lives.

It is a way to overcome an over-reliance on fuzzy feelings or emotions, to avoid conforming dogma and peer pressure, and blatant indoctrination of young impressionable minds on Australian campuses.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.