Legacy draws Australian universities back to Western civilisation

Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation, funded by £1.7 billion bequest, to fund degree courses in several institutions

Two significant trends have shaped much of the scholarship in Australian universities in recent years: one is a drive to build an appreciation of the country’s Aboriginal heritage, and another is the influence of Chinese research funding and student flows.

A new centre, funded by an A$3 billion (£1.7 billion) bequest from healthcare magnate Paul Ramsay, aims to take degree courses in a very different direction.

The Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation, which has already won the backing of former prime ministers Tony Abbott and John Howard, aims to fund bachelor’s degrees in Western civilisation at universities in New South Wales and Canberra.

The initiative is likely to start in two or three institutions, with the centre having announced that it is in discussions with the Australian National University.

The centre plans to offer up to 30 scholarships for undergraduates studying the Western civilisation course and combined degrees at each institution, with a series of postgraduate scholarships supporting international exchanges also planned.

So what would a degree in Western civilisation cover? Simon Haines, the centre’s director and a former professor of English at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said that the course would “include some philosophy, some literature, some history and some art and architecture in the various recognisable periods of western civilisation”.

“So there would be a Greco-Roman [element], a late classical to medieval, Renaissance, Enlightenment, Romanticism, 19th century and 20th century. And within each of those periods, there would be key texts within the different disciplines that students would look at,” Professor Haines said.

“Among poets, you would be starting with probably Homer and a Greek tragedian, then Virgil and Horace and probably some Chaucer, Dante, Montaigne, Shakespeare and Cervantes – whatever you could fit into the time parameters you’ve got.”