Larvatus Prodeo

As a parting gift to the nation, the Coalition majority in the Senate set up an inquiry into academic bias, at the instigation of the Young Liberals. It’s been discussed extensively before at LP on a number of occasions. The Committee has now reported. Let me just observe that it must have been a highly enjoyable task to write the majority report (italics in the quote from Senator Gavin Marshall are mine):

The committee’s finding is that in view of the relatively tiny number of submissions received, from the hundreds of thousands of students who are said to be affected, there can be no basis for arguing that universities are under the control of the Left and that this is reflected in course content and teaching style. If there is a Left conspiracy to influence the direction of the nation’s affairs and its social and economic priorities through the process of subverting a generation of undergraduates this is not yet evident.

It must be said that the committee processes of the Senate are not at all suited to the kind of inquiry that might have been imagined by its instigators. That is probably less important to them than the fact that the inquiry was held at all. On the other hand it might be argued that as even the most intensive specialist research would be unlikely to reach any conclusion as to the incidence of biased teaching, this inquiry has been as useful as any.

Elsewhere: John Quiggin and Terry Flew.