Letter from the editor

Ian R Dobson

This issue is a ‘special’ one, predominantly on the impact of COVID-19 on universities and university students. Guest editors James Roffee and Nick Kimberley assembled papers on this topic, and you should refer to their detailed introduction, below.

In addition to the papers on the impact of the COVID19 pandemic, we have an excellent paper on the policy background to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander research by Kathy Bowrey, Irene Watson and Marie Hadley, and an opinion piece from A L Jones on the war on higher education, focussing on the US.

In the interesting times in which we now live, none but our epidemiologists expected the current pandemic. Equally, no one expected the range of supply-related ineptitudes of the current federal government delaying our path back to normality. We must also wonder why JobKeeper money was available to many businesses that didn’t require it but denied to universities that did.

In addition, we haven’t done very well with education ministers in recent years. To quote Victorian Education Minister James Merlino: ‘We’ve had this revolving door of [federal] education ministers; each one was worse than the one before’ (The Age, 2022). One was appointed as a reward for supporting Scott Morrison in the post-Malcolm Turnbull period. Fortunately for education, he was ‘promoted’ (yeh, right!) to the trade portfolio after a couple of years. The next minister left the education role under somewhat of a cloud and won’t be returning to the front bench (Butler, 2022), at least not before the forthcoming federal election.

As for the replacement, what could one say? Why does the acting minister think he understands research and the processes set in place by the Australian Research Council? He blocked six grants on the grounds that they did not represent ‘value for taxpayers’ money’, but when reading his own record (see Jones, 2018), we must equally question whether the acting minister represents ‘value for taxpayers’ money’. More recently the acting minister sought to blame so-called ‘dud teachers’ for our education woes. Surely ‘dud education ministers’ is a more credible reason. To paraphrase Linda Howard in Drop Dead Gorgeous (2006), somewhere a village is missing its idiot.

Finally, it is with extreme sadness that I report the recent death of a stalwart of Australian higher education research: Professor V. Lynn Meek. Lynn was a man with special qualities. He was an intellectual scholar who spent a career producing ground-breaking research. I was fortunate to have worked with him on a few projects, and I benefited by osmosis from his quiet way of getting things done. We are all the poorer for his passing. Here at the Australian Universities’ Review we will remember Lynn Meek properly in our next issue.

Ian R Dobson is Editor of AUR, and an Adjunct member of the Professional Staff at Monash University, Australia.

References

Butler, J. (2022). Alan Tudge to remain on backbench after report into allegations by former staffer released. The Guardian. (4 March 2022). Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/ mar/04/alan-tudge-to-remain-on-backbench-after-report-intoallegations-by-former-staffer-released Howard, L. (2006). Drop dead gorgeous. New York, Ballantine Books. Jones, B. (2018). Stuart Robert’s litany of transgressions. Independent Australia. (16 October 2018). Retrieved from https:// independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/stuart-robertslitany-of-transgressions,12001 The Age. (2022). Editorial, 24 March. Retrieved from https://www. theage.com.au/national/victoria/minister-s-dud-teachers-remarkwasn-t-helpful-20220323-p5a74d.html