tag:theconversation.com,2011:/id/topics/la-trobe-university-3810/articlesLa Trobe University – The Conversation2020-12-03T04:33:17Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1510962020-12-03T04:33:17Z2020-12-03T04:33:17Z6 unis had Hindi programs. Soon there could be only 1, and that’s not in Australia’s best interests<p>La Trobe University is in talks to <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/language/english/audio/la-trobe-university-s-hindi-program-at-risk-of-being-axed">discontinue its Hindi program</a>, along with Greek and Indonesian. In the mid-1990s, <a href="https://www.aii.unimelb.edu.au/publications/very-short-policy-brief/strategies-to-expand-hindi-education-in-australia/">six Australian universities taught Hindi</a>. If La Trobe ends its program, Australia will be left with just one university (ANU in Canberra) that teaches Hindi. </p>
<p>This would be a significant setback for Hindi in Australia. The decision reflects a COVID-induced <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/hundreds-more-university-jobs-to-go-as-la-trobe-vic-uni-announce-cuts-20200813-p55lbo.html">budget crunch at La Trobe</a>, but also a long-term <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-hawke-to-turnbull-asian-language-learning-in-decline-47163">decline in the study of Asian languages</a> in Australia.</p>
<h2>Good relations with India are vital</h2>
<p>Hindi’s decline may seem strange, since it’s the <a href="https://www.latrobe.edu.au/news/articles/2014/opinion/is-hindi-indias-new-english">official language of India</a>, with <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/other/hindi/guide/facts.shtml">more than half-a-billion speakers</a>. Australians have a growing interest in India and <a href="https://www.aii.unimelb.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Report-Australian-Engagement-Indias-Higher-Education-System-Freeman.pdf">connections between Australian and Indian universities are increasing</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/hindi-indias-new-english-28259">Hindi: India's new English</a>
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<p>Given the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-australia-china-relationship-is-unravelling-faster-than-we-could-have-imagined-145836">current tensions with China</a>, Australia’s relationship with India – and other large Asian nations – has never been more important.</p>
<p>Even before the feud with China, the benefits of improving the Australia-India relationship were <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/%7E/media/wopapub/house/committee/jfadt/India/indiach2_pdf.ashx">widely acknowledged</a>. Australia and India have <a href="https://india.embassy.gov.au/ndli/pa5009jsa.html">converging geostrategic interests</a>. There is tremendous potential for mutual benefit by enhancing economic, social and cultural ties.</p>
<p>Here in Australia, the Indian diaspora is large, <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/language/english/indian-population-in-australia-increases-30-per-cent-in-less-than-two-years-now-the-third-largest-migrant-group-in-australia">numbering around 660,000</a>, and <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/language/english/indian-population-in-australia-increases-30-per-cent-in-less-than-two-years-now-the-third-largest-migrant-group-in-australia">growing fast</a>. </p>
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<p>In the 2016 census, Hindi was <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/language/english/hindi-is-the-top-indian-language-spoken-in-australia">among the fastest-growing languages</a> in Australia. A closely related language, Punjabi, was the fastest-growing.</p>
<p>Community enthusiasm for Hindi is reflected in more than 2,400 community members signing <a href="http://chng.it/SX2NTCjzKF">a petition</a> to save the La Trobe program.</p>
<h2>Language helps bridge diplomatic gaps</h2>
<p>In 2018, University of Queensland chancellor <a href="https://about.uq.edu.au/chancellor">Peter Varghese</a>, a former senior diplomat and public servant, released his government-commissioned <a href="https://www.dfat.gov.au/geo/india/ies/pdf/dfat-an-india-economic-strategy-to-2035.pdf">India Economic Strategy to 2035</a>. This report sought to guide Australia’s engagement with India for years to come. </p>
<p>Varghese noted Australia has struggled to match its enthusiasm for India with substantive engagement. Efforts to establish connections often fall short due to failures of mutual understanding.</p>
<p>The report argues “people-to-people” links between Australia and India will be as important as political linkages. They will help shape perceptions and foster mutual understanding in ways political delegations could never do.</p>
<p>Varghese was not alone. The Victoria government’s 2019 <a href="https://www.vic.gov.au/victorias-india-strategy">India Strategy</a> made its first priority to “celebrate and strengthen our personal connections”.</p>
<p>Most recently, the 2020 <a href="https://www.dfat.gov.au/geo/india/Pages/joint-statement-comprehensive-strategic-partnership-between-republic-india-and-australia">joint statement</a> on a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between Australia and India, signed by their prime ministers, Scott Morrison and Narendra Modi, gives people-to-people connections a prominent place in “enriching all aspects of bilateral ties”.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-and-india-some-way-to-go-yet-76085">Australia and India: some way to go yet</a>
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<p>Government talk of “people-to-people connection” has not been followed up with support for this goal. In particular, support for language programs has languished.</p>
<h2>Classes foster people-to-people connections</h2>
<p>Language education cultivates people-to-people connections. These personal connections start from the very first day of a language class.</p>
<p>Hindi classrooms in Australia have immediate positive effects for Australian students and society. Students are immersed in a complex of perspectives that reflect life in all parts of South Asia and in global diaspora communities.</p>
<p>Hindi language teachers capitalise on the bicultural experiences of students with South Asian heritage. These students are already experts in negotiating a relationship between Indian and Australian cultures. These skills make our students the best ambassadors for Australia in the “nooks” of Indian life that evade official state actors.</p>
<p>Equal contributors to our classrooms are non-heritage students who enrol in tertiary-level Hindi courses because of their personal interest in South Asia. Together, heritage and non-heritage students negotiate learning Hindi and understanding Indian culture. They form lasting friendships that deepen the ways in which Australians of many different backgrounds understand each other.</p>
<p>Cultivating culturally literate Indian-Australian and non-Indian-Australian speakers of Hindi depends on providing a learning environment that is found only in university classrooms.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/get-ready-to-learn-hindi-education-in-the-asian-century-10394">Get ready to learn Hindi: education in the Asian century</a>
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<p>La Trobe’s proposal, by halving the national university-level Hindi teaching capacity, would also undermine our capacity for building human connections between India and Australia.</p>
<h2>A blow to the local Hindi ecosystem</h2>
<p>University-level Hindi programs <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=m9QRBwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=van+lier+ecology&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=van%20lier%20ecology&f=false">form part of larger language ecosystems</a>. They depend on thriving primary and high school programs. This ensures a supply of Hindi students and educators at all levels. </p>
<p>In Melbourne, <a href="https://www.aii.unimelb.edu.au/publications/very-short-policy-brief/strategies-to-expand-hindi-education-in-australia/">a Hindi language ecosystem was just starting to take root</a>. Two schools, Rangebrook Primary and The Grange College, now offer Hindi as their main language other than English. A number of energetic informal networks and societies focus on Hindi language and literature. </p>
<p>La Trobe’s Hindi conferences and events have been an important focal point for these groups over a number of years.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-languages-should-children-be-learning-to-get-ahead-74305">What languages should children be learning to get ahead?</a>
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<p>The loss of the La Trobe program is thus not only a blow to students wishing to study Hindi at a university level, but also to this entire emerging Hindi language ecosystem.</p>
<p>While dynamic and engaging curriculums are needed to ensure sustainable Hindi programs at Australian universities, they are not enough on their own. There must also be sustained government support for establishing Hindi ecosystems in clusters around these universities.</p>
<p>One of us made this point in a co-authored <a href="https://www.aii.unimelb.edu.au/publications/very-short-policy-brief/strategies-to-expand-hindi-education-in-australia/">policy brief</a> published in 2018. It echoes <a href="https://www.bookdepository.com/Unlocking-Australias-Language-Potential-Hindi-Urdu-Marika-Vicziany/9781875578474">commentary</a> by others on the decline of Hindi education in Australia since the mid-1990s. Current events in Australia and in the Indo-Pacific should make it clear why we need to reverse this trend.</p>
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<p><em>Update: In the months after publication of this article, La Trobe University announced its <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/la-trobe-s-greek-language-program-saved-by-community-cash-injection-20201217-p56ofa.html">Greek</a>, <a href="http://www.southasiatimes.com.au/news/?p=12112">Hindi</a> and Indonesian programs would be retained for the time being.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/151096/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher L. Diamond is affiliated with the School of Culture, History, and Language in the College of Asia & the Pacific at the Australian National University. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Trent Brown is affiliated with the School of Geography at the University of Melbourne and the Australia India Institute. </span></em></p>Hindi is the most widely spoken language of India and of the many people of Indian origin in Australia. The teaching of Hindi has been in decline at a time when the need for it has never been greater.Christopher L. Diamond, Lecturer in Hindi, Australian National UniversityTrent Brown, DECRA Research Fellow, School of Geography, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/600422016-05-27T05:09:37Z2016-05-27T05:09:37ZLa Trobe University’s fossil fuel divestment: a small, but significant step<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/124271/original/image-20160527-869-1n9kptd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">La Trobe University becomes the first in Australia to move towards fossil fuel divestment after pressure from students, staff and alumni. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-245237335/stock-photo-melbourne-australia-july-the-bundoora-campus-of-la-trobe-university-has-students.html?src=CNnPSPUdDDmhYdi2JViX7Q-1-0">Nils Versemann from www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>La Trobe University this week became the <a href="http://www.latrobe.edu.au/news/articles/2016/release/la-trobe-signals-fossil-fuel-divestment">first Australian university to commit to full fossil fuel divestment</a>, having pledged to do so over the next five years. This is the result of campaigning by staff and students at university campuses. </p>
<p>The university holds an investment of A$40 million in a managed fund. Over the next five years it will work with the fund manager to create a portfolio that does not invest in the 200 most carbon-intensive listed companies.</p>
<p>The university reported:</p>
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<p>The change was in response to suggestions by a group of students and staff passionate about reducing the impact of climate change and lobbied university leaders to change its investment strategy. </p>
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<p>Even though such decisions have been criticised on the basis that there is a trade-off between sustainability and profitability, Vice-Chancellor John Dewar argued that these were actually compatible. </p>
<p>This is a relatively enlightened view, based on the premise that decisions based on sustainable criteria actually perform better in the long run. This can occur through reducing risk and improving stakeholder relationships and, in turn, reputation.</p>
<h2>Other Australian unis</h2>
<p>Other universities have made smaller but similar decisions. In 2014, the Australian National University (ANU) announced it would <a href="http://vcdesk.anu.edu.au/2014/10/09/anu-divestment/">divest from seven companies</a> as a component of its Socially Responsible Investment Policy. This amounts to only 5% of the university’s domestic equity and the value of shares to be sold is around A$16 million.</p>
<p>In February this year, Sydney University put <a href="http://sydney.edu.au/news/84.html?newsstoryid=14575">a freeze on new fossil fuel investments</a> and it plans to reduce its investments in fossil fuel companies. But this action has been criticised as being <a href="https://theconversation.com/coal-divestment-and-democracy-31764%E2%80%8B">tokenistic without a clear plan for full divestment</a>. </p>
<p>Divestment campaigns have been significantly driven by the activist group 350.org, which has <a href="http://350.org.au/news/sydney-universitys-partial-divestment-plan-a-positive-but-they-can-and-must-divest-the-rest/">reported</a>:</p>
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<p>Over the last two years, more than 180 institutions representing US$50 billion in assets have committed to divest. There are now more than 500 active divestment campaigns under way at universities, cities, churches, banks and other institutions.</p>
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<h2>Benefits for the university</h2>
<p>Universities are in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/want-to-know-if-the-paris-climate-deal-is-working-university-divestment-is-the-litmus-test-59263">perfect position to take the lead</a> in enacting the values that they have been built upon. </p>
<p>In this regard La Trobe University has a <a href="http://www.latrobe.edu.au/about/vision/supporting-strategies">key platform on sustainability</a>, which states:</p>
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<p>We will operate sustainably and ethically … The University’s response to climate change, and to sustainability more broadly, requires us to consider carefully our ethical choices and everyday practices.</p>
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<p>This divestment decision is fully in line with the university’s espoused values and strategies. </p>
<p>This is the very reason students and staff are increasingly pressuring universities to ensure they take action. Students are looking to their places of study for leadership. The student population frowns upon conflict between values and actions, which affects decisions as to where they will study. </p>
<p>Even though climate-interested investors are increasing in numbers, the outcomes for the economy and investors depend on getting traction with other investors.</p>
<p>There needs to be a pool of funds that can be invested in similar ways. It is not just the impact of ethical investment funds here that can bring about change; increasingly we see the impact of what are called <a href="http://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/environmental-social-and-governance-esg-criteria.asp">Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) funds</a>.</p>
<p>These funds invest in companies based on the measurement and reduction of their impact in terms of the environment, social and governance criteria. </p>
<h2>Is it meaningful?</h2>
<p>However, one argument is that divestment does not drive change and that institutions can exert more influence by staying invested. This can occur through influencing company strategies and decision-making; in this way, using a voice rather than exiting the market is seen to be more effective.</p>
<p>Other criticisms are that such decisions are simply public relations exercises that will not actually influence the behaviours of these fossil fuel companies. It is argued that there are always other investors who will continue to invest in these companies and so the net effect is negligible.</p>
<p>But increasingly owners of companies (investors) are realising their influence on company behaviour. They understand that by pooling funds investors can influence companies’ climate behaviour. Hence there is scope for investors, in this case universities, to be more active and to use the power of their investment holdings transparently to change corporate behaviours. </p>
<p>This may be by divestment, but it can also be by using the influence and power of their shareholdings through discussion and negotiation with the companies. There is scope for universities to form a bloc to do so collectively, although such an approach has not been much in evidence so far. </p>
<p>So will La Trobe University’s actions to divest from fossil fuels bring about changes in the behaviour of fossil fuel companies? Probably not, but as a leader in the sector in this regard it will not harm the university’s reputation, and it may build momentum and form the basis of such action increasingly being seen as a new norm.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/60042/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Suzanne Young does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>La Trobe University is the first Australian university to commit to divesting fully from fossil fuels, but will it have any impact?Suzanne Young, Associate Professor. Head of Department, La Trobe Business School, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/94652012-09-18T06:35:51Z2012-09-18T06:35:51ZSorry Vice-Chancellor, your humanities cuts will hurt La Trobe<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/15332/original/h7689wdm-1347341850.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">La Trobe's reputation could be under threat if humanities cuts go ahead.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">phil.lees</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The cuts to the humanities and social sciences faculty at La Trobe University have been the source of much debate among the academic community, and anger among affected staff and students.</p>
<p>This culminated in a stand-off between protestors and Vice-Chancellor John Dewar at the university’s open day last month.</p>
<p>But the ensuing fracas has also resulted in various claims and counter-claims being circulated in the press. A case in point is Vice-Chancellor Professor John Dewar’s recent <a href="https://theconversation.com/vice-chancellor-la-trobe-protestors-abused-freedom-of-speech-9104">contribution to The Conversation</a>, in which he made some questionable claims about the state of humanities at La Trobe.</p>
<h2>Questionable student ratios</h2>
<p>Professor Dewar suggests that La Trobe needs to streamline its subjects in the Humanities and Social Sciences because it offers “one for every seven students”. </p>
<p>The Vice-Chancellor refers to 916 subjects against a 2010 enrolment of 7,163 full-time equivalent students, which is one subject for every 7.8 students. However, this 916 figure is wrong. It double-counts subjects offered simultaneously to second and third year students. It also includes “reading subjects” that do not involve lectures or tutorials and which rarely receive enrolments at all. </p>
<p>It over-counts language subjects by triple and quadruple in most instances. Adjusting this to reflect subjects that are <em>actually</em> taught in 2012 – approximately 500, rather than 916 – we get a figure of one subject for 14.3 full-time equivalent students (which is an average of 114 students per class, since students take 8 subjects per year). This is a far more reasonable subject-student ratio.</p>
<p>Professor Dewar also suggests that the subject offerings at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences are three times more numerous than those of our local competitors. </p>
<p>But given the above correction, it is not clear that there is any significant difference between our offerings and those of our competitors, especially when it is taken into account that La Trobe needs to offer subjects to five separate regional campuses.</p>
<h2>Student enrolments are increasing</h2>
<p>According to Professor Dewar, the redundancies will be drawn from areas where student enrolments have been “at a record-low for a number of years”. </p>
<p>However, enrolment figures in the official May 2012 budget contest this claim. The Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences reached its 2012 yearly enrolment target by the first semester census date, exceeding its goal at the Melbourne campus (Bundoora) by 11%. </p>
<p>While it is true that 2011 enrolments were down on expectations, this was an exception, not a norm. In 2012, enrolments were up across the faculty at the start of the year, in English, Sociology, Politics, and many other areas. This is why the Faculty’s academic staff are finding the deep level of cuts difficult to accept. </p>
<p>History will lose 43% of its academic staff, Sociology will shed 37% and many other areas will lose around 30%. Not only were enrolments up at the start of 2012, student survey results captured on the <a href="myuniversity.gov.au">MyUniversity</a> website provides an overall satisfaction rate of 86.7% for humanities including history and geography, an 88.8% rate for language and literature, and a 92.7% overall satisfaction rate for political science. These ratings are significantly higher than those at the University of Melbourne.</p>
<h2>A blow to morale</h2>
<p>These important errors in Professor Dewar’s contribution to The Conversation cannot but undermine the confidence that employees should have in their management. Staff morale is at an all-time low, a blow to the ethic of civility and collegiality that is central to the functioning of a university.</p>
<p>The Vice-Chancellor would do well to heed the sentiment expressed by well-known Professors Robert Manne and Peter Beilharz in their edited book <a href="http://www.readings.com.au/product/9781863952460/">Reflected Light: La Trobe Essays</a>. </p>
<p>Manne and Beilharz write:</p>
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<p>Like all institutions, universities are subject to constant change – driven by internal rhythms, external financial pressures, student demand, movements in intellectual fashion, shifts in the national and the international mood. Their challenge is to respond sanely to these forces without betraying the values that lie at their heart. </p>
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<p>No doubt this is a difficult challenge, but their book showcases exactly what La Trobe stands to lose if cuts of this magnitude come into effect. Not only does this volume of La Trobe essays include many of Australia’s best-known public intellectuals, it also reminds us that in 2005 the quality of research in this faculty saw it ranked in the <a href="http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/hybrid.asp?typeCode=180">top 25 humanities faculties in the world</a> by the Times Higher Education Supplement. </p>
<p>In 2012, the faculty retains quality teachers and researchers, performing well on Excellence in Research Australia measures, and offering courses that are popular with students.</p>
<p>Perhaps most importantly, Professors Manne and Beilharz remind us of the vital role of the liberal arts for the tradition of the Western university. </p>
<p>Ironically, if these cuts proceed, the effects of reputational costs and impacts on workload may well undermine the university’s ability to continue to use the humanities and social sciences as a source of revenue, compromising the future of the university as a whole.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/9465/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Virginia Mansel Lees is an academic in the La Trobe Rural Health School Department of Social Work & Social Policy at La Trobe University Albury Wodonga Campus. She writes this piece as the President of the La Trobe University Branch of the National Tertiary Education Union. </span></em></p>The cuts to the humanities and social sciences faculty at La Trobe University have been the source of much debate among the academic community, and anger among affected staff and students. This culminated…Virginia Mansel Lees, Lecturer, Faculty of Health Sciences, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.