Big Ideas Can an arts degree change the world? A defence of the study humanities at Australian universities
Mar 2, 2026
Stephen Garton, distinguished historian and President of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, reflects on the wartime origins of Australian higher education and its role in national transformation. He explores how governments funded and shaped universities, the contested place of humanities in research policy, threats from funding shortfalls and cultural conflicts, and a call to renew investment and data to safeguard critical disciplines.
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Scholarships Drove Postwar University Expansion
- Postwar policy prioritized widening access via means-tested scholarships and the Commonwealth Reconstruction Training Scheme.
- The CRTS enrolled almost 40,000 veterans and by 1958 university numbers tripled compared with a decade earlier, reshaping Australia's workforce.
ANU Built For Research But Excluded The Humanities
- The ANU was created in 1947 to train research workers for the Commonwealth but explicitly excluded humanities and creative arts from initial research funding.
- Ministers wanted trainees in medicine, science and social sciences, limiting early humanities research support.
Bring Back An Independent Higher Education Commission
- Stephen Garton argues we lost system-level policymaking when John Dawkins scrapped independent commissions for public service control.
- He suggests reinstating an ATEC-like body to do horizon scanning, data and long-term coordination across universities and government.