The chancellor of the Australian National University has issued a stark warning for institutions to "look cautiously at the teeth" of any philanthrophic funding deal with the John Howard-headed Ramsay Centre.
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Speaking to university leaders at a national conference on Thursday, Gareth Evans laid out further detail of the ANU's own failed negotiations with the centre to create a new degree in Western civilisation - a deal which could have netted up to $60 million for the university over eight years.
In June, a media storm engulfed the ANU when it abruptly pulled out of talks with the centre over concerns about academic freedom.
The move was slammed as gutless by conservatives, drawing even the scrutiny of the then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, as Ramsay board chair John Howard rejected claims they had sought to compromise the university's autonomy.
The centre, which also includes former prime minister Tony Abbott on its board, is offering up to three Australian universities part of a $3 billion bequest from late healthcare magnate Paul Ramsay to establish a "great books course" that promotes "an interest in and awareness of Western civilisation", as well as generous scholarships.
It is now in talks with two other Go8 institutions, the University of Sydney and the University of Queensland, though academics at both campuses have been pushing back against the proposal in recent weeks.
On Thursday, Mr Evans said he felt the need to lay out "the dilemmas we faced" in the negotiating room with "the extraordinarily prescriptive [and] controlling" Ramsay Centre". That included demands to sit in on classes to monitor content and veto power over curriculum and staffing decisions, he said.
"I would respectfully suggest to my colleagues elsewhere that they may need to look as cautiously as we did at the teeth of this particular gift horse," Mr Evans said.
"Hopefully there will, by now, have been some serious rethinking on the Ramsay side, and less such alarms will now be sounding."
The first alarm bell for Mr Evans rang when a draft memorandum of understanding returned from the centre 70 pages long. In that document was an "unprecedented" level of detail and prescription, he said, and it spoke to a lack of trust in the ANU's ability to deliver the course.
While the university had agreed to a formal annual review, or "health checks", Mr Evans said it later emerged that Ramsay representatives wanted to monitor the implementation of the program itself.
They had also refused to negotiate on the name of the degree, rebuffing ANU attempts to add the word "studies" to its title in line with existing ANU degrees such as "European Studies", Mr Evans said.
But the almost "knock-out blow" came when the Ramsay Centre flatly refused to commit to the principle of academic freedom, the chancellor told his audience.
"A draft sentence reading 'the parties to this MOU acknowledge each other’s objectives and their shared commitment to the principles of academic freedom' came back to us with the words 'their shared commitment' struck out and 'ANU’s commitment' substituted!"
As detailed on its website during the six-month-long negotiations, the ANU had initially accepted the creation of a "partnership management committee", with equal numbers from both the Ramsay Centre and the university to oversee the new course.
Vice-chancellor Brian Schmidt previously told Fairfax Media this was "unusual" but stressed the gift on offer was also unprecedented and the university was committed to bringing it to life.
On Thursday, Mr Evans said that the committee had at first seemed to exist for a 'fairly innocuous" purpose: to negotiate the finances and mechanics of the degree.
Its true purpose appeared to become clearer when board member Tony Abbott outlined Ramsay's vision for the degree as "not merely about Western Civilisation but in favour of it" in a Quandrant article, adding that this committee would make curriculum and staffing decisions.
"We had no problem with [them] having a voice in curriculum design or in staff appointments. But only a voice, not a controlling influence," Mr Evans said.
The Ramsay Centre was not able to respond to requests for comment before deadline but has previously said final academic decisions on the degree would rest with universities.
Mr Evans rejected claims from "an army of...editorial writers in the Murdoch press" that the ANU had bowed to pressure from academics and the university union to dump the degree.
"It was absolutely not that kind of thinking that had anything to do with our decision," he said.
The university remained attracted to the idea of a "great books" course and its door was open to another approach by the Ramsay Centre, though Mr Evans added: "we are not holding our breath".
Since the deal broke down, the University of Sydney has drafted its own MOU for a partnership with Ramsay, which is expected to be put to vote by the university senate in the coming weeks.
A spokeswoman said the university was consulting with staff on the draft, which protected its academic freedom by requiring the program to go through the university's usual processes.
At the University of Queensland, a spokeswoman said it had made no committment beyond deciding to submit an expression of interest to the centre. If negotiations progressed, the university would consult more widely with staff and students and make any resulting MOU public, she said, but partnership was contingent on the university's autonomy.
