Rodney Nillsen's website
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nillsen@uow.edu.au 		Universities and Higher Education
 
 

.... there are two methods of Education; the end of the one is to be philosophical, of the other to be mechanical; the one rises towards general ideas, the other is exhausted upon what is particular and external...... for these are methods, which have little or no effect on the mind itself, .... and bear upon an end external to themselves. But education is a higher word; it implies an action on our mental nature, and the formation of a character; it is something individual and permanent.
                                                                      - John Henry Newman

The higher mental activities are pretty tough and resilient, but it is a devastating experience if the drive does stop. Some people lose it in their forties and can only stop. In England they are a source of Vice-Chancellors.
                                                                      - J. E. Littlewood



Submission to the Bradley Enquiry (2008)
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Publications and other items
Robert M. Pirsig on The Two Universities, being an excerpt from his book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, published in 1974.

Rodney Nillsen, Don't do what Australia has done, Quadrant, November 2004, pp. 26-29.

Rodney Nillsen, The concept of integrity in teaching and learning, Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice, 2 (3), 2005, pp. 96-105.

Malcolm Saunders, The madness and malady of managerialism Quadrant, March 2006, pp. 9-17.

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Rodney Nillsen, Universities need to find their own voice, a paper based upon an invited address given at the The Big Picture Debate sponsored by the Academic Senate of the University of Wollongong and delivered on Wednesday 18th November, 2009.

Rodney Nillsen, Changes of culture and purpose in Australian universities: 1988 to the present, proceedings of the conference "The University -- meeting place of confrontation between reason and faith" (translated from the Slovak), held in Badin, Slovakia, September 2011.

Rodney Nillsen, Higher education policy and cultural change in universities, Proceedings of the 2016 Annual Conference of the Independent Scholars Association of Australia, 2020, pp. 93-112.

In May 2023, the Independent Scholars Association of Australia made a submission in response to the discussion paper of the panel considering the proposed universities accord. The submission may be viewed here.

In August 2023, the Independent Scholars Association of Australia (ISAA) responded to the Interim Report released by the universities accord panel following submissions received on its earlier discussion paper. You can read the ISAA response to the Interim Report.

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