Traditional Humanities out: Creative Industries in

I nevertheless remain unconvinced that Creative Industries can deliver the educational outcomes that are the hallmark of the humanities disciplines.

Creative Industries provides specific training across a range of creative arts fields. It does not offer a generalist degree that would introduce students to the breadth of study one associates with the Bachelor of Arts.

Let me now move on to my third and final point. Suppose we admit for the sake of argument that advertising and marketing are powerful tools. Let us therefore imagine that QUT succeeds in its upcoming campaign to re-badge Creative Industries as an arts faculty.

What sort of university will QUT be without humanities and social sciences? It will be a university of some 40,000 students who will have no opportunity to pursue in-depth study in fields like History, Geography, Politics, and Sociology, to mention only some of the areas now facing the axe.

Consider the fact that QUT’s Education Faculty happens to be one of the nation’s largest centres for teacher training. The staff in the present School of Humanities and Human Services are the sole providers of discipline content to QUT education students.

New national policy directives developed by COAF (the Council for the Australian Federation) have re-positioned History and Geography in particular as key target subjects to be taught in the new school curriculum. Will QUT’s education students do drama and dance in the place of History and Geography? How will that affect their ability to qualify as competent practitioners in their chosen profession?

But why stop with our future teachers? What about our future lawyers, or our future journalists? How will the axing of humanities and social sciences at QUT enhance their educational opportunities?

Students notoriously vote with their feet. Over the 13 years that I have been at QUT, thousands of students have braved the long trek out to Carseldine campus to study history. Many of them have been pleasantly surprised by what they have found: something like a liberal arts college atmosphere, where they are encouraged to hone their skills in the arts of debate and critical enquiry. Sadly, students looking for this kind of educational experience may soon have to look elsewhere.