Saving history from becoming history

The Australian Historical Association is upset by the hike in humanities course costs

“It is unnecessarily punitive and displays a remarkably narrow view of the very purpose of a tertiary education,” the AHA argues.

The association could probably do with vice chancellors making statements of support on the same lines. Because if students do turn out to be price sensitive Australian history could be out of undergraduates.

Last year Paul Sendziuk (Uni Adelaide) and Martin Crotty (Uni Queensland) asked all ANZ history departments what they taught. They found the average Aus history upper level subject has 49 students, compared to war and society with 91 and American history with 79, (CMM June 17 2019).

And so, they asked if, “it should be a moral obligation, or an obligation of citizenship, for ANZ history departments/groupings to teach a sufficient number of courses in the histories of their own nations and Indigenous peoples.” Which they answered; “it is probably fair to say that most academic historians are sympathetic to the teaching of the history of one’s own nation and Indigenous peopleregardless of student demand.”

Lines historians may need again.