Opponents of a Ramsay Centre for Western Civ degree at the University of Queensland are upping the argument, lest management moves fast.

Last week University of Wollongong opponents of a Ramsay degree there copped a coup de main, with management announcing process was complete and the course would start next year. Now the UoQ branch of the National Tertiary Education Union is getting out in front, announcing a protest for next Monday’s university senate meeting.

The union warns the Ramsay Centre and its donors will have opportunities to intervene in any course offered but it is also adopting the argument now being used by UniWollongong opponents of Ramsay – that it is company UoQ cannot afford to keep.

“The cultural chauvinism and whitewashing of colonialism evident in the proposed curriculum and public statements of proponents of the Ramsay Centre” plus that it is “incompatible with UQ’s commitments to reconciliation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples,” mean “a Ramsay Centre relationship “risks long-term reputational damage to UQ.”