On this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer speaks to Paul Morrissey, President of Campion College about a liberal education.

Robert Menzies was a firm believer in the value of a broad liberal education. The Menzies Government reinvigorated and greatly expanded Australia’s university system through both the implementation of the Murray Report into Higher Education and the introduction of merit-based Commonwealth Scholarships, but Menzies insisted that this ground-breaking investment was not based on the mere utilitarianism of boosting the economy by training people for jobs. He wanted universities to create well rounded citizens who would serve and uphold Australia’s democracy, and he wanted to encourage a search for truth that viewed life’s purpose as something greater than felicific calculus.

This fundamental question, ‘what is the purpose of a university education?’, remains highly relevant, particularly in an era where universities increasingly function as businesses and their budgets have been devastated by shrinking international student numbers.

Paul is the President of Campion College where he also lectures in theology. Paul became president of Campion in 2015 after a career teaching theology and religious studies at university and high school. After completing his Licentiate in Sacred Theology at the Lateran University in Rome and his Doctorate at the Catholic Institute in Sydney, Paul taught systematic and moral theology at the University of Notre Dame for eight years. He has published numerous papers in New Blackfriars, Nova et Vetera, Logos and Solidarity.