Liberal and Internationally Focused Education

Trinity's enthusiasm for providing students with a 'large and liberal education' can claim impeccable historical credentials. It was an outstanding bishop-educator, James Moorhouse, later Chancellor of the University of Melbourne, who invested the young College with this worthy aim at the birth of its Theological School in 1877. Unfortunately, however, the Australian university system is not well tailored to provide students with a liberal education. Indeed, not many university mission statements promise it. Early specialisation of undergraduate course work in professional and vocational programs, the limited time available between classes and assessment for extra-curricular activities, the utilitarian thrust of government higher education policies, student subject choices, and above all perhaps, the absence of a collegiate residential experience for most Australian students, have collectively conspired to deprive most Australian undergraduates of any sustained exposure to a genuinely large and liberal education.

The needs of graduates in the 21st century include the high-order skills, knowledge, and values necessary to succeed, to live fulfilling lives of service, and to be active citizens:

• In a highly competitive global 'knowledge economy',
• In a world of rapid change and growth of knowledge, where generic skills of independent thinking, effective communication, teamwork, and an aptitude and motivation for 'lifelong learning' will be more important than ever,
• In a world which cannot be understood without scientific and technological literacy,
• Where international forces increasingly shape most aspects of life, and where a sympathetic understanding of other nations, cultures, and religions and a capacity to work with people of other cultures are profoundly important,
• In an increasingly diverse Australia, including an Australia in which sympathetic awareness of indigenous issues is essential, and
• Where the importance of integrity and ethical conduct, including in business, and a sense of decency in all aspects of life is paramount.

Trinity College believes that these needs are best met by students receiving a truly liberal education, either as the context within which they undertake more specialised and professional studies or as a prelude to such studies. A large and liberal education - which takes place both within and outside the classroom - is characterised by:

• an emphasis on intellectual and personal breadth, including sympathetic awareness of a wide range of human experience and thought;
• the encouragement of key intellectual skills such as independent and creative thinking, combined with a logical approach to research and, over-ridingly, the encouragement of an intellectual hunger; and
• encouragement of ethical and humane values, and of active citizenship.

The form of 'large and liberal education' offered at Trinity College will be distinctive to a college which draws on historic western tradition and current practice of the finest western institutions, but is fully at home and engaged in an Asia-Pacific region of diverse cultures and an Australian society which brings together indigenous Australians with immigrants and their descendents from an increasingly diverse range of countries and cultures. Trinity's large and liberal education will necessarily include encouraging 'Asia literacy' amongst all students, and awareness of indigenous Australian experience.

Such an education, curricular and extra-curricular, aims to help students place their developing specialist knowledge in a context of a wider knowledge, skills, and values. It helps them meet the needs of the 21st century - to be able to think for themselves; to communicate and share expertise with others; to respond creatively to change; to master new bodies of knowledge; to engage with people of other cultures, nations, and faiths; to combine at least some scientific and technological literacy with humane understanding; and to see linkages between different fields of knowledge.

While recognising the constraints within which it operates, Trinity believes that it should strive to immerse its members in a liberal education of the highest quality it can achieve. A liberal education comprises a particular kind of curriculum in combination with a range of extra-curricular experiences, and the latter is most easily provided in a residential environment. Trinity's Foundation Studies students are beneficiaries of a liberal curriculum, and its residential undergraduate students are beneficiaries of a variety of extra-curricular activities as well as other College programs. The College now wishes to expand opportunities to expose all of its members to the benefits of both forms of educational experience, and also to encourage all students to participate in the increasingly rich intellectual life on offer to them outside the classroom, such as in special lectures or seminars by distinguished visitors within the College, the wider University, in partner institutions, and in the wider community.

Liberal education is founded on the principle that human potential transcends cultural, religious and socio-economic backgrounds; that both the individual and society are enriched by the development of such potential; and that this requires educational elements distinctive from those found in career-specific education. The great challenge for Trinity is to develop a culture in which all of its students will be influenced by the ideals of a liberal education, even in the face of pressures to early specialisation within professional, vocational or other highly specialised degree programs. In accepting this challenge Trinity recognizes that in a rapidly globalising world such qualities as creativity, lateral thinking, flexibility, international awareness, and openness to new ideas and knowledge are likely to become even more valuable and eagerly sought after by employers than in the past.

In the Trinity context a liberal education covers considerably more than a formal study curriculum, and high among the humane values which the College seeks to inculcate in its membership is a strong sense of social responsibility and a commitment to social justice. It wishes to forge new opportunities for its students to develop leadership capacities and skills, and to offer them encouragement to volunteer for community service. Indeed, in assisting students to find a convincing moral framework for their personal decision-making, the College wishes to inspire in them a fierce commitment to the highest standards of interpersonal, professional and business ethics.

Although Trinity cannot dictate the course content or structure of the University of Melbourne's degree programs, it can and will seek to offer its own students access to a larger and more liberal campus experience and to encourage the University to incorporate a liberal philosophy wherever possible in its own programs. Trinity College Foundation Studies core curriculum already contains History of Ideas, English Literature, and Drama, while the residential College experience includes access and exposure to a wide range of religious, cultural, intellectual and sporting activities. The College wishes to pursue these opportunities more systematically and more vigorously.