1
You joined Janet Clarke Hall from the University of Durham. What are some of the similarities and differences between university colleges here and in the UK?
In the UK it is the norm for students to move away from their hometown to attend university, whereas in Australia many more students choose to study at their ‘local’ or nearest university. This means that there is the opportunity for residential colleges to develop high-quality ‘non-res’ student offerings to attract those students who continue to live at home but who still want the pro-social experience of a residential college.
It is more common for students in Australia to study a broader range of subjects, especially in the early years of their degree, whereas in the UK students apply for a very specific degree programme. This is especially true of the University of Melbourne where, following the introduction of the Melbourne Model in 2008, students opt for a programme in Arts, Science, Biomedicine, Design, Commerce, Music, etc., and specialise only at postgraduate level. I believe this ‘liberal arts’ style programme benefits a residential college like Janet Clarke Hall where we aim to encourage and facilitate an intellectual curiosity in our students and the desire to learn outside of one’s own discipline. The most pressing problems we face as a species will not be solved by the graduates of one discipline alone, and I believe that it’s in the interstitial spaces between disciplines that the most innovative and impactful solutions will be found by researchers and practitioners who have been trained to think in an interdisciplinary way.
2
The university sector has been through a significant amount of change in the past few years and this will continue for the foreseeable future. How have the pressures the higher education sector is facing impacted on residential colleges and what opportunities/challenges has this created for Janet Clarke Hall?
The higher education sector is facing numerous stressors right now including unsustainable funding models; uncertainty over the potential cap on international students; shifting student demographics; the implications of technological advancements including generative AI; and changing societal expectations about the level of support provided to students, particularly around mental health and wellbeing.
Locally, we’re seeing the knock-on effects of many of these. Whilst we are an affiliated college and do not receive any financial support from the University, it obviously adversely affects our students and our community if key student services within the university like counselling are understaffed or under resourced.
Last year’s proposed changes to international student caps caused uncertainty and anxiety amongst current and prospective international students. Australian universities are already in stiff competition with the best institutions in the US and the UK for these students and it is unfortunate that there is now a sense (rightly or wrongly) that Australia is not a welcoming place. I believe we must move away from deficit thinking about international students towards an assets-based approach, recognising that they contribute far more than hefty tuition fees.
One of the current challenges that we’re facing is that gender has become a key factor in outcomes of higher education in Australia. In 2020, 49.2% of young women had a degree compared with only 36.4% of young men. We know that young women are now more likely to apply to university, more likely to apply to a Go8 university, and more likely to apply to a residential college whilst at university. This means that Janet Clarke Hall, like many other colleges around Australia, is receiving many more applications from young women than young men (obviously, there is a growing number of students who identify as genderqueer or non-binary, too). We want to ensure a balanced community so that our Student Club can field male sports teams, for example, and so the colleges at the University of Melbourne are going to be doing a proactive communication piece with Victorian and interstate schools in 2025 to ensure that young men in particular are aware of the opportunities on offer. At a time when young men are increasingly vulnerable to misogynist and political radicalization by the online ‘manosphere’, it’s more important than ever to ensure that they can find understanding, support, and affirmation within healthy and diverse communities like Janet Clarke Hall.
3
What do you believe makes Janet Clarke Hall special for its residents and what opportunities does the college provide?
Janet Clarke Hall has a rich and storied history as the first university college in Australia to admit women into residence, and since then we’ve been the college of ‘firsts’, also becoming one of the first co-educational colleges in 1973. Our alumni include trailblazers like Diane Lemaire, the first woman to graduate from the University of Melbourne with a degree in engineering; Helen Garner, the author and diarist; Elizabeth Blackburn, winner of the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2009; and Gillian Triggs, former President of the Australian Human Rights Commission.
In 2024, we announced our bold vision to become Australia’s first need-blind residential college by 2035, meeting 100% of each student’s demonstrated financial need. This means that admissions decisions will be made entirely on the basis of a student’s merit and potential and, if offered a place, they will pay only what they and their family can reasonably afford, with the remainder of residential fees covered by a means-tested scholarship. To my mind, a need-blind admissions system is the only way to truly democratise our residential colleges, and whilst we hope to become the first residential college to do this, I sincerely hope that we won’t be the only one.
I’m really excited about the challenge of growing our endowment over the coming years and have just recruited Janet Clarke Hall’s first Director of Advancement. Developing the College’s compelling case for support and launching a major philanthropic campaign will be a learning curve for me, and I’m keen to develop my skills in this area.
4
As well as being Principal at Janet Clarke Hall you are also an Honorary Senior Fellow in the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne. What are your academic interests and current research?
My teaching and research interests are in modern and contemporary British and American poetry and, more recently, in children’s and Young Adult literature. Recent publications include The New Casebook on American Poetry since 1945 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016) and Family in Children’s and Young Adult Literature (Routledge, 2023). I’m currently working on a monograph on the poetry of the British-American poet and Plath biographer, Anne Stevenson, and my ‘other job’ as the mother of a five-year-old boy means that I’m also often thinking about how children’s and YA texts present masculinity and maleness, and how this has evolved (in very healthy ways) since the mid-nineteenth century.
5
What is it about Residential Colleges that attracted you to join, and what do you like most about them from a career perspective?
We often say that whilst your degree may equip you to earn a good living, your membership of a residential college equips you to lead a good life. It’s a rich pro-social education that enables you to live, learn, work, play, and grow alongside folks with backgrounds, experiences, and views different to your own. I like to think that our students leave JCH a little kinder, a little wiser, more tolerant and more resilient than when they joined us. Whilst contact hours between senior academics and students and small-group teaching opportunities in universities are decreasing, my role affords me the opportunity to genuinely get to know my students. Those relationships are endlessly inspiring and invigorating. Our students make me feel very positive about the future.
