The foundation set up by the late health billionaire Paul Ramsay is in talks with the controversial Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation over possibly severing the connection between the two and ending the use of the Ramsay name.
The talks are understood to be ongoing. They follow two years of controversy over the western civilisation university course proposed by the Ramsay Centre and the level of control it has sought over the course when dealing with possible host universities.
The Guardian has confirmed the talks, which come amid tensions between the two boards over how much money the Ramsay Centre should receive under the restructured arrangements.
The Ramsay Centre is currently being funded by the Ramsay Foundation, which was administering the lion’s share of the late Ramsay’s $3.5bn estate. In turn, the centre has been negotiating with universities to fund western civilisation degrees.
The Paul Ramsay Foundation board includes Ramsay’s close friends – Michael Siddle, the chair of Ramsay Health Care, and Peter Evans, a friend from Bowral – as well as the Liberal party figure Kathryn Greiner and several senior business figures with long experience in charities.
Prof Glyn Davis became the chief executive of the foundation in late January after stepping down as the long standing vice-chancellor of Melbourne University.
The board of the Ramsay Centre is chaired by the former prime minister John Howard and includes the former prime minister Tony Abbott, Prof Ann Brewer, the dean of the University of Newcastle, former trade unionist turned businessman Michael Easson, and Julian Leeser, who was elected as the Liberal member for Berowra in 2016.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, board members of the foundation, including Siddle, who is one of the late Ramsay’s closest friends, have been “appalled” at the culture wars that have embroiled the centre and the proposed courses.
The Australian National University declined to partner with the Ramsay Centre over concerns that the centre’s demands for oversight of the academic direction of the course would breach the university’s own guidelines on academic independence from funders.
However, the University of Wollongong subsequently accepted funding and will offer courses in 2020. Discussions are continuing with the University of Queensland.
There is also said to be concern about devoting hundreds of millions of dollars to university degrees that will benefit only a handful of students. The courses are based on tutorials where students can study key texts and achievements of western culture. As well as funding for the courses, the Ramsay Centre will also provide scholarships for about 30 students.
Ramsay died in 2014 without leaving clear instructions about what he wanted the foundation to fund.
According to the Herald report, three months before his death, Ramsay had commissioned a proposal on a western civilisation centre that would fund courses in the subject at Australian universities – an idea that had had been put to him a few years earlier by Abbott.
But when he died of a heart attack, it was reported that he had neither seen nor approved the draft.
Its website says the Paul Ramsay Foundation “is committed to identifying the root causes of disadvantage and implementing strategic solutions to empower our communities”. It identifies health and education as focus areas.
Its other education initiatives include funding the Teach For Australia program and the Beacon Foundation, which aims to lifting year 12 completion rates in Tasmania.
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