Americans Have Not Turned Against Higher Ed. Reports of the sector’s cratering popularity are mistaken, The Chronicle of Higher Education,
By Kevin Carey and Sophie Nguyen October 15, 2024
Americans are losing faith in the value of college. Or so we are told.
As many colleges grapple with declining enrollment and intense political criticism, sagging public support for higher learning has become a journalistic given, the kind of as-we-all-know fact that can be simply asserted as context before advancing an argument or presenting the news of the day.
But many of these articles are getting the story wrong. The polling data that form the basis for the narrative of college declinism is far more limited and nuanced than this framing suggests. Much of the data doesn’t actually measure changes over time…
Read that carefully: data is “far more limited and nuanced” than the framing of disparaging higher education and is falsely representing public opinion on higher education.
This is what I have been arguing for years, pointing out the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations’ (DEWR) statistics are massaged and manipulated. The selection below is only approximately one-third over the last two decades of my working life, with many years unpaid:
122. Buch, Neville (2024). Why is Australia so afraid to expand its higher education sector? John Hewson’s The trap of student caps, Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, October 19, 2024
121. Buch, Neville (2024), The Problem of Australian Sandstones Universities, Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, October 9, 2024
120. Buch, Neville (2024), This is WHY we need paid professional community education: To Destroy the Lies Before they Grow, Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, September 5, 2024
119. Buch, Neville (2024), “School Thinkers” and Cognition History in our Schools, Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, August 28, 2024
118. Buch, Neville (2024), What is academic and what is scholarly in today’s politics? Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, August 21, 2024
117. Buch, Neville (2024), Would our Australian “history” industry push for this “new” global “innovation” to be re-established in Australian universities? Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, August 10, 2024
116. Buch, Neville (2024), From The Chronicle of Higher Education: Hey You, Academe Political Conformity, Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, August 2, 2024
115. Buch, Neville (2024), Why are Vice-Chancellors putting up with it? Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, July 18, 2024
114. Buch, Neville (2024), How out-of-touch Queensland educational authorities are with the global thinking on assessing learning? Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, July 9, 2024
113. Buch, Neville (2024), Anti-DEI bureaucracy in Australia? Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, June 30, 2024
112. Buch, Neville (2024), What is really happening in the cognition of university managers after 30 years of neo-liberal policies? Inbox, Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, June 25, 2024
111. Buch, Neville (2024), The Craziness of UQ Political Decision Makers, Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, June 24, 2024
110. Buch, Neville (2024), Spiral Historiography: PhDs for everyone will not improve academia (THE), Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, June 22, 2024
109. Buch, Neville (2024), Workshop Paper: Buckley in Australia: Considering Local Social Discourses among the Australian States (1938-1987). Conservative Public History Workshop, English, American Studies and Creative Writing, University of Manchester, 20 June 2024. (request a copy)
108. Buch, Neville (2024), Disabling Professions and the Silence of our Fool Policy-Makers, Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, June 18, 2024
107. Buch, Neville (2024), The Challenge to the Educational Authorities, Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, June 18, 2024
106. Buch, Neville (2024), Jack Grove, Academics despair as ChatGPT-written essays swamp marking season, The Times Higher Education Supplement, Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, June 17, 2024
105. Buch, Neville (2024), The Evidence that the History of Urban Sociology has not gone forward in the State of Queensland Except for Marginalized Academics and Unpaid Scholars in the Fields, Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, June 16, 2024
104. Buch, Neville (2024), Even as I don’t put much weight on numbers…, Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, June 14, 2024
103. Buch, Neville (2024), Are you really listening? Or are you being misguided by your advisers, Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, June 14, 2024
102. Buch, Neville (2024), It is not that I do not Care, But You Do Have the Capacity, Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, June 14, 2024
101. Buch, Neville (2024), The Integrity of Learning and the Political Silence, Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, June 13, 2024
100. Buch, Neville (2024), TASA Sociology of Education SIG Social Sciences Week Event: Expressions of Interest, Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, June 13, 2024
099. Buch, Neville (2024), How to reverse 30 years in higher education policy? Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, June 10, 2024
098. Buch, Neville (2024), PASSING OF JOHN MOSES, Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, May 31, 2024
097. Buch, Neville (2024), Universities and Employability: Why am I not employed (contracted)? Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642,
096. Buch, Neville (2024), Is there Room for “Minor” Public Intellectuals? Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, May 12, 2024
095. Buch, Neville (2024), Have I Got What It Takes to Take a Stand Against the “Self-Righteous Political Decision-Makers”? Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, May 9, 2024
094. Buch, Neville (2024), Thinking in Both General and Particular Details: Memories as Public Insights, Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, May 3, 2024
093. Buch, Neville (2024), Presentism and Parallelism: Why Political Decisions-Makers Need to fund, contract, or employ professional historians, Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, April 27, 2024
092. Buch, Neville (2024), What is “Stupidity” and Why it is Not a Dismissal in My Philosophic-Sociological History Work, Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, April 26, 2024
091. Buch, Neville (2024), Plurality in and of Thought. Functional Ideals of Silence and Dismissal, Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, April 21, 2024
090. Buch, Neville (2024), Right-On, David: Why do I not have the Job of the Under-Qualified and Over-Confident? Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, April 16, 2024
089. Buch, Neville (2024), It is Not Only Me Saying It: The Now-Open Dirty (corrupt) Secret of National-State and University Governance, Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, April 10, 2024
088. Buch, Neville (2024), What it is Costing Me for What a Higher Education Institution Ought to Be Paying Me, Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, April 9, 2024
087. Buch, Neville (2024), Why do we put up with it? Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, April 6, 2024
086. Buch, Neville (2024), Educational Placement Poverty and Generations, Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, Educational Placement Poverty and Generations
085. Buch, Neville (2024), BACK-UP. THE TECHNOLOGICAL ATTACK. Re: Education ? Placement poverty in Australia (Case Ref: LW62300), Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, April 4, 2024
084. Buch, Neville (2024), THE’s Post-92 contract ‘at risk’ in wave of university cost-cutting: And in Australia and locally? Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, March 26, 2024
083. Buch, Neville (2024), Corruption in The College. When will Vice-Chancellors Make a Bold Stand? Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, March 13, 2024
082. Buch, Neville (2024), Institutional Prejudice: The Decision Maker, Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, March 12, 2024
081. Buch, Neville (2024), The “Either-Or” Back-Fires: Australian Higher Education Can Not Do Creative Thinking…Yet, Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, March 12, 2024
080. Buch, Neville (2024), Philosophically Ontology Logic Intersect Compatibility Education (POLICE), Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, March 4, 2024
079. Buch, Neville (2024), Letter: Education ? All Types of Placement poverty in Australia, Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, March 2, 2024
078. Buch, Neville (2024), Higher Education Intellectual Ethos 1989-2024: A Review of Australian Universities Accord Final Report Document, Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, February 25, 2024
077. Buch, Neville (2024), What it Takes in Education: Demythologising Education, Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, February 23, 2024
076. Buch, Neville (2024), What It Takes, Politically, Emotionally-Intelligently, and with Local-Global Intelligence: Public Conservations, Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, February 23, 2024
075. Buch, Neville (2024), Culture-History War in Educationalist Theory and Design, Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, February 16, 2024
074. Buch, Neville (2024), Re: What is happening in Higher Education Policy? An answer from the federal department, Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, February 14, 2024
073. Buch, Neville (2024), The Spiral history theory of Stupidity: Getting Stuck in Time-Space, and Personal Breakout of Historical Cognition Patterns, Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, February 11, 2024
072. Buch, Neville (2024), The Effort for Queensland Public Service Workforce Statistics, and Who Pays for Knowledge? Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, February 11, 2024
071. Extract provided by Dr Neil Peach, Pizzorno – Participation 35 – 41, at Buch, Neville (2024), Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642
070. Buch, Neville (2024), Damien B. Schlarb, Melville’s Wisdom: Religion, Skepticism, and Literature in Nineteenth-Century America, Journal for the Academic Study of Religion, 37(1), Special Issue: New Perspectives on Religions and Traditions, 135-7, ISBN 978-0-197-58556-6 (hbk).
069. Buch, Neville (2024), Queensland History, Religious Education, and Belief, in Socio-Anthropological Approaches to Religion: Environmental Hope, Edited by David W. Kim and Duncan Wright, London: Lexington Books.
068. Buch, Neville (2024). A Hidden Intellectual History of Queensland. Book Proposal, Neville (2024), Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642
067. (Richard Denniss) Big The Role of the State in the Modern Economy (2022). In the National Interest, at Buch, Neville (2024), Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642
And that is just this year, so far, and here are a few more historical major works to get the message home:
And from My Teaching Webpage:
066. Buch, Neville (2023), How to provide the Educative Message? Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, November 7, 2023
065. Buch, Neville (2023), Urban Sociology and Philosophic Thinking, Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, 8 August 2023
064. Buch, Neville (2023), NDB. The Level Playing Field, Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, 3 August 2023
063. Buch, Neville (2023), Anglo-American Major Belief-Doubt Systems, 27 July 2023.
062. Buch, Neville (2023), 2023-07-04 Whither Local History Paper (FINAL), Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, 4 July 2023
061. Buch, Neville (2023), Fuller view for Telling the Story of Australian Evangelical History (PRESENTATION HANDOUT), Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, 20 May 2023
060. Buch, Neville (2023), 2023-03-11 Ethics of Belief, Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, 12 March 2023
059. Buch, Neville (2023), Dr Neville Buch’s Philosophy and History (PDF), Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, 10 April 2023
058. Extract – Habermas on Universal Pragmatics (1976), at Buch, Neville (2023), Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642
057. Extract – Habermas on Theory of Communication (1981), at Buch, Neville (2023), Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642
056. Buch, Neville (2023), Heuer, Ulrike and Gerald Lang (2012). Luck, Value and Commitment (on Grayscale), Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642
055. Buch, Neville (2023), W. Y. Alice Chan, Teaching Religious Literacy to Combat Religious Bullying: Insights from North American Secondary Schools. Journal for the Academic Study of Religion, 36(2), 263–264. https://doi.org/10.1558/jasr.26719
054. Nathan Fredrickson. Syllabus on Introduction to American Religion, at Buch, Neville (2023), Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642
053. Paul Bélanger. Adult Learning Theories at Buch, Neville (2023), Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, Bélanger, P. (2011). Learning Theories: Discussion. In Theories in Adult Learning and Education (1st ed., pp. 49–52). Verlag Barbara Budrich. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvbkjx77.8
052. Robert Calfee. Cognitive Psychology and Educational Practice at Buch, Neville (2023), Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, Calfee, R. (1981). Cognitive Psychology and Educational Practice. Review of Research in Education, 9, 3–73. https://doi.org/10.2307/1167182
051. Suzanne Hidi. Mental Resource for Learning at Buch, Neville (2023), Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, Hidi, S. (1990). Interest and Its Contribution as a Mental Resource for Learning. Review of Educational Research, 60(4), 549–571. https://doi.org/10.2307/1170506
050. Buch, Neville (2023), A Critical Review of 2022 Theos Annual Lecture by Tom Holland, published by Humanist Australia Inc. on the Medium platform.
049. Buch, Neville (2022), Regarding Our Education Systems Needing Thinking in Contemporaneous Compatibilist Epistemology, Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, 20 December 2022
048. Buch, Neville (2022), Guiding Conditions for Philosophy Genre, Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, 13 November 2022
047. Buch, Neville (2022), TPC Program for 2023 – Philosophical Readings, Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, 10 October 2022
046. Buch, Neville (2022), 2022-09-10 Exceptionalism and Conceit, Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, 10 September 2022
045. Buch, Neville (2022), The FTI-TPC Curriculum, Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, 31 May 2022
044. Buch, Neville (2022), The Philosophy Café. Philosophy of Everything, Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, 13 February 2022
043. Buch, Neville (2021), The Philosophy Café. History of Australian Religion and Spirit, Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, 27 November 2021
042. Buch, Neville (2021), ScoMo’s Native Pentecostalism, Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, 17 October 2021
041. Buch, Neville (2021), A Short History of Humanism (9 Oct 2021. version 2), Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, 9 October 2021
040. Buch, Neville (2021), The Philosophy Café. Is Morality Ethical? Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, 11 July 2021
039. Buch, Neville (2021), Being and Not Being – What is Real, Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, 13 June 2021
038. Buch, Neville (2021), Understanding Spirituality and World Philosophy – Beyond Hegel, Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, 27 May 2021
037. Buch, Neville (2021), The State of Affairs for Professional Historians in Queensland Educationalist History, in Australian and New Zealand History of Education Society Newsletter May 2021.
036. Buch, Neville (2021), Survey of the Gods of Love, Brisbane Prometheus Society, Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, 14 April 2021
035. Buch, Neville (2021), The Philosophy Café. Introduction to Hegel on Worldview, Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, 11 April 2021
034. Buch, Neville (2021), Finding Peace from the Culture-History War: A Historiographical Message for the Times. Academia Letters, Article 1916. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL1916.
033. Buch, Neville (2021), The Intellectual Ethos of Charles Strong in Queensland 1855-1917, in Marion Maddox, Charles Strong’s Australian Church: Christian Social Activism, 1885–1917, University of Melbourne Press, 2021.
032. Buch, Neville (2021), Book Review of Blin, Arnaud, War and Religion: Europe and the Mediterranean from the First through the Twenty-first Centuries, University of California Press, 2019, pp. 335, ISBN 9780520961753, Journal for the Academic Study of Religion, Volume 34, No 2 (2021)
031. Buch, Neville (2021), Book Review of the ‘Righteous Mind’ for The Gentle Thinkers ,Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642
030. Buch, Neville (2020), Cultural Theory Reading [Final], Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, 13 September 2020
029. Buch, Neville (2020), Power & Theory (PowerPoint Script), Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, 9 August 2020
028. Buch, Neville (2020), Power & Theory Essay, Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, 9 August 2020
027. Buch, Neville (2020), Economic Rationalism and University Course Pricing 1989-2020, for Australian Policy and History, 3 August 2020
026. Buch, Neville (2020), Religion & Science (PowerPoint Script), Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, 12 July 2020
025. Buch, Neville (2020), A Literary History of Camus & His Plague (23 May 2020), Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, 23 May 2020
024. Buch, Neville (2020), The Grapes of Wrath, Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, 25 April 2020
023. Buch, Neville (2020), Local History Beyond Appearance: To the hearts and minds of those who lived through World War I in the Stephens Shire, in Stephens and War: A History of Annerley and surrounding suburbs during war times, Annerley Stephens History Group Inc., 2020. (request a copy)
022. Buch, Neville (2020), Mapping Local Educated Society 1859-2009: Landscape and Culture in the Mapping Brisbane Education Project, Port Macquarie Campus, Charles Stuart University, 21 November 2019. (request a copy)
021. Buch, Neville (2019), Cultural Pluralism and Modern Humanism (Download), Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, 14 July 2019
020. Buch, Neville (2019), “A prophet is without honour only in his hometown, among his relatives, and in his own household”: Local History and Global Learning – A Historical Mapping of Brisbane Thinkers and Their Local Environment 1859-1959. Local Communities, Global Networks Conference. Australian Historical Association Conference, University of Southern Queensland, 11 July 2019. (request a copy)
019. Buch, Neville (2019), Neville’s Organisation of Clark’s Short History (Download), Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, 14 April 2019
018. Buch, Neville (2019), After the Age of Revolution for Australia (Download), Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, 14 April 2019
017. Buch, Neville (2019), Summary on Clark’s Short History and the Age of Revolution (Download), Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, 14 April 2019
016. Buch, Neville (2019), New Internationalism and Cosmopolitanism (Download), Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, 2 June 2019
015. Buch, Neville (2019), New Imperialism and Globalisation (Download), Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, 12 May 2019
014. Buch, Neville (2019), The Changing Definition of Peace, Part 2: The Shifting of Thinking in Queensland during the Armistice. Queensland History Journal, Royal Historical Society Queensland. Volume 24, No. 1, May 2019. (request a copy)
013. Buch, Neville (2019), The Changing Definition of Peace, Part 1: The Status Quo of Thinking in Queensland during the Armistice. Queensland History Journal, Royal Historical Society Queensland. Volume 24, No. 1, May 2019. (request a copy)
012. Buch, Neville (2019), The Philosophy Cafe and Manning Clark’s Historiography (Online Article), Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, 1 April 2019 (Ruth’s birthday)
011. Buch, Neville (2018), Emotion and Reason in Local History and War & Peace Commemoration: A Queensland Case Study. ‘Marking Time’ Professional Historians Australia Conference, State Library of New South Wales, 30 August 2018. (request a copy)
010. Buch, Neville (2018), History in the Digital Age. Brisbane History Group Seminar, The Ships Inn, Griffith University, 21 July 2018. (request a copy)
009. Buch, Neville (2018), Small is Big — The Literature Review DRAFT 1.1, Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, 22 June 2018
008. Buch, Neville (2017), Buch’s Historical Sociology Thesis, Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642, 30 November 2017
007. Buch, Neville (2017), Hearts Lifted Up with the Spirit of Seton. A History of Seton College, Mount Gravatt East, Queensland, November 2017. (request a copy)
006. Buch, Neville (2016), A Quest for a Fair Go: A History of the KSC in Queensland (with Beryl Roberts). Stafford, Qld. The Knights of the Southern Cross (Qld). 2016. (pp. 281)
005. Buch, Neville (2015), No Regrets in the Evening of Life: Access, Equity and Exclusivity at Junction Park State School in the Early Twentieth Century. History of Education Review. Volume 45, No. 1, June 2016.
004. Buch, Neville (2015), No Regrets in the Evening of Life: The History of Junction Park State School (1888-2013). Boolarong Press, 2015 (pp. 459).
003. Buch, Neville (2015), Under the Skin — Human Passion & Reason in War & Peace. Q ANZAC 100 Fellows Event. State Library of Queensland. 8 September 2015.
002. Buch, Neville (2014), Celebrating 40 Years. St Thomas More College, God’s Servant First (1974-2014). St Thomas More College, 2014 (pp. 123).
001. Buch, Neville (2014), Defining a Public University in the Entrepreneurial Age, Australian Network of Higher Education Researcher Conference, University House, Australian National University, December 1999. (request a copy)
Dr Neville Buch is an expert on histories and historiography of big belief and doubt, educational theories and practice, within the scope of Queensland intellectual history and policy.
He has worked as higher education policy researcher for the Vice-Chancellor, Professors Roy Webb, Glyn Davis, Kwong Lee Dow, and Alan Gilbert, along with work for Chancellors, Mr. Ian Renard, and Sir Edward Woodward (1998-2008). He has been a Q ANZAC Fellow at the State Library of Queensland (2015-2016). He has recently published on the influence of Charles Strong in Queensland conservative, radical and liberal progressivism.
Dr Buch is a certified member of the Professional Historians Associations (Queensland) Incorporated and had previous responsibilities as the PHA (Qld) e-bulletin editor. He is well-published and recognised for his contribution in the histories of both Catholic secondary and state primary education in Queensland, as well as histories in the cultural and religious shaping of Protestant and Catholic organisations.
As a scholar with over 30 years’ experience writing on Christianity as religion and society, from both Christian and Post-Christian perspectives, he is Queensland’s foremost historian on belief and doubt.
Dr Buch is a local historian and Managing Director of the Brisbane Southside History Network and the Mapping Brisbane History Project, assisting voluntary local history societies on the Brisbane to work together to gain a regional history perspective.
Currently he is a voluntary worker, but not by choice, but by the failure of the Australian economy. Dr Buch is a registered director and the Communities Program Manager for Humanist Australia (HA). He is also a thematic group Convenor, in Sociology of Education, for The Australian Sociological Association (TASA). He still needs paid work.
Dr Buch has published several research papers on local history and historiography. See https://drnevillebuch.com/
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Neville Buch
Latest posts by Neville Buch (see all)
- Free Thinker Institute (FTI) Stoa: Aligning Judgment with Virtue (HYBRID) - November 21, 2024
- How Small is Australian Higher Education Sector for Domestics? - November 20, 2024
- Cognition Histories and Sociology in The United States. No. 1 - November 18, 2024