Always learning.

The Student Chronicles, by Alice Garner; Miegunyah, 2006, $24.95.

THE POPULAR PERCEPTION of the universities is likely to range from an unrealistic vision of ivy-clad colleges and oak-lined studies to an extension of school with more spare time to spend in the playground, or a grinding apprenticeship for a well-paid professional career. Preparation for lifelong learning and serious scholarship would not rank high, but it is a credit to Alice Garner that this aspect of the experience does feature in her account.

One of the least discussed topics, even among highly educated people and intellectuals (by no means the same people) is the ecology of higher learning and scholarship--the design and maintenance of "the house of intellect", in the language of Jacques Barzun. Throughout the explosive growth of the university system and the traumatic reform process that followed, major decisions were made without any clear understanding on the part of the decision-makers of the life of the mind that the universities are supposed to sustain. Among the reasons for this are the neglect of Barzun's report on the outcome of the American experiment with mass higher learning (The American University, 1968) which anticipated the Australian experience by a couple of decades, and the dearth of reflective writing on student life.

Alice Garner has made a small contribution to the genre, small enough to be capsulated in an essay, so the resources devoted to this book could have resulted in a collection to provide a wider cross-section of university experiences. She has done her best to justify the effort:

   I couldn't imagine why anyone would want to read
   the story of a conscientious Arts student from the
   infamously "apathetic" 1980s and 1990s [but, once
   started] I began to think that there might be
   something to tell after all--if only to give the
   perspective of a "serious" student from those
   unrebellious years, a story not often heard.

The best part of the book is Garner's account of her studies, the philosophy essays that never seemed to get past definitions, the overwhelming majority of students struck dumb in tutorials, the discovery of hidden treasures in the library stacks, the deliberate progress through the whole of Plato's Republic, the thrill of handling original research materials in a foreign land. Some of the tutorials worked, like one in Fine Arts with the right mix of people who were prepared to argue and laugh at the same time, and to continue the discussion at the pub.

This is a helpful addition to the limited literature on university life that tends to focus on extra-curricular activities. Being a serious student made Alice Garner quite atypical, as she was in some other ways--she was two years older than her colleagues, had a steady boyfriend throughout the whole time, both parents and a grandparent were graduates, parental support eliminated the need to work during term time.

There is a small chapter on the "tight little worlds" of the residential colleges and this prompts some reflections on the general failure of the colleges to deliver their potential contribution to the life of the campus, given their proximity to the scene while the vast majority of enrollees are nine-to-five students at best.

A Current Affairs Bulletin (March 1967) carried a perceptive survey of student life including the comment that the colleges recruited conservative young people and then diverted their energies into the life of the college, though not intellectual life, instead of contributing to the student community at large. Hytten Hall, the short-lived secular college in Hobart, was apparently unusual in this respect. By a mixture of good luck and good leadership, and an excellent library, during the undergraduate years that I spent in residence, it provided something very close to the experience of a community of scholars, while some of our number made significant contributions to the sporting and cultural life of the university. That situation provided opportunities which did not seem to be available to many of Garner's contemporaries.

For her the crucial opportunity was the chance to pursue archival research in a French village. This was probably the break that converted a keen student into a dedicated, focused and confident researcher, still haunting the university many years later "as a perpetual student". But there is no need to be apologetic about that.

Unfortunately too much of this slim and handsomely produced volume is devoted to matters that have limited general interest or special relevance to the student life. Most of it could have been written by a schoolteacher or a bank clerk. A good essay has been turned into a small and expensive hard-covered book. But that was the publisher's decision, not hers.