16 April 2025: The latest cohort of University of Queensland (UQ) Ramsay Scholars have been officially welcomed at a special reception celebrating the UQ/Ramsay Centre partnership at Brisbane’s Customs House.

The annual UQ Ramsay Scholars dinner was attended by representatives of UQ leadership including Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Deborah Terry AC. It was also attended by members of the Ramsay Centre Executive and Board, and more than 140 students.

This is the sixth intake of Ramsay Scholars into UQ’s extended major in Western Civilisation, which is the single most competitive course for entry in the Humanities in Australia.

Thanks to a partnership agreement between the Ramsay Centre and UQ, Ramsay Scholars are supported with funding of up to $32,000 p.a. to study Western Civilisation in UQ’s Bachelor of Advanced Humanities (Western Civilisation) (Honours) degree, or in its Bachelor of Humanities (Western Civilisation)/Bachelor of Laws (Honours) dual degree.

The scholars are taught in small class groups and receive academic mentoring. The partnership also funds the hire of world-class educators.

Up to thirty scholarships are awarded each year to academic high achievers who desire to make a difference. Each year the program also accepts increasing numbers of students without a scholarship into the extended major, reflecting the course’s growing popularity.

The program is led by internationally-acclaimed classicist, Professor Alastair Blanshard, and promises to immerse students in ‘…a creative and diverse curriculum with a strong focus on key intellectual works – artistic, musical, literary – that have shaped Western Civilisation from antiquity to the current day.’

Speaking at the dinner, UQ Vice-Chancellor Professor Terry thanked the Ramsay Centre for its investment in the Humanities and Australia’s future leaders. She said it was untrue that the Humanities were somehow less valuable in an era reshaped by technology and artificial intelligence.

“AI doesn’t have the capacity to understand context, to weigh up values or act with human wisdom and empathy, whereas you are learning the skills to do exactly that through your studies in Western Civilisation,” she told the students.

Professor Terry urged the scholars to embrace debate conducted with respect, courtesy and kindness, “to argue your position persuasively while listening carefully and most importantly learning how to disagree.”

Ramsay Centre Board member Dr Amanda Bell AM paid tribute to our benefactor the late Paul Ramsay AO, one of Australia’s greatest philanthropists, and urged the scholars to make the most of their scholarship opportunity.

“There are many aspects of our national progress that would not have occurred without the generosity and commitment of thoughtful and caring Australians like Paul Ramsay,” Dr Bell said.

“I think we would all agree that the pursuit of great scholarship is a deeply fulfilling and necessary endeavour, and the provision of generous scholarships enabled by Paul Ramsay assists this for Ramsay Scholars. You represent the very best studying; therefore, you have a responsibility to value your opportunity here as much as Paul Ramsay valued young people of the future.”

2021 UQ Ramsay Scholar Xeniya Girs’ka praised the scholarship for enabling people from under-represented socioeconomic backgrounds to fully dedicate themselves to the study of Western Civilisation. She said one of the fundamental realisations that every Western Civilisation scholar comes to is that the concept of the West cannot exist without necessarily existing in conjunction with the East.

She said, as someone who had spent half her life in Ukraine and half in Australia, she thought it imperative to understand the values and history of the West to make sense of international conflicts and to advocate for societies that uphold and protect rights and liberties “necessary for peace and the flourishing of humanity.”

For information on UQ’s Western Civilisation offerings visit: https://hass.uq.edu.au/about-cwc

Media contact: Sarah Switzer 0407 816 098/ sarah.switzer@ramsaycentre.org

For more information on the Centre please visit our website www.ramsaycentre.org