Adapted from the Occasional Address of Fr Michael Smith SJ
In the week after Easter two lecturers from Australian Catholic University, Mrs Ellen McBarron and Dr Robert Compton, made the long journey from Australia to the town of Mae Sot on the Thai-Burma border. On Wednesday, 19th April, they awarded undergraduate Diplomas in Business to 16 young Karen refugees and a Certificate in Business to another. The Award Ceremony was the culmination of a pilot project by ACU National which used a mixed mode of distance and online learning to meet the need for the higher education of Karen refugees who have been forcibly displaced from their homes in Burma.
On the day before the Award Ceremony, Robert and Ellen had a dry run with the students. At potentially great expense in excess baggage (which was fortunately waived by Qantas counter staff in Brisbane when she explained the reason) Ellen brought up two extra suitcases filled mortar boards, stoles and academic gowns for the 17 students to wear. There was an air of excitement as each student put of their robes and learned the correct bow to make to Robert when he presented the testamur. At one point in the practice one of the young Karen women exclaimed, "I’m so excited! For the first time in my life I feel excited!" Amidst the desolation of life as a refugee ACU National has offered hope to a group of young people.
Robert remarks, "Despite co-authoring four textbooks and over thirty national and international journal articles, this project has been the most significant and rewarding work that I have done in my 30 years of academic teaching." Ellen says, "I don’t see the Award Ceremony as the end of the project, but just the beginning. The whole experience has caused me to reprioritise my goals in life. I have a renewed commitment to the educational model successfully piloted in this project and I now want to implement it with other refugees. I believe that education is the key to the development of the Karen people and I hope that some of the students who have graduated will become tutors for the next class of students."
In offering Diploma in Business to refugees, ACU National has made access to tertiary education a matter of justice. This is what a Catholic university should do. A Catholic university must take into account the Gospel preference for the poor. "It should be present intellectually where it is needed: to provide science for those who have no science; to provide skills for the unskilled; to be a voice for those who do not possess the academic qualifications to promote and legitimate their rights" (Ignacio Ellacuría, S.J., "The Task of a Christian University," Convocation address at the University of Santa Clara, 12 June 1982; "Una universidad para el pueblo," Diakonía 6:23 (1982), 81-88).
Australian Catholic University has shown itself to be a social force for faith and justice. ACU National has demonstrated the capacity, in the light of the Gospel, to address the world of refugees as it unjustly exists and to reshape it.