Professor Tim Flannery and Panasonic Australia managing director Steve Rust in Tokyo last week. Picture: Andrew Ramadge Source: news.com.au
IT MAY seem strange for Australia's most famous conservationist and climate spokesperson to be known around campus as the "Panasonic professor".
But Tim Flannery, former Australian of the Year and inaugural Panasonic Chair in Environmental Sustainability at Macquarie University, says people had better get used to it.
Endowed university positions - including those funded by corporations - are already common overseas and, according to Professor Flannery, they're set to increase locally as well.
"Looking at the situation overseas, and the trend in Australia, I?m sure that endowed chairs will increase in number in the future," he told news.com.au this week.
"The benefits of endowed chairs are obvious - branding, more access to uni expertise for corporations and additional funding for unis."
However Prof Flannery also said there were potential downsides to the trend.
"There's a risk that the university's brand, or indeed corporate brand, could be damaged - though I've not seen examples - and a risk that academics might be induced to take on additional duties that divert them from teaching and research," he said.
"It's important that expectations on both sides are realistic."
"It's important that expectations on both sides are realistic."
The Macquarie University chair was created with a $690,000 endowment from Panasonic Australia to fund environmental research and public education on climate issues.
Part of Prof Flannery?s position includes briefing executives on environmental issues and overseeing consumer research into "green" buying behaviour, as well as teaching students.
Last week, he accompanied a group of local journalists - including this one - on a tour of Japan paid for by the electronics giant to visit local sustainable technology initiatives.
At a press conference in Tokyo, Prof Flannery said he had considered whether accepting the professorship would be "a potential liability to my reputation" before making a decision.
"I had a position at Macquarie University. I?ve had a position there since 2006," he said.
"When I was approached to see whether there was any interest in me taking up the Panasonic professorship, I was interested, but wasn?t committed initially because I didn?t know as much as perhaps I should have about the company.
"I knew it was an environmentally-aware company, but wanted to learn more before I made a decision.
"I had a talk with Steve (Rust, managing director of Panasonic Australia) and we went through some of the stuff we?ve seen over the past few days, and I thought that it ticked all the boxes.
"So, for me, I decided to take the chair. I didn?t gain any benefit from doing that, because I just went from being (on) university salary to Panasonic endowment salary.
"I wasn't going to ask him to be on a television commercial with our washing machine or that sort of thing." ? Steve Rust
"There was no change in my terms and conditions, or anything like that."
Prof Flannery, who was appointed head of the Federal Government's Climate Commission in February, said there was no conflict of interest between the two positions.
"We (the Climate Commission) don?t comment on government policy and we don't, obviously, ever recommend particular products - I think that goes without saying," he said.
"There are very clear conflict of interest guidelines for the Federal Government and other groups I work with and we all live by those rules."
Mr Rust said he wanted to establish the endowment to "create a platform from which we could present Panasonic to the Australian community in respect to the environment".
However, the Panasonic Australia head said he had also assured Prof Flannery the chair would not require him to compromise his reputation.
"I could see and understand his concern (prior to taking the position)," Mr Rust said.
"I said: 'Look, I'm quite happy to commit to anything that you don?t want to do, because you think it might impact your reputation.'
"That gave him some comfort, that I wasn't going to ask him to be on a television commercial with our washing machine or that sort of thing."
Prof Flannery said endowed chairs were already commonplace in the US, where universities such as Harvard had hundreds of such positions.
"In American universities it's very common to have an endowed position. It's less common in Australia, but increasing," he said.
"I don't have a kind of an 'ivory tower' view of universities. I think they're actually part of this larger society, and links to corporations and links to government and other entities is just common sense."
Andrew Ramadge travelled to Japan as a guest of Panasonic.
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