Steven Schwartz

Emeritus Professor Steven Schwartz AM, FASSA is a Senior Fellow at the CIS. He writes mainly about education, freedom of speech and related issues. Steven has served as Vice-Chancellor of Macquarie University in Sydney, Brunel University in London and Murdoch University in Perth. He recently completed his term as Chair of the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Advisory Authority (ACARA). He is also a Board member of Teach for Australia and an Honorary Fellow at the University of Melbourne.

• Latest from Steven Schwartz

Drowning in a Sea of Diagnoses. How medicalising distress is overwhelming Australia’s mental health system and failing those most in need
Steven SchwartzFebruary 12, 2026AP100

Executive Summary At the centre of Australia’s mental health system lies a paradox. Government...

In Defence of Meritocracy
Steven SchwartzJuly 6, 2023AP50

Introduction Democracies, dictatorships, and all other forms of government face the same dilemma—how to allocate...

Degree Inflation: Undermining the value of higher education
Steven SchwartzMay 18, 2023AP48

Degree Inflation: Undermining the value of higher education — Executive Summary The past 20 years...

Have We All Gone Mad? The Snowflake Epidemic
Steven Schwartz, Lindsay Shepherd, Claire Lehmann, Tiffany JenkinsNovember 22, 2018OP168

University campuses throughout the West are in the grip of a troubling social phenomenon, now...

What’s happened to the University?
Frank Furedi, Marguerite Johnson, Steven SchwartzFebruary 5, 2018OP163

Trigger warnings, cultural appropriation and safe spaces. Who decided to bestow guardian status to Australian...

Budget 2014-15: Fiscal responsibility or savage cuts?
Alexander Philipatos, Benjamin Herscovitch, Helen Andrews, Jennifer Buckingham OAM, Robert Carling, Simon Cowan, Stephen Kirchner, Steven Schwartz, Trisha JhaMay 16, 2014SP13

The CIS analyses the Abbott government’s crucial first budget, including significant changes in the key...

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