Professor Hayden Ramsay reflects on education, faith and the task of the next generation

Campion College welcomed Professor Hayden Ramsay, President of the Catholic Institute of Sydney, as guest speaker at Formal Hall on Thursday, 3 September, for an address reflecting on liberal education, the Catholic intellectual tradition and the responsibility of a new generation to carry that tradition forward.

An internationally recognised philosopher and longstanding figure in Australian Catholic higher education, Professor Ramsay was appointed President of the Catholic Institute of Sydney in 2025, following senior academic and leadership roles at Australian Catholic University and the University of Notre Dame Australia.

Speaking with characteristic humour and drawing on nearly four decades in higher education, Professor Ramsay looked back on the changes he has witnessed since Campion College and the Sydney campus of the University of Notre Dame Australia were established two decades ago.

At the heart of his address was a defence of rigorous thought and serious reading. Reflecting on the convictions that shaped Catholic higher education in Sydney in 2006, he argued that institutions committed to sustained engagement with important texts and ideas have an increasingly significant role to play.

Professor Ramsay pointed particularly to Campion College’s residential character, scale and commitment to intellectual formation. At the same time, he challenged the College to ensure that a strong intellectual community remained engaged with the wider culture.

“Can we avoid becoming simply inward-looking?” he asked. “Can we bravely join in the difficult public debates that are raging around us with the aim that more people will come to understand more of truth?”

Looking back on significant moments in the recent life of the Catholic Church in Australia, Professor Ramsay reflected on World Youth Day Sydney 2008 and shared memories of St John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI. During the Q&A, a student’s question about St John Paul II prompted him to speak movingly about his own meeting with the late Pope at Castel Gandolfo and the lasting impression of his intellectual, spiritual and public life.

Professor Ramsay’s strongest challenge of the evening was directed towards the students themselves. Reflecting on what his own generation had sought to build over the past 20 years, he urged them not to wait for a distant point at which life felt settled or secure before taking responsibility for what comes next.

“Everything is succession planning. Everything is passing the future backwards to people now in their twenties or their teens,” he said.

“Train yourself now for 2048, when we will be gone, but you will be shining.”

Campion College President Dr Paul Morrissey closed the session with a personal reflection on Professor Ramsay’s influence as his former lecturer and colleague. Recalling his mentorship early in Dr Morrissey’s own university teaching career, he thanked Professor Ramsay for his longstanding contribution to Catholic higher education.

See below for photos from the night.