#but there is no doubt that English has an unconscious male bias

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The Hand that Straightens the Sleeve: Rhodes Australia 2018

Cufflinks fail. Shoes scuff without you knowing it. Cutlery is confusing.

Being interviewed for any kind of position is daunting for most people. A small number of individuals seem to be unfazed by selection processes, but most people need some practice and help. That’s even more the case when you carry the niggling belief that everyone else probably deserves to be at the interview more than you.

This year marks the 113th round of Rhodes Scholar selections in Australia. That’s 113 years of questions, formal and informal dinners, and generous hospitality by the state governors and the Governor General. Our volunteer interviewers are dedicated, focused, and quick on their feet. They have had to navigate hailstorms and humidity, and even the occasional bird that decides to bust in on the interview via a nearby fireplace.

Over a century, Rhodes Australia has come to be a household name, and it has also acquired a rich constellation of folklore. Many of these stories are delightful and joyful. But some see potential applicants rule themselves out from applying. It starts with students thinking that they have the wrong kind of degree, that they aren’t smart enough, or that they went to the wrong school or the wrong university. So they don’t open an application form or if they do, they rule themselves out by being unsure about approaching referees. When they get invited to interview, they assume it must be a mistake. Over and over again.

Folklore can be rewritten. Selection attrition can be overcome. It starts by acknowledging and tackling doubts publicly. In the two years since we launched ‘Should I Apply for an Australian Rhodes Scholarship?’ via the free platform Storify, we’ve had just under 7,300 views. In it, we answer application questions that applicants have often felt too embarrassed to ask. In making that story, I have to thank our community of Rhodes scholars, whose experiences range over seven decades. They have wonderful stories of selection nerves and stumbles and their strategies for overcoming them.

It continues with our network of state secretaries and volunteer application advisors, which are found now at nearly every university in Australia. Not all of them are Rhodes Scholars; many are senior staff who believe in the importance of helping people early in their career to achieve their best. Our team now numbers around 70, not including panellists.

And it comes to a peak with our state administrators and that interview with so many curly questions and often a dazzling array of cutlery. Imagine if you came to an interview and you saw a familiar face? That familiar face places no part in the selection, and does not even go into the interview with you. But that familiar face greets you, talks with you warmly to calm your nerves, and tugs down that jacket sleeve to make sure you go into that interview room knowing how talented you are and how much potential you have. That familiar face delights when you succeed, but works with you and the state and the national secretary to give you thorough, constructive and encouraging feedback when you don’t. Our measure of success is for every applicant to feel that they gained something positive from the process.

It works. More Australian universities are now participating in Rhodes selection. We have elected our third Indigenous Rhodes Scholar in 113 years, with the second being last year. Griffith University, Curtin University and University of Technology Sydney have won their second ever Rhodes Scholarships. Our shortlists are more culturally diverse and we are slowly making headway in increasing the number of applicants who went to government high schools, particularly in rural and regional areas.

Progress sometimes feels slow, and it is not as if we are not taking some knocks and backward slips along the way. Incomplete applications are our Achilles heel. But more of Australia is now seeing Rhodes as its to celebrate.

Rhodes is a microcosm of the wider selection landscape. In thinking about diversity, we often hone in on the interview as the place where we most need to address selection bias. Indeed, nearly all of the research on unconscious bias in selection focuses on interviews. But Rhodes is no different to other selection processes in that much happens before the interview which leads people to select themselves out.

113 years of history teaches you much. Acknowledge the myths and misconceptions and tackle them publicly. Appoint selection mentors who can help all applicants to be their best. Do not assume that only people from underrepresented backgrounds need help: not all male applicants are confident. And make sure that when someone comes into an interview room, they feel best able to succeed.

This blog’s shout out is for Deirdre de Silva, Kathleen O’Hare, Lee-Anne Phillips, Sylvia Tropiano, Joan Vosen, Rosie Wilkes and Lyndell Wilson, the familiar faces of Rhodes Australia

Australia’s 2018 Rhodes Scholars are:

Ashleigh Barnes (Australia at Large, University of Technology Sydney, International Studies and Law)

Robert Ferritto (Western Australia, Curtin University, Engineering)

Elizabeth Hamilton (Queensland, Griffith University, Medicine)

James Maccarrone (Victoria, Melbourne University, Economics)

Damien Maher (Australia at Large, University of Queensland, English)

James Norton (New South Wales, University of New South Wales, International Studies and Law)

Brigid O’Farrell-White (Australia at Large, Melbourne University, History and International Relations)

Claudia Paul (South Australia, Adelaide University, Medicine)

Henry West (Tasmania, University of Tasmania, Medicine)

#Rhodes Scholarships Selection attrition universities