This paper presents a detailed case study of the development and implementation of a quantifiable academic workload model in the education faculty of an Australian university. Flowing from the enterprise bargaining process, the Academic Staff Agreement required the implementation of a workload allocation model for academics that was quantifiable…

The authors want to figure out what happened in Australian post-secondary education over the last 50 or so years and to predict what sort of arrangement their great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren, will encounter 50 years hence. To put this modest project another way: what in 2060 might a historian (assuming there are, then,…

This article considers whether a threat is posed to academic independence in corporate universities by the United States Studies Centre (USSC) at the University of Sydney. The USSC rapidly worked its way into Australia's oldest university, building a unique governance structure in which a private business lobby vets senior academics and controls…

The 1988-89 Budget provides more detail on the Commonwealth's intentions for higher education as outlined in the Green and White Papers. This article focuses on one consequence of the Budget: the decline in operating grants per student in the period 1989 to 1991. Not all the data on expenditure and enrolments necessary for precise estimates are…

Taking up a theme raised by Stuart Cunningham in a recent issue of the "AUR"--that the innovations of Australia's humanities, creative arts, and social sciences are not getting the recognition that they deserve from the nation's government--this paper, dealing only with the social sciences, offers a cautionary note. If the social sciences are to…

With particular regard to gender, this paper considers the rise and fall of EEO in Australian universities over the last 30 years. The paper argues that EEO, a product of social liberalism, had barely been introduced before it became a casualty of the Dawkins reforms and the transformation of the university. Corporatisation resulted in top-down…

Last year's Australian sedition laws were the latest and most controversial installment in a raft of legislation since the war on terror was announced five years ago. In this article, the author argues that, while some security measures were necessary, the recent laws have far exceeded the modest scale of the threats that confront Australians. He…

The more immediate context of the events the author describes in this article is needed in order to identify the policy framework within which the Australian National University (ANU)-Canberra CAE (CCAE) merger was placed as a component of a wider public policy initiative undertaken by John Dawkins. There were four major components in that wider…

Over the last decade, in both Australia and Britain, universities have been under increasing pressure to make themselves accountable for the extent to which they cultivate in their students transferable skills and "attributes" that will prepare them for the rapidly-changing world of employment. The Government's "Striving for Quality" document…

Discusses how, like Australia, Canadian higher education has experienced large-scale cuts in government funding, the deregulation of tuition and general cost shifting to students, inability to accommodate increased student demand, faculty "brain drain" and shortages, and an erosion of public policy toward viewing higher education as a business.…

Introduces six articles that form this issue's feature section on international higher education. Uses the articles to explore issues of globalization in higher education, including the danger of a global convergence in models of higher education that may poorly serve the needs of different institutions. (EV)

Explores how extensions to the General Agreements on Trade in Services (GATS) designed to increase market access of private service providers to industries now in the public sector could affect public higher education. Asserts that these agreements have an alarming potential to limit the role of government in the delivery of public services such…

Analysis of Australian higher education policy across recent Federal Labor governments and its effects on educational access and equity finds that, although social justice has been emphasized, it is mediated by economic and administrative practices that limit equity and access. (MSE)

Analysis of the current unmet demand for higher education in Australia looks at the social and economic factors that have led to it since World War II. The labor government's approach is examined, including enhanced distance education, expanded technical education, and alternative schooling. (MSE)

The role of the Federation of Australian University Staff Associations (FAUSA), a quasi-professional association of university faculty, is examined in the context of the evolution of Australia's higher education system since the 1960s, particularly the emergence of the binary system and its recent unification. (MSE)