Universities and management consultants are locked in a "danse macabre." We turn to the vampire genre to elaborate on the relationship of consulting companies to the university sector, focusing on the University of Alberta in Canada and Monash University in Australia. We are academics with long experience of the consequences of change…

University law schools have been beset with a sense of schizophrenia ever since first established in the 19th century. They were unsure as to whether they were free to teach and research in the same way as the humanities or whether they were constrained by the presuppositions of legal practice. More recently, this tension has been overshadowed by…

Intermediaries--also referred to as bridge builders, boundary spanners, conveners, and other names--fill the critical role of connecting all the parties in the system to empower people with the skills required in the labor force. Those parties generally include employers, educators, workers, and prospective workers. Within these categories may…

Two kinds of academic freedom--personal academic freedom and institutional academic freedom--are discussed. It is argued that, in Australia, institutional academic freedom is the more important notion for universities and that current structural and governmental constraints threaten it seriously. (CJB)

Features of the Australian educational system are examined: the evolution of postcompulsory education, continuing education and training within employment from 1950-80, issues and options faced in the mid-1980s, and decisive changes in the structure of higher education at the end of the 1980s. (SK)

In Australia, the 1987 Dawkins green paper supposedly set clear guidelines for merging institutions in the new unified national system. There was little government guidance in merger efforts. Now there are three universities--planners' least-preferred option. All offer postgraduate management education. The Dawkins paper has minimally influenced…

Traces the development of Australia's binary system of higher education, in which universities granted degrees and colleges of advanced education (CAE's) and teachers colleges issued diplomas and certificates, through the rapid growth of the past 20 years as Commonwealth funding has raised the level of teachers colleges and of CAE's, which now…

Examines entrepreneurial activities in university science and technology parks that promote innovation in small and medium-sized enterprises. Highlights projects at the University of Adelaide and Australian government programs that support entrepreneurship. (SK)

In Australia, Cooperative Research Centres strengthen linkages between universities as producers and industry as users of research. Shifting perspectives on the functions of universities, industry, and government are driven by the need for wealth creation, global competitiveness, and optimum linkages between research and commercialization. (SK)

The economic function of science to perform research and to educate and train others for technological innovation in Australia is discussed. The generation of wealth, focus of public debate, and political decision making on research policy are also considered. (MSE)

Discusses the changing role of government as Australian universities face restructuring including: (1) shaping the system for national policy purposes; (2) funding research and teaching; (3) setting industrial relations and related policy parameters; and (4) quality assurance and accountability. Urges universities to tackle their problems without…

THIS ARTICLE SUPPORTS THE 1966 RECOMMENDATION OF THE AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES COMMISSION IN PROPOSING THAT FEDERAL FUNDS SHOULD NOT BE GIVEN TO UNIVERSITIES FOR ADULT EDUCATION PROGRAMS NOT SPECIFICALLY RELATED TO THE WORK OF THE UNIVERSITY, OR NOT CONDUCTED AT THE PROPER ACADEMIC LEVEL. UNIVERSITIES ARE URGED INSTEAD TO ENGAGE IN (1) CRITICAL…

Proposals for a university of Western Sydney (Australia) are examined as examples of policy-making in postsecondary education. The state and federal framework of postsecondary education is sketched, some features of Western Sydney's society are noted, and the university movement and options are discussed. (MSE)

Evolution of the relationship between Australian government and universities is traced from 1957, particularly concerning employment practices, union formation, and workplace regulation. The state has taken an increasingly assertive role in shaping universities' internal staffing, within an environment of growing commonwealth budget difficulties…

The following papers were presented at this international conference: (1) "Key-Note Report by the Research Institute for Higher Education" (Kazuyuki Kitamura); (2) "Major Dimensions in the Relations between the State and Higher Education" (Neil J. Smelser); (3) "The Role of Government in Japanese Higher Education"…