This article examines the 1988 Dawkins reforms to Australian higher education and the creation of a unified national system. The article is based on two propositions. The first is that as historians we should examine educational reforms in a changing society not only for what they propose, but with a look backwards to understand their place within a longer history of educational reform. The second -- with a side-glance to the British higher education reforms of the early 1990s as a counterpoint -- is the extent to which the 1988 Australian higher education reforms should be seen as neoliberal or, as Quicke, McCulloch and Openshaw argue, should we as historians look for nuance within the complex philosophical forces at play?