This paper explores issues of social justice in relation to the practice of two principals from two Australian public schools. The stories of these principals are set against a policy backdrop in Australia that has seen renewed emphasis on school autonomy reform, on the one hand, and heightened external accountability and compliance, on the other.…

The continuing intervention of the Commonwealth government in postsecondary education will become increasingly dysfunctional. Some issues discussed are planning and coordination, increasing degree of centralism, growth of bureaucracy, attitudes toward the sectors, and accountability. (MLW)

The trend toward market orientation and related business strategies in higher education is examined in the Australian context, particularly in relation to changes in institutional administration such as coordinated decentralization and to the Total Quality Management movement. (MSE)

Concerns arising from the substantial changes in Australian higher education in recent years are discussed, including system centralization, elimination of the binary system, institutional stability, underfunding, and system size. A new fee-based funding system is proposed as a means of raising revenue, improving quality, promoting efficiency, and…

The argument is advanced that tertiary education in Australia, which comprises three sectors--universities, colleges of advanced education, and colleges of technical and further education--is hierarchically structured. Although the colleges were proposed to be of comparable status to universities, the new colleges of advanced education, which have…

A new theme in the old tension between centralization and decentralization in the governance and administration of Australian higher education is explored. The argument is that the various major attempts to restructure Australian education systems both in centralizing and decentralizing forces have gained new strength, and that the recent stated…

Historically, in sharp contrast with the United States, the Australian state systems of public education have always been extremely centralized and hierarchical in structure. While these highly centralized systems served the sparsely populated Australian states well during the early years of this century in providing universal free education and…

An analysis of Australia's two conflicting trends in school governance and their effectiveness in meeting two major educational challenges is the purpose of this paper. Nationalization, which refers to greater centralization and increased national regulation; and privatization, which refers to decentralization, deregulation, and increased local…