Traditionally, threats to academic freedom are associated with repressive government actions, and sometimes also with compliant university managers. In democracies, academic freedom can be undermined in more subtle ways. Where public funding for university research and teaching has diminished, universities have increasingly pursued relationships…

Among the 60 or so university satellite campuses in Australia are many that are probably failing to meet the high expectations of their universities and the communities they were designed to serve. While in some cases this may be due to the demand driven system, it may also be attributable in part to the ways in which they are managed. The…

This article discusses the University as an institution in three parts, moving from the abstract to the concrete. The first and longest section begins with the University as a social form or type: what it is, its inner motors, what holds it together; and its outer drivers, what holds it in society. The second section remarks on tendencies in the…

A discussion of Australian higher education looks at the nature of institutional autonomy and academic freedom, the interaction among pressures for educational quality, institutional autonomy, and academic freedom, and suggests a way that universities can reconcile the three through faculty participation in governance. (MSE)

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)

Fiscal problems facing Australian higher education, the trend toward private ownership of institutions and participation in institutional matters, and political and financial consequences are discussed. Private sector assistance and influence, policy problems in the push for foreign student enrollments, and the changes occurring within institution…

A proposed charter of academic freedom and institutional autonomy in Australian higher education is examined, including the origins of the proposal, interests of staff and management, international political context of the proposal, history and values of the academic freedom concept, role of Australian universities, and faculty association role.…