Martin Davies' paper seeks to vindicate the efforts of the Ramsay Centre to fund courses in 'Western Civilisation' at selected Australian universities. He begins by lamenting the rejection of vast amounts of philanthropic money for the humanities, and all too quickly dismisses the stated grounds for the Australian National University's decision to…

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…

The concept of academic rights is greatly misunderstood, even among some university academics. This paper provides a summary of the historical development of the academic rights from the Roman to the modern era. Many documents and declarations advocating academic rights have been produced, and this paper presents a discussion of the recent…

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…

Australian higher education has experienced considerable controversy over issues of academic freedom in its history, but the equilibrium reached in the 1960s and 1970s is now threatened by a trend toward private ownership and participation in institutional matters and the threat to institutional and faculty autonomy that accompanies it. (MSE)

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)

It is argued that university faculty, in their involvement with students, have the most direct impact on educational quality, and that impingement on their autonomy leads to reactive curriculum design, decreased motivation, and skewed values concerning research and publication. Australian university administrators are called on to use available…

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…

Academic freedom in the universities of South Africa is examined, focusing on competing conceptions of the university's role, limits on the university's autonomy, selection of students and related concerns of enabling black student enrollment while maintaining academic standards, and intellectual freedom in the context of political pressures. (DB)

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.…

The impact on higher education equity and diversity of Australia's recent shift from elite to mass higher education is assessed. Among the issues discussed are institutional role and autonomy, changes in regulation, market forces in higher education, and competition among institutions. (MSE)