Dawkins Revolution

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The Dawkins Revolution was a series of Australian tertiary education reforms instituted by the then Labor Education Minister (1987-92) John Dawkins.

[edit] Aims and outcomes

The reforms were aimed at improving the efficiency and international competitiveness of Australian universities, as well as a solution for the perceived brain drain. These reforms included the introduction of HECS, the conversion of all Colleges of Advanced Education (CAEs) into universities, and a series of provisions for universities to provide plans, profiles, statistics etc. to justify courses and research. As a result, undergraduate student numbers increased dramatically as universities were given economies of scale. There were also many mergers between universities and CAEs, with some successful (University of Queensland Gatton Campus), and others not so (Australian National University and the Canberra CAE, now the University of Canberra).

[edit] Criticisms

Many, especially those among the Group of Eight, saw these reforms as a dumbing down of the higher education sector, as college diploma students became university graduates overnight. The traditional universities were forced to focus more on teaching and thus research also suffered. As a result, many of Australia's top academics left for overseas, bringing down the quality and international competitiveness of Australian universities. The rise in the number of university graduates has also been blamed for the shortage of skilled labour which Australia is currently experiencing.