Capturing the academy: Australian higher education and the hidden hand of the regulatory state

Abstract

This paper examines the changing relations between the state and higher education. The civil purpose of the university was reflected in the role it played in the genesis of the secular state and these two entities remain in a precariously close orbit. Global factors are now transforming the role of the state, shifting the focus of its activities and this is increasingly associated with the use of disengaged mechanisms of political power: ‘oversight’ and ‘steering’. Behind these is a rapidly expanding regulatory system that is itself ‘hidden’ from scrutiny and new evidence of this is provided in relation to Australia. With centralisation and politicisation of higher education already an issue, this raises the question: are we now seeing a kind of ‘nationalisation’ by proxy?