Australian experience of transition to mass higher education

Abstract

This paper reviews the Australian experience of transition of higher education (or tertiary education, to use con temporary Australian terminology) from relatively small, State-based institutions at the end of the Second World War to the current mass, national system today, characterised by large student enrolments, wide ranges of course offerings, a highly diverse student body, and relatively high international student participation rates. This fifty-year period has seen a dramatic transformation from a small number of universities based in the six State capitals, and a loosely coordinated group of technical colleges and specialist teachers colleges and agricultural colleges, to a large and important group of higher education and vocational education and training (VET) providers that play central roles in the economy and society.