The Study About The Development History Of Australian Universities

Compared with the nation，Australia had its universities first,and Australian universitesplayed a significant role of enlightenment and talents reserving during the nation building. Inthe course of Australian universities’ development, the leadership of higher educationgradually transferred from the state government to the federal government,presented thetendency and characteristics which is from decentralization to centralization.With thechangement of higher education leadership, higher education system has also changed.Taking the growing and major changes of Australian higher education as the main line，the development of Australian universities’ history might be roughly divided into4stages.The first stage was from1850to1901，beginning with Sydney University in New SouthWales, each colony in Australia had its own university. The second stage was from1901to1965, which is the traditional system period of Australian universities. The main leadership ofhigher education was on each colony government. The third stage was from the middle Sixtiesof20thCentury to the late1980s，the focus is Martin Report， which is Binary System aboutthe coexistence of CAEs and universities in the Australian universities’ history. Because theleadership of higher education had been transferred from the state government to the federalgovernment, this period was mainly an exploration of the new higher education system.Thefourth stage is from1980s until present， the flag is Dawkins White Paper， which is theperiod of Unified Nationa System after the Binary System is abolished. It also indicated thatthe federal government has a new understanding of the universities in Australia.In different historical period， because of the differences of social background andnational needs， Australian universities have different orientation. From1850to the middleSixties of20thCentury， the universities is set as the main shaper of national culture andnationality. From the middle Sixties of20thCentury to the late1980s， the universities is as asignificant supporting power to make Australia participate in the global economy. From1980suntil now， the universties are becoming the private enterprise operating in the internationalhigher education market. In approximate160years， Australian universities has become the world famousuniversities with a dozen of Nobel winners from having no ability to educating their owngraduates，which is quite worthy of being our role model.Firstly, Australian universitiestightly hold the nature of university;treasure the university constitution;value the fairness andtruth;pay attention to the scientific policy making of higher education. Meanwhile, in the tidalwave of international market， Australian commonwealth government gradually lose sight ofculture function of education and concentrate on the present measurable economic return， inwhich higher education has been imaged as a short-term machine. In addition， Australianfederal government has too high expectations on higher education’s own effort to bring anissue to a close. It seems that all needs for the development of society is to reform theeducation， for which the unviersities can not withstand the heavy.