Privatisation, structural adjustment and Australian higher education policy

Abstract

This thesis attempts to explain why privatisation, in its various forms, has taken place in Australian higher education and to assess the implications of the emergence of a small sector of private providers upon public policy in general, and of changes to the mode of provision, financing and regulation in particular. (1) It will argue that economic and fiscal pressures have curtailed the Commonwealth's ability to fund adequately higher education expansion and that privatisation, through the introduction of user-pays systems, such as the graduate tax, is seen as an expedient means for government to overcome fiscal constraints. Privatisation, however, can take a variety of forms other than user-pays such as the sale of public assets, contracting out service provision to private sector providers and the liberalisation of government controls. All of these methods transfer the responsibility of production and/or financing of goods and sendees away from the public sector to private individuals or corporations. Show more