Higher education for all? Tensions and contradictions in post‐compulsory and higher education policy in Australia

The recently released Young People's Participation in Post‐compulsory Education and Training document, usually referred to as the Finn Committee Report, completes an education policy triad in Australia involving schooling, higher education and technical and further education (TAFE). This paper is particularly interested in examining the policy nexus between higher education and TAFE. While the philosophical continuities are clear, the underlying ‘logics’ of the two arenas pull in different directions, creating policy tensions and contradictions. In particular, the assumptions about mass tertiary education underlying the Finn Report conflict with the entrepreneurial ‘universification’ of higher education set in train by the recent restructuring of the higher education sector. This paper traces the competing logics of these trends and discusses their implications for higher education.