The Australian University in a Multicultural Environment

Abstract

This article describes how the Australian university system has become increasingly multi‐ethnic and multicultural as a reflection of the greater Australian society that is also increasingly multicultural and multi‐ethnic. As the universities have evolved from being elitist institutions, based on a British model and accessible to only a small proportion of the population, to units making up a mass system, they have had to contend with two contradictory forces: government mandated efforts to increase the representation on university campuses of disadvantaged groups and pressures to reduce government spending for higher education. Increasing efforts, after 1990, on the part of Australian universities to recruit full‐fee paying foreign students have intensified student multi‐ethnicity on Australian campuses while providing near windfall sources of extra funds. Yet there are voices being raised regarding the propriety and the ethics of selling higher education in this way.