The new politics of Australian higher education: why universities get rumbled in the budget

Abstract

This paper questions the dominant arguments that currently frame debate over the political ineffectiveness of the higher education lobby in Australia. Public choice theory is used to advance a more complex hypothesis that takes into account dramatic changes to the political environment over recent decades. This is tested against interview data from policy actors and vice‐chancellors.

Keywords:

• Australian higher education
• lobbying
• policy
• politics
• professional development
• vice‐chancellors

Notes

1. VC 1 (Unaligned); VC 2 (Group of Eight); VC 3 (Australian Technology Network); VC 4 (Innovative Research Universities); VC 5 (Australian Technology Network); VC 6 (Unaligned). Policy Actors; PA 1 (Former Departmental officer); PA 2 (ALP Parliamentarian); PA 3 (Former AVCC secretariat); PA 4 (Former GO8 secretariat). Approaches were made to a former Coalition education minister and two other Go8 members, who did not respond. However, their public statements were examined for consistency with the ‘official view’ discussed in the text, including those presented in the Review of the AVCC (AVCC, 2006).