ABSTRACT

Substantial modifications have been made in recent years to Australia’s higher educational system, with a unified higher education scheme replacing the binary system that had evolved over time. Amalgamation of existing institutions has led to the formation of large, multicampus universities. Before 1988 there were fewer than 20 universities, whereas now there are almost twice that number. The proportion of Australian students completing secondary school, and the demand for tertiary places—both undergraduate and postgraduate—have increased dramatically. For example, the number of PhD students increased from 7,035 in 1983 (Castles, 1990) to 13,623 in 1992 (Castles, 1995), and has continued to grow since then. The rise has been particularly striking for females, whose enrollment almost tripled from 1,897 in 1990 to 5,123 in 1992 (compared with 5,138 and 8,500 for males in 1983 and 1992, respectively). Thus supervisory resources are being increasingly stretched. However, considerable effort is made to preserve the high standards of doctoral work long associated with Australian universities.