ABSTRACT
Australian universities have for some time been primarily concerned with scholarship and the advancement of knowledge. The colleges of advanced education, established to provide a more "vocational" stream of higher education, have been less concerned with research and scholarship roles and the related problems of academic freedom and accountability. All institutions of higher education are increasingly being called to account for "their" failure to match the output of graduates to the current manpower requirements of the community. At the level of institution-community relations the more appropriate model is a learner-centred approach to education, in which the teacher's role is one of facilitating the student's learning and extending his horizons, rather than one of direction. Both universities and colleges have seen themselves in the design of their courses as accountable for meeting the needs of external groups— other institutions, occupational and professional groups, industry and government.
