McLaren, John (1977) Australian colleges of advanced education : spare parts or misfits? [Draft]. UNSPECIFIED. (Unpublished)

Abstract

Australian colleges of advanced education are a product of the Martin report, which was the result of investigations by a committee of enquiry during the early 1960s. The report enshrines the general beliefs held at that time about the social benefits of education and technology, as well as the fear that general higher education for all was a cost the community could not afford. The committee had been appointed in 1961 on the eve of an election which followed one of the Menzies government's periodic binges of economy. The concern with financial economies did not, however, extend to economy of its own time, and when the committee reported three years after its appointment, the government was once again in control of parliament and the economy and prepared to sponsor any innovation which might give it the appearance of meeting problems without taking on major responsibilities. Consequently, it gutted the administrative recommendations of the report and instead gave a subsidy to the states for an expansion of what was thought of as higher technical education. Unfortunately, however, events are not as easily controlled as electorates, and the initiatives so generously announced and grudgingly supported led in practice to the most rapid expansion of a system of formal education that Australia has seen since the introduction of compulsory schooling.

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