The reconstruction of higher education in Australia through the creation
of the Unified National System of Higher Education at the end of the
1980s by John Dawkins is commonly seen as a watershed. It brought new
waysof funding, directing and organising universities, expanding their
size, reorienting their activities and setting in train a far-reaching
transformation of the academic enterprise. This volume examines how the
University of Melbourne both adapted to and resisted the Unified
National System, how it took advantage of the opportunities for growth
while affirming its academic mission. While the Dawkins revolution
changed little in the way that Melbourne understood itself and conducted
its affairs, it changed everything.