Institutional Amalgamations and Abolition of the Binary System in Australia under John Dawkins

Under a Federal Labor Government, over the past three years Australian higher education has undergone dramatic and fundamental restructuring and redirection. The programe of reform has been extensive, covering numerous aspects of the structure and work of higher education and how higher education relates to government. This paper concentrates on two aspects – abolition of the binary system, and the dramatic reduction in the number of separate institutions through institutional amalgamations.