ABSTRACT This article examines the 1988 Dawkins reforms to Australian higher education and the creation of a unified national system. The article is based on two propositions. The first is that as historians we should examine educational reforms in a changing society not only for what they propose, but with a look backwards to understand their place within a longer history of educational reform. The second – with a side-glance to the British higher education reforms of the early 1990s as a counterpoint – is the extent to which the 1988 Australian higher education reforms should be seen as neoliberal or, as Quicke, McCulloch and Openshaw argue, should we as historians look for nuance within the complex philosophical forces at play?

中文翻译：

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二十世纪后期澳大利亚的大众教育和大学改革

摘要 本文考察了 1988 年道金斯对澳大利亚高等教育的改革和建立统一的国家体系。这篇文章基于两个命题。首先，作为历史学家，我们不仅应该审视变革社会中的教育改革，不仅要考虑他们提出的建议，还要回顾过去，以了解它们在较长的教育改革历史中的位置。第二个——以 1990 年代初期的英国高等教育改革作为对立面——是 1988 年澳大利亚高等教育改革应在多大程度上被视为新自由主义，或者，正如 Quicke、McCulloch 和 Openshaw 所争论的那样，我们是否应该当历史学家在起作用的复杂哲学力量中寻找细微差别时？