A new generation of students

Despite what Peter Karmel called ‘the cult of the big’, the ANU remained, in student numbers, a medium sized university. The 1976 figure of 5058 undergraduates increased to 8051 in 1995, while postgraduate numbers rose more sharply from 851 to 2327. Expansion of both groups was concentrated in the 1990s. While Masters’ degree and graduate diploma candidates accounted for much of the postgraduate increase, the numbers of PhD scholars nearly doubled. Although the ANU’s share of PhD students throughout Australia fell from 12 to 5 per cent as the degree became more common, the high proportion of such candidates remained