Globalisation and the Changing Functions of Australian Universities

In this brief review we show how the functions of Australian universities – teaching, research and enterprise and community engagement – have changed dramatically over the last two decades or so. We focus on three aspects of change: globalisation and international engagement; marketisation and competition, especially in overseas student recruitment and in collaborative research; and the entrepreneurial response by universities. Marketisation, globalisation and entrepreneurialism are watchwords for all Australian universities, each provoking the need to demonstrate competitive standing in learning, in research and in industry and community engagement. While particular modes of regulation, process and structure are characteristically Australian, we find that these changes, with their consequence of competing academic and systemic structures, carry lessons for academic careers and higher education policies in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond.