The recuperating universities.(Universities)

DECENTLY, Australian universities have come in for plenty of criticism. During the course of my university career--much of it in Australia--this has taken three main forms.

First, leftists in the past have criticised universities for being centres of privilege and an entry to a highly paid and privileged career mostly for people from already highly paid and privileged families. Until the mid-1980s there was some force to this view, as many students entering universities--particularly the sandstone or "Great Eight" universities--were from private schools and most of the others were from the best state schools. Further, the proportion that went to universities was ...