The Australian and American higher education: Key issues of the first decade of the 21st Century

Higher education is critical to the social andeconomic futures of all nations and it is moreso in the case of developed nations. TheAmerican and Australian systems of highereducation originated on the basis of the17th and 19th Century British models,respectively. Later, the Americans developedtheir own unique system, with the introductionof several innovative features, becoming themost diverse, dynamic and dominant system ofthe modern world. The Australian system, whichdeveloped itself maintaining a closerelationship with the British system until the1980s, has now transformed into a unifiednational system, consisting of multi-campus,larger universities with a big push for theexpansion of the private sector, moving towardsthe American model. However, it is observedthat there are more similarities thandifferences in the problems and issuesconfronted by the two systems. Both nationshave made higher education a means of nationaldevelopment and minimisation of socialinequality. This paper addresses some of thekey issues, such as, higher education costs tostudents, technology and instructionaldelivery, faculty roles and rewards and currenttrends that are likely to dominate thesesystems during the first decade of the21st Century.