Restructuring higher education systems through institutional mergers: Australian experience, 1981–1983

This paper reviews Australian experience over the period 1981–1983 in order to illustrate how institutional mergers can be used to tackle system-wide as well as local institutional problems in higher education. It also illustrates some of the tensions and complications that arise in a federal political system where the legal control for two out of three sectors of tertiary education lies at one level of government and funding responsibility at another. The background and context to the mergers are explained, an analysis is provided of how institutions and state governments reacted to Federal Government coercion, and an attempt is made to assess outcomes.