Skip to main content
Log in

Steering from a distance: Power relations in Australian higher education

  • Published:
Higher Education Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Conventional liberal frameworks – in which power is seen asthe property of states, and repressive in character, and market and stateexclude each other – are unable to comprehend the recent changes inliberal government, including the government of systems and institutions inhigher education. Neo-liberal government rests on self-managing institutionsand individuals, in which free agents are empowered to act on their ownbehalf but are ‘steered from a distance’ by policy norms and rules of thegame. In the universities government-created markets and quasi-markets havebeen used to advance both devolution and central control, simultaneously,and national government and institutional management are increasinglyimplicated in each other. These issues are explored in relation to recenthigher education literature, and empirically, the latter by examining thechanges in the Australian higher education system in the last decade. TheAustralian system provides an example of a quasi-market in which thedevelopment of a stronger institutional management, the introduction ofgovernment-institution negotiations over educational profiles, and the newsystems of competitive bidding, performance management and qualityassessment have all been used to steer academic work and to install aprocess of continuous self-transformation along modern neo-liberal lines.Following a change of government in 1996 there has been some movement from aquasi-market to a more fully developed economic market, but no relaxation ofgovernment control.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Auerbach, P. (1988). Competition: The Economics of Industrial Change. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baldwin, P. (1991). Higher Education: Quality and Diversity in the 1990 s.Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service (AGPS).

    Google Scholar 

  • Becher, T. and Kogan, M. (1992). Process and Structure in Higher Education. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bessant, B. (1993). Corporate Practices and their Penetration of University Administration and Government, paper for the conference of the Australian Association for Research in Education, Perth, November. London: Harvester Wheatsheaf.

    Google Scholar 

  • Commonwealth Tertiary Education Commission, CTEC (1986). Review of Efficiency and Effectiveness in Higher Education: Report of the Committee of Enquiry. Canberra: AGPS.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dawkins, J. (1987). Higher Education: A Discussion Paper. Canberra: AGPS.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dawkins, J. (1988). Higher Education: A Policy Statement. Canberra: AGPS.

    Google Scholar 

  • Department of Employment, Education and Training, DEET (1988). The 1988 Research Pro-files Exercise, unpublished paper. Canberra: AGPS.

    Google Scholar 

  • Department of Employment, Education and Training, DEET (1993),Australia, country report for the OECD conference on 'The transition from elite to mass higher education', Sydney, 15–18 June. Canberra: DEET.

  • Fligstein, N. (1990). The Transformation of Corporate Control. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

  • Foucault, M. (1980). Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972–1977. New York: Pantheon Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, M. (1982). 'The subject and power', Afterword in Dreyfus, H. and Rabinow, P.,Michel Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics. Brighton: Harvester Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, M. (1988). Politics, Philosophy, Culture: Interviews and Other Writings,1977–1984. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, M. (1991). 'Governmentality', in Burchell, G., Gordon C. and Miller, P. (eds.),The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality. London: Harvester Wheatsheaf, pp. 87–104.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gammage, D. (1993). 'The reorganisation of the Australian higher educational institutions towards a unified national system',Studies in Higher Education18, 81–94.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harman, G. (1996). 'Quality assessment with national institutional rankings and performance funding: the Australian experiment, 1993-1995',Higher Education Quarterly50(4), 295-311.

    Google Scholar 

  • Karmel, P. (1989). Reflections on a Revolution; Australian Higher Education in 1989, AVCC Papers No. 1. Canberra: Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee.

    Google Scholar 

  • Karmel, P. (1992). 'The Australian university into the twenty-first century',Journal of Tertiary Education Administration14(2), 141–151.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mahony, D. (1992). 'Autonomy and the demands of the modern state: a systematic study',Higher Education Review24(3), 7–20.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marceau, J. (1993). Steering From a Distance: International Trends in the Financing and Governance of Higher Education, Higher Education Division of DEET, Evaluations and Investigations Program. Canberra: AGPS.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marginson, S. (1993). Education and Public Policy in Australia. Cambridge University Press: Melbourne.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marginson, S. (1997a). Educating Australia: Government, Economy and Citizen Since 1960. Cambridge University Press: Melbourne.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marginson, S. (1997b). Markets in Education. Sydney: Allen and Unwin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marshall, N. (1990). 'End of an era: the collapse of the "buffer" approach to the governance of Australian tertiary education',Higher Education19, 147–167.

    Google Scholar 

  • Massaro, V. (1992). Paper to the conference of the Australian Institute of Tertiary Education Administrators. Ballarat: Ballarat University College.

    Google Scholar 

  • McDaniel, O. (1996). 'The paradigms of governance in higher education systems',Higher Education Policy9(2), 137–158.

    Google Scholar 

  • McInnis, C. and Marginson, S. (1994),Australian Law Schools After the 1987 Pearce Report, DEET Higher Education Division, Evaluations and Investigations Program. Canberra: AGPS.

    Google Scholar 

  • McInnis, C., Powles, M. and Anwyl, J. (1994)ei]Neave, G. and van Vught, F. (eds.) (1991). Prometheus Bound: The Changing Relationship Between Government and Higher Education in Western Europe. Oxford: Pergamon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Niklasson, L. (1996). 'Quasi-markets in higher education-a comparative analysis',Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management18(1), 7–22.

    Google Scholar 

  • Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD (1989). Education in a Changing Economy and Society. Paris: OECD.

  • Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD (1990). Financing Higher Education. Paris: OECD.

  • Ramsey, G. (1988). The New Challenge for Higher Education: Growth, Increased Outputs and New Directions, address to conference. Armidale: University of New England.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rose, N. (1990). Governing the Soul. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rose, N. (1993). 'Government, authority and expertise in advanced liberalism',Economy and Society22(3), 283–300.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rose, N. and Miller, P. (1992). 'Political power beyond the state: problematics of government',British Journal of Sociology43(2), 173–205.

    Google Scholar 

  • Slaughter, S. (1993). Professionals in a Global Economy: Differentiation, Market Relations and Reward Structures-Australian Cases, draft paper. Tucson: U niversity of Arizona.

    Google Scholar 

  • Teichler, U. (1996). 'The changing nature of higher education in Western Europe',Higher Education Policy9(2), 89–111.

    Google Scholar 

  • United Kingdom, Government of, UK (1993). United Kingdom,country paper for the OECD conference on 'The transition from elite to mass higher education', Sydney, 15–18 June. van Vught, F. (1991), 'From corrective to facilitative government policies', in G. Neave and F. van Vught,Prometheus Bound: The Changing Relationship Between Government and Higher Education in Western Europe. Oxford: Pergamon Press, pp. 109–128.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams, B. (1992). 'The rise and fall of binary systems in two countries and the consequences for universities',Studies in Higher Education17, 281–293.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams, G. (1992). Changing Patterns of Finance in Higher Education. Buckingham: Open University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • World Bank, WB (1994). Higher Education: The Lessons of Experience. Washington: World Bank Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zumeta, W. (1996). 'Meeting the demand for higher education without breaking the bank',Journal of Higher Education67(4), 367–425.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Marginson, S. Steering from a distance: Power relations in Australian higher education. Higher Education 34, 63–80 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1003082922199

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1003082922199

Keywords

Navigation