With contributions from several Asia-Pacific countries, this book compares performance and productivity in higher education from the perspective of institutional change. Using multiple methods and datasets and including case studies from Australia, Cambodia, China, Malaysia, India and Japan, the authors focus on shedding light on the efficacy of institutional policies and reforms. The worldwide Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in higher education neared 40 per cent in 2020 due to the dramatic increase in enrolments in many developing economies, especially in Asia. This significant increase in the number of students in higher education brings great benefits but requires major ongoing investment by governments around the world. This growth has followed waves of internationalization and marketization, and universities are undergoing substantial change in their organization and character. The goal of many institutional policies and reforms has been better performance and higher productivity. Yet little is known about whether they have achieved this aim. Students, government officials and university leaders all have the right to ask whether the outcomes of higher education justify the costs of running the system. Although increasing attention has been paid to higher education institutions' management and operation, the study of higher education performance and productivity is still in its relative infancy compared to other enterprises. Written for students and scholars interested in higher education management and productivity, this book will also appeal to government officials and university leaders keen to know more about institutional reform and how to achieve better performance.

The reconstruction of higher education in Australia through the creation of the Unified National System of Higher Education at the end of the 1980s by John Dawkins is commonly seen as a watershed. It brought new ways of funding, directing and organising universities, expanding their size, reorienting their activities and setting in train a far-reaching transformation of the academic enterprise. This volume traces its impact on the balance between the University of Melbourne's academic mission and external expectations, and how it adjusted to neutralise the impact of the change and restore the balance. At Melbourne, the Dawkins revolution changed little in the way it understood itself and conducted its affairs, but changed everything.

A revolution swept through universities three decades ago, transforming them from elite institutions into a mass system of higher education.Teaching was aligned with occupational outcomes, research was directed to practical results. Campuses grew and universities became more entrepreneurial. Students had to juggle their study requirements with paid work, and were required to pay back part of the cost of their degrees. The federal government directed this transformation through the creation of a Unified National System.How did this happen? What were the gains and the losses? No End of a Lesson explores this radical reconstruction and assesses its consequences.