ВИНИКНЕННЯ ТА РОЗВИТОК СИСТЕМИ ВИЩОЇ ОСВІТИ АВСТРАЛІЇ

Abstract

The article deals with the problem of higher education formation and development in Australia. The aim of the article is to find out the main stages of higher education development in Australia from the time of its emergence to our times. Throughout the period of its existence the higher education sector of Australia went through reorganizations The first universities, University of Sydney and University of Melbourne, were formed at the beginning of the 1850s. Prior to federation in 1901 two more universities were established: the University of Adelaide (1874) and the University of Tasmania (1890). After World War II, the higher education sector in Australia started to develop momentum, it became more important but less elite. It grew from six small universities educating less than 0.2 per cent of the population to a huge and rather complicated system which enrolled over a quarter of high school graduates. In the late 1980s the Unified National System was formed, which eliminated various technical colleges, teachers' colleges and colleges of advanced education from the structure of higher education in Australia which were incorporated into a system of multi-campus universities. In those years Australia was one of the first countries to restructure to have possibilities of wider participation in higher education. The results of those changes made it a leader internationally in the movement from elite to mass systems. The increase in numbers brought greater diversity in the student body. The article gives the analyses of the changes over the twentieth century and comes to the conclusion that changes in Australian government policy and public demand impacted upon the structure of higher education establishments in Australia. The increasing demand from the Australian population and business is likely to have made the biggest impact on the nature of the universities themselves, contributing to their growth and affecting the content of the courses they offer. Key words: higher education, higher education sector, Australia, history, development, internationalization.