Private Universities in Australia

Abstract

their financial support from governments central, state, and local there are impressive exceptions. In the United States, as many private as state universities rank among the foremost.1 In England, until after the First World War, the universities were for the most part private in the sense that little of their financial support was supplied by government. Since then the pattern has changed. More recently, the central government of Great Britain, out of concern to confine governmental expenditures, has been trying to reduce the financial dependence of the universities on public monies, and administrators of universities have worked towards the same objective; one entirely private university has been created.2 Patterns elsewhere around the world vary.3 In the Federal Republic of Germany, there have been several efforts to create private universities; their success has been limited. In the Philippines, a prosperous private university sector educates large numbers of students, and three of the institutions have even been listed on the country's stock exchange.4 In Belgium, the extensive governmental financial support for private universities is contingent on their compliance with many government policies, notably in employment practices.5 The private universities in Belgium are obliged to mirror the practices of the public universities in such matters as the proportion of teaching to research staff and of academic staff to students.6 The Belgian government provides comparable per capita allocations for students in the private and public universities.7 In