Report of the Committee on Australian Universities [Murray report]

The inquiry by the Committee on Australian Universities in 1957 heralded the beginning of government influence on higher education. Since the establishment of universities in the mid-19th century there had been virtually no control or influence applied by governments. The 1957 review, the first national and wide-ranging investigation of Australian university education, revealed acute inadequacies in the standard of university education, such as overcrowding, poor facilities, a high dropout rate, and poor research levels. The Committee, chaired by Keith Murray, reported on the following areas of importance: the role of universities in the community; the characteristics of Australian society such as economic and educational background; issues in Australian universities related to undergraduate and post-graduate education, and research; issues related to physical facilities, maintenance and equipment, recruitment, staff salaries and conditions of employment, and scholarships and grants; particular issues associated with scientific and technological education; issues around university expansion in relation to expected increase in enrolments, distribution among academic faculties, coordination of development and new institutions; issues associated with university policy formulation and administration; the case for an Australian University Grants Committee; and the financial needs of universities. The report recommended increased expenditure so that universities were not only for the privileged few, and the formation of a Universities Grants Committee. The Commonwealth responded initially by increasing grants and forming an Australian Universities Commission. However, this egalitarian goal was delayed by the recommendation by the 1964 Martin report of a binary system, the outcome of which was the creation of a separate sector of vocational and applied colleges in parallel with universities. Show less