This thesis is a study of the work of the Committee on Australian Universities of 1957,
usually called the Murray Committee after its chairman.
Interpretations of the Murray Committee's work usually focus on its achievement in
securing funding increases for Australian universities at a time of great financial need, and
establishing an arms-length grants body that assisted what was referred to as the "balanced
development" of the sector. In this thesis I look at the context of the inquiry and the text
of the committee's report to place this outcome within what I consider to be the broader
scope and intent of the committee's work. I argue that the committee was anxious to
secure the position of the universities at the top of an educational hierarchy in a period of
change and challenge. The committee responded to the Commonwealth Government's
request that the future pattern of university development be in the best interests of the
nation by defending what they saw as the traditional role and purpose of the university. I
argue that this response is one that has at various times been put foward by universities to
demands for change, a response that, to paraphrase a view popular in university circles at
the time, seeks to give government what it needs rather than what it wants.
In this instance the committee looked to an English model of a residential university as the
"traditional" template on which Australian institutions should be fashioned. The
committee argued for the value of a broad, liberal education as emblematic of university
pedagogy in an era of increasing knowledge specialisation and increasing confusion of
purpose in the tertiary education system. It considered that a residential university
conducted on liberal principles was the best institutional representation of its ideal of a
community of scholars. The committee set down in its report a range of strategies by
which the ideal might be realised, or at least approached, in the Australian context. It paid
particular attention to the incorporation of first year students - the newest and most
vulnerable members of the community. I also argue that in setting down its ideas on the
institutional form and pedagogy of the university, the committee made assumptions about
the personal characteristics of "the scholar", and I analyse these assumptions.
In redefining the university in the Australian context the committee also engaged in a
process of defining the roles and purposes of other tertiary education institutions. The
committee took a hierarchical view of social organisation to their work, and viewed the
education system in this light. The committee charged the universities with oversight of
the Australian education system and intellectual guardianship of the Australian community.
University graduates, in the committee's view, were the natural leaders of Australian
society, and their education should prepare them to undertake properly this role. In
redefining the university the committee members engaged in a process of boundarysetting,
consolidating an institutional hierarchy in what they saw as a confused and
uncoordinated system. However, they sought to incorporate a commitment to
meritocracy and expansion of education opportunity within this perspective and urged the
creation of pathways between the institutions.
To characterise the committee's work I extend the concept of "balanced development" to
the various areas in which the committee made recommendations. The concept of
balanced development can be seen to refer to the proper development of the individual in
the university system (the production of a balanced personality, or the education of the
whole person); to the balanced development and co-ordination of the university sector; to
the development of the tertiary education system as a whole and its proper articulation
with the labour market; and to the process of reconciling the needs of the universities with
the demands of government
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/218603 |
| Date | January 1995 |
| Creators | McShane, Ian, n/a |
| Publisher | University of Canberra. Education |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | ), Copyright Ian McShane |
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