ASPECTS OF INSTITUTIONAL ACADEMIC LIFE

Governments of Australia have, at least since the 1960s, desired the c ontrol of tertiary education. From the mid-1960s to 1988 Australia had a binary system of higher education comprised of universities and col leges of advanced education. The latter were subject to much stricter government regulation. One of the main intentions was to have a system of tertiary education which was more attuned to the economic needs of the nation and less expensive than traditional universities. Colleges of advanced education were supposed to be 'equal bur different'. Hist orians of education have been criticised for concentrating on facts an d acts and for ignoring the human and social dimensions of institution al history. This paper redresses some of these shortcomings. The paper focuses on the individual working lives of a group of academic staff in one of Australia's oldest colleges of advanced education. It examin es the influence of government regulations at the individual level. Th e paper investigates how system-wide restraints were reflected in the institutions they were supposed to influence. The issues covered inclu de academic recruitment, induction programmes, institutional history t he use of sanctions and rewards and controls on teaching.