The reconstruction of higher education in Australia through the creation of the Unified National System of Higher Education at the end of the 1980s by John Dawkins is commonly seen as a watershed. It brought new ways of funding, directing and organising universities, expanding their size, reorienting their activities and setting in train a far-reaching transformation of the academic enterprise.

This volume traces its impact on the balance between the University of Melbourne’s academic mission and external expectations, and how it adjusted to neutralise the impact of the change and restore the balance. At Melbourne, the Dawkins revolution changed little in the way it understood itself and conducted its affairs, but changed everything.