Introduction

This chapter provides a partial and historical policy analysis of Australian higher education (HE) since its inception in the mid-19th century. The chapter's interests are explored on three levels. In the background, there is an analysis of the relationship between social and economic policy, particularly the extent to which economic concerns dominate government policy agendas. Second, there is an interest in illustrating the extent to which HE policy is variously subsumed by the social and/or the economic. Third, and most explicitly, the chapter examines the social justice intent of Australian HE policy and how this is differently expressed at times of expansion and consolidation in the system.

In making assessments about the latter, we are informed by Gale and Densmore's (2000) three perspectives on social justice: distributive, retributive and recognitive. Distributive justice can be defined in terms of ‘freedom, social cooperation and compensation for those who lack the basics … [achieved] through proportional distributions to individuals and groups’ (Gale and Densmore, 2000, p 27). Retributive justice is concerned with ‘liberty and the protection of rights … [and] open competition and protection of life and property … [including] punishment for those who infringe these rights’ (Gale and Densmore, 2000, p 27). Recognitive justice involves the ‘provision of the means for all people to exercise their capabilities and determine their actions … [through] processes that generalise the interests of the least advantaged’ (Gale and Densmore, 2000, p 27).

Drawing on these perspectives, we characterise the social justice inflection of expansionist HE policy in Australia since the Second World War in terms of ‘compensation’, ‘equal opportunity’ and ‘equity’. In our assessment, each of these is a form of distributive justice. We also note periods of HE policy that are informed by retributive justice, although they are not periods with an explicit expansionist agenda. To date, recognitive justice has been largely absent from Australian HE policy.

The structure of the chapter is primarily chronological. We begin with an overview of the shifts in Australia from elite to mass to near-universal HE and note that increasing access to HE has not been of equal benefit to all Australians. We then canvass how successive Australian governments have sought to address this problem.