The National Framework for Australian Higher Education Equity: Its Origins, Evolution and Current Status.

This paper traverses three consecutive policy periods with respect to Australian higher education equity, the first two driven by the policies of successive Labor Governments and the third by a highly deregulatory market liberal Coalition Government. It identifies the distinguishing characteristics of the national equity policy, planning and reporting framework put into place by Australian Labor Governments in the first of these periods (mid 1980s-mid 1990s). The second and abruptly concluded period is significant in terms of the evaluation it provides of the achievements of that framework and the elaboration of the principles, policy and procedures required to entrench progress over the longer term. The paper goes on to identify what remains of that framework in the third and contemporary era, given that the policies of the current conservative Coalition Government have brought about changes in higher education funding and policy directions which threaten to reverse what progress had been made in the two earlier periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]