Access to Privilege: Patterns of Participation in Australian Post-Secondary Education.

The question of whether the social composition of postsecondary education in Australia has changed since the 1930s and 1940s is analyzed. Based on a review of studies of higher education students in Australia, it is proposed that concern for equity in access to education developed during the 1960s and has continued until the present. Attention is directed to enrollment trends for the universities, College of Advanced Education, and technical and further education. Additional topics include: the age distribution of students, enrollment influences and trends for women students, the effects of social conditions on enrollment, college participation by public and private school students, the effect of place of residence on college attendance, the effects of local tertiary institutions on participation, interstate and interinstitutional variations on enrollment, educational aspirations of migrant students, the national background of students, aborigines and the irrelevance of education, the socioeconomic background of students, type and level of study, and social background of technical and further education students. It is concluded that although these colleges are represented by students from many different backgrounds, access to higher education is mainly limited to the privileged. (SW)