Abstract
The higher education system in Australia has been undergoing unprecedented transformation in the last decade, largely driven by a Federal Government endeavouring to modernise the sector in line with new requirements arising from social and economic change. These developmemts have overall been consistent with the thrust of higher education reform prevalent across the western world. They have been accompanied by linked concerns about loss of university and academic 'autonomy', and associated demands for a return to a 'traditional' university and academic values, from academics, unions, at times university management and from the broader community. This paper explores what is seen to be at risk through apparent loss of university 'autonomy' and 'traditional' academic values. It does this through examining changes to the Australian higher sector in terms of a pronounced shift from self-referentiality to an unprecedented degree of external referentiality. The paper proposes that it is important to maintain a dynamic tension between self- and external referentiality, the balance of which at the moment is tipping dangerously towards excessive external referentiality.