Meeting the need for special education teacher education: Universities can make it difficult

There are three initial teacher education programs for specialist teachers in the state of Victoria, Australia. As Australian Federal and State governments were starting to pay closer, more tangible attention to those with disability, one Australian university closed its Disability Studies single degree program, along with its associated Education/Disability program; this is a teacher education program. An examination of government data collection, reports, policy development and curriculum support activities sets out recent government directions with regards to special education in Victoria and Australia. Why then would a major program provider cut its program? In the examination of this case it is argued that an 'academic culture' may prevail within universities which see small specialist programs as unattractive to their overall purpose and appeal. Does this culture fit within the wider community view of support and need for specialist teachers for children with special learning needs? How well is this view understood? Can this understanding be improved?