The writing on the wall: responses of Australian public universities to competition in global higher education

Australian public universities are struggling to maintain parity with international counterparts in an environment that is becoming increasingly competitive globally. While most universities are now heeding calls from sector leaders to become more competitive, any strategies that they implement to effect change in this regard might be too late to save some. A systematic content analysis of published strategic plans of Australian public universities, undertaken during 2005-2007, indicates that universities were not taking the threat of rapidly intensifying competition seriously enough at a time when foreign competitors were making inroads into their markets and when deregulation and new communication technologies were spawning rivals in many new forms. This research has three principal implications: all Australian public universities need to re-examine their strategic planning processes to determine whether (1) adequate attention is being paid to rapid intensification of competition; (2) strategies already implemented in response to increasing competition are appropriate; and (3) more can be done to develop better models to guide competitive behaviour in a university sector with unique characteristics.