Abstract

Since the establishment of Australian universities in the 1850s sport loomed large in the lives of university students and was institutionalised by university governance. In fact up until World War I universities such as Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide played a pioneering role in the development and promotion of Australian sport. Similarly between World War I and the 1990s students actively participated in the sporting culture of the various universities as universities continued to recognise the importance of the extra-curricular opportunities to the student experience. By the early 1990s a number of tertiary education reforms were introduced which began to challenge the place held by sport in Australian universities. These included the proliferation of universities and subsequent student numbers, the adoption of the user pay system and the introduction of voluntary student unionism. This paper traces the various policies and events which have impacted on sport at Australian universities and reviews the changing educational values that these reflect.