The unified national system: Implications for NSW technology teacher education

The Australian higher education sector has been marked by a number of significant management and structural reforms. During the past 50 years for example these have centred on, student fee systems, institutional funding regimes and their organisational structures. Significant among these reforms were those introduced under the ‘Unified National System’ (UNS) during the 1980’s by the then Commonwealth Minister for Education John Dawkins. In part this reform resulted in the integration of the then established ‘universities’ with other higher education institutions such as Institutes of Technology (IT) and Colleges of Advanced Education (CAE) to form one unified system of universities. Prior to the introduction of the UNS New South Wales (NSW)Technology teacher education was largely provided by a number of CAE’s who in the main had evolved from government established and funded Teachers Colleges complimented by the University of New South Wales. These institutions were charged with providing courses preparing suitably qualified persons accredited to teach the NSW primary and secondary curriculum, including specialist teachers for the various NSW Technology syllabuses. Significant for Technology teacher education at this time were institutions located in Goulburn, Newcastle and Sydney.