在1960年代初期，高等教育開始擴張之時，歐美各國政府就注意到歐洲式的傳統大學無法滿足社會多元化的需求。大眾化的高等教育機構必須採取多樣化的發展，涵蓋不同的課程方案、機構層次與規模、經費來源、學術名聲及地理位置等。英國和澳洲都在1960年代中期開始實施高等教育的雙軌制，前者以多元技術學院，後者以高等教育學院來取代傳統大學的擴充，滿足社會大眾對高等教育的需求。有趣的是，英國和澳洲又不約而同地在1980年代後期廢除雙軌體制，藉由升格和合併將上述機構和大學統整為單一體系。整體看來，英國和澳洲的高等教育改革呈現出驚人的相似之處。本文擬就英國和澳洲兩國高等教育雙軌制的建立與廢除及高等教育的私有化進行比較分析，以探究在快速變遷的社會、經濟、政治環境中，政府和高等教育關係的轉變。

Owing to the massification of higher education in most developed countries, governments find it increasingly difficult to cope with the fast expansion. The policies of many OECD countries are clearly intended to bring about a fundamental transformation of the higher education. Britain and Australia are no exceptions. Besides, these two countries demonstrated striking similarity in their higher education policy. Both established a binary system in the mid-1960s to accommodate the higher education expansion and to promote greater diversity in the higher education system. However, through a process of so-called "upward academic drift", the polytechnics/colleges sector began to imitate the elite universities in almost every aspect. This outcome, together with other factors, led to the abolition of binary system of both countries in the late 1980s. This article explores the higher education reform in both countries with an aim to illuminate the changing relationship between governments and higher education institutions in the broad social and economic context.