The reconstruction of higher education in Australia through the creation of the Unified National System of Higher Education at the end of the 1980s by John Dawkins is commonly seen as a watershed. It brought new waysof funding, directing and organising universities, expanding their size, reorienting their activities and setting in train a far-reaching transformation of the academic enterprise. This volume examines how the University of Melbourne both adapted to and resisted the Unified National System, how it took advantage of the opportunities for growth while affirming its academic mission. While the Dawkins revolution changed little in the way that Melbourne understood itself and conducted its affairs, it changed everything.