External Pressures

Australasian universities in late nineteenth century employed graduates from Oxford and Cambridge and believed these Oxbridge professors would help to establish a credible identity. The professors "were accustomed to launching into reminiscences of their undergraduate days" (Gardner, 1979, p. 9), but they had to adjust to the pressures of the local society. The early universities were created by the States and were influenced by colonial politics. "Chronically in difficulties, [the universities] exaggerated both their current performance and their future prospects. Have such pressures and such responses vanished from university affairs?" (Gardner, 1979, p. 42).

• Gardner, W.J. (1979). Colonial Cap and Gown. Christchurch, NZ: University of Canterbury.