My suspicions were raised with the so-called Dawkins' reforms of the late 1980's when they started calling any public tertiary institution a university. In many cases the people there are more artisans than academics, and while there is clearly nothing wrong with that, by giving everything the same name you can then use the lowest common denominator to manage everything down while increasing your profit per unit produced.

I've forgotten the figure for how much the government actually makes per graduate (the real number is bigger because it's not only the fees they get which ought to be revenue neutral in terms of the cost of running the university, but in reality they get more tax, spend less on unemployment and associated benefits, per graduate, to say nothing of increased productivity for the nation), so in theory you want as many (preferably from your own country) as you can get out there. However, that is the long term view, not supported by people who live in 3 to 4 year chunks. They want to get the money now if they can -- hence fees, foreign students, and of course calling everything a university.  "Come to Australia, get a university degree in flower arrangement, only $31,000 per year if you come from Japan..." So you increase competition for a relatively static number of places by allowing overseas students pre-emptive admission, and so entrance requirements go up. The public  perceive this as meaning there is a general increase in the IQ of the people competing for the spots, not as that of an increasing number of spots being sold 'off market', to use a trading term, to overseas students whose parents look to Australia for relatively cheap education.

I don't know how much of that is true -- but if it is, then when my kids go to university the quality of their education will be less (if you can fill the classes with little or no competition between the unis why would you be bothered getting anything but the cheapest people); the universities become squalid for the same reasons and you get to pay through the nose for the privilege of attending.

I think I'll go out and get the five-year-old a golf set.