From his first days in government, Howard wanted to reshape Australian universities. His first budget contained dramatic cuts to higher education, and he has since gradually starved universities of public funds. The effect has been to force universities to rely on the foreign and full-fee paying students, who have filled up economics and business faculties. In doing so, Howard has tilted the balance away from the progressive intellectual side of the university sector towards the prosaic conservative side. By gutting the nation's arts faculties, Howard will successfully stunt the development of the next generation of Australian intellectuals.

Similarly, Howard pushed through voluntary student unionism with a view to closing down those pesky finishing schools for ambitious young radicals. And he increased HECS to make sure that students spend more time worrying about how they will pay back their student debt and less time attending activist meetings.