The University of South Australia is unique in Australian higher education in having foundation legislation which gives it a specific responsibility to “meet the needs of Aboriginal people” and “of groups within the community that the University considers to have experienced disadvantages in education.” It was founded in January 1991 by means of an amalgamation between two former colleges of advanced education (CAEs), the South Australian Institute of Technology (SAIT) and two of the three campuses of the South Australian College of Advanced Education (SACAE), a product of the restructure and reform of the Australian tertiary education sector put into place by the then federal Minister, John Dawkins, frequently referred to as the Dawkins reform era. While most often remembered for fundamental structural change, reducing the number of tertiary institutions through a range of mergers and dismantling the existing two-tiered binary to the current unified national system (UNS), this period also had significant equity dimensions. The national equity framework referred to in section 2.2 above originated in the same period and was a dimension of the challenge to higher education to become more relevant and responsive to the educational and research priorities of the nation in both their economic and social dimensions, and more accountable for doing so.