Yesterday ANU (recruitment) and VU (teaching) announced new student-centric schemes – great examples of universities breaking the old mould of public universities doing everything the same. It’s a result that flows from demand driven funding, with universities looking to meet the wants and needs of different sorts of students. But opponents of competition can relax. With the federal government planning to allocate growth places according to yet to be announced metrics the market universities will have to meet in the future will be officials administering the allocation process. Goodbye Adam Smith, hello Leonid Brezhnev.