Over the last several years the author conducted 126 interviews and held four focus groups with academic staff, administrators and others associated with Australian universities, about the problems and challenges they believed faced the system of tertiary education. Widespread concern and pessimism pervaded the interviews about the future of tertiary education in Australia. Approximately three quarters of the interviewees said that the system was worse, or certainly no better, today than a decade ago; a similar number held out little hope that the system would improve, if not deteriorate further, in a decade. In this article the author outlines what he sees as systemic barriers to change and then offers suggestions for overcoming those barriers and enacting reform.