There has been recent discussion in the MSM and blogosphere about the relative merits of the Melbourne model compared to more traditional alternatives. There has been a provocative article by Steven King saying thanks very much Melbourne for sending us so many of your best and brightest. There was a rebuttal by Glyn Davis saying that what Melbourne lose in under-graduate enrolments they more than make up for in specialist masters students, and that this was always the intention. There is a placatory article by Monash VC Ed Byrne. I added a comment to his article which got blown up into an Australian article so I guess I won’t apply for a job at Monash any time soon**.
There are a couple of nice discussion of the issues (including comments) by Professor Paul Fritjers (here and here) which you might like to look at. I thought it might be worth while putting my thoughts down here, in a more complete manner than is possible within a blog comment.