On a bulletin board at the University of Queensland, in Brisbane, Australia appears the following warning to students: "Please don't cheat in your exams; Senate is not inclined to be merciful." The emphasis in this entreaty on the role of the University governing board reflects a major difference, although only one of them, between the American and Australian treatments of student shortcomings, academic or disciplinary.

This Article will discuss, from an American perspective, the law affecting decisions regarding academic and disciplinary matters in Australian universities. This discussion will address not only internal university governance, but also the impact of Constitutional, statutory and case law as well. This analysis will implicate the many ways in which Australia treats its students differently-in some ways perhaps more wisely, in others perhaps less so-than American universities treat theirs. The assessment will reveal a relationship between Australian students and their university quite different from that between American students and theirs.