Few education policies have been more controversial than the reforms to higher education introduced in 1987 and 1988 by the then Commonwealth Minister for Employment, Education and Training, John Dawkins. Half a decade later, have those policies achieved their objective of human-capital-driven economic growth? Was this the right objective from the beginning? Is the problem a shortage of high quality labour – or is it the lack of opportunities for that labour to be used? This chapter looks at economic policies on the growth of higher education, on business studies and on research. It is argued that the supply-side assumptions at the root of the commonwealth's policies are flawed: education in itself can create neither jobs nor export-oriented commercial research. It cannot be a substitute for the economy. The main outcome of the Dawkins policies has been not economic growth, but another round of credentialism.