On April 1979, the State Premier, the Hon. Sir Charles Court, announced the government's intention to establish a committee of enquiry into the future of Murdoch University. The decision was prompted by Professor B.R. Williams' Report on Education, Training, and Employment (1979), which had questioned the viability of small universities. A committee was duly appointed under the chairmanship of Prof. L.M. Birt (Vice-Chancellor of the University of Woollongong). The Committee consisted of Prof. Birt, Dr W.D. Neal (Chairman, Western Australian Post Secondary Education Commission), and Mr I.H. Carne (formerly general manager of the Broken Hill Pty Co Ltd). Mr W. Snell (assistant secretary, WAPSEC) acted as the Committee's executive officer. The terms of reference of the Committee were to make recommendations as to:

• the range of subjects offered by Murdoch University
• the reaching activities (such as teacher training) which were duplicated at other post-secondary institutions.
• possible areas of co-operation between the State's tertiary institutions.
• the possibility of transferring selected activities from other institutions to Murdoch University.

The Committee met formally on several occasions between May and November 1979 and considered some eighty written submissions. In its report, published in November 1979, the Committee made fifteen recommendations pertaining to issues within the terms of reference. The following month, the Minister of Education, the Hon. Peter Jones, announced that the government had accepted the recommendations of the Committee.