In December 1987 John Dawkins, Minister for Employment, Education and Training, released a Green Paper that foreshadowed major changes in universities through the formation of the Unified National System. This was sixteen years after the establishment of Griffith University, and only twelve years since its first undergraduate enrolments.

Dawkins' ideas presented Griffith University with a dilemma: whether to continue as a boutique institution proclaiming its difference from the traditional model by adopting the 'Griffith way', or to become more like its academic peers and embrace growth and diversity. It chose an innovative combination of both. Three years later Griffith amalgamated with other academic institutions to become a multi-campus university. While it still retained some of its founding characteristics, Griffith emerged as a large and complex institution, different in ways that its founders could not have imagined.

Coming of Age traces the impact of the Unified National System on Griffith University.