The Tertiary Orientation Programme (TOP) has been conducted in Victorian technical institutions since 1971 as a preparation for tertiary level studies. This work traces the development of the TOP and argues that the elements which underly the nature and strength of the program, and which are the basis of its success, have never been developed to give the TOP a distinctive identity. The peculiar mixture of ingredients - necessity, expediency and opportunity - which brought about the commencement of the program have characterized its development ever since. A series of encounters with the advanced colleges, the VUSEB, the VUAC, the VISE and the ISCUE, educational bodies and committees in Victoria, have seen the TOP reshaped to fit the circumstances on each occasion. The emergence of TAFE as a recognized post-secondary sector of education in Australia along with the universities and the advanced colleges, has been the factor which should have seen the TOP reshaped to give it a distinctive identity, but this has not been the case. The thesis identifies certain elements which can be developed to give the TOP a definition and direction that is not only compatible with TAFE access concepts but is the key to the program's future survival. These elements are drawn together to form a coherent philosophy for the TOP as a TAFE access program in the 'eighties.