But Gungahlin College Student Bailey Lutton is confident the flexibility that stems from a college system separated from high-school has prepared him well for university.

"It's 40 years old now so you would think that some people in other states and territories would have transitioned to it to give some students the option of doing it that way," he said on the Q&A panel at the 40th anniversary ACT public college system commemorative breakfast on Friday.

Canberra and Tasmania are the two states or territories that have established the revolutionary secondary college system.

In 1976, the ACT Schools Authority replaced the system with a new structure encouraging the colleges to set their own courses and bridge the middle ground between rigid high school learning and the maturity of tertiary education.

Retired teacher Ian Foster, who taught at a number of Canberra public schools said the push to introduce secondary colleges was hard-fought, with criticism from several sectors of the community.

Now working in indigenous affairs at the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, ex-Narrabundah College student Madalein Tier was also a panel member at the 40th anniversary event at Regatta Point in Parkes.

She said she owed her success in Law School to the relationship-building skills and independence she learned at college.

"I went to Law School with a lot of students who had gone through the HSC system [in NSW] and they'd had a very rigid structure where they started school early or had set study periods, and they had colleges that were very strict about their academic achievements," she said.

"In a system where you set year 11 and 12 students apart, you change the relationship you have with their teachers, with their education and you make them more independent and more self-reliant."

So why, after, 40 years, has most of Australia not followed suit?

Lake Tuggeranong College principal Julie Murkins, who was afraid she'd miss seeing students grow over six years when she moved from NSW to the ACT, believes it's largely to do with additional transition.

"So I think one of the reasons many of the other sectors have not adapted the model is because there is still some hesitation around the challenges of what it means to have two years to learn a person's strengths and areas for development," she said.

"For every student for whom it is brilliant, there will be another student who is seriously challenged by another transitional point in their educational career and one that is really going to be a short period of time."