The University, Accountability, and Market Discipline in the Late 1990s

Abstract

The academy, like many public and private institutions before it, has been colonised by the discourses of consumerism, efficiency, and market discipline. By now it is a familiar trend and, as many countries have experienced the neo-right assault on the public sector, a familiar discourse. In this paper we examine the implications of this colonisation suggesting how effects penetrate the very core of the university. Access by all social classes to higher education, pedagogical effectiveness, and even the possibility of critical inquiry are under systematic attack. The situation appears grim. Yet we now approach a critical historical juncture where resistance is becoming increasingly possible and probable. Towards that end, strategies are suggested for resisting the colonisation and reclaiming the academic public space.