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Readers of openDemocracy might be aware of the recent debates and critiques taking place about the rise of the ‘McUniversity’. Changes to the way universities are being financed in Australia, Europe, the UK, the US, and other parts of the globe have led to the increased neo-liberalisation of education and the onset of the ‘entrepreneurial university’. This has resulted in a pronounced shift away from public knowledge systems to corporate organisations and a capitalist knowledge regime.
Scholars face increased pressures to secure external revenue streams and to ‘market’ their success—measured in terms of influence and outputs—in this new economy of knowledge. Critics of the shift have, to date, generally focused on how this drive for demonstrable impact has affected the day-to-day activities of scholars. For example, academics in the natural sciences no longer feel they can freely share their findings. Social scientists have lamented the loss of faculty power and autonomy due to increased supervision from academic managers. There have also been reports that academics are spending less time on teaching in order to pursue new sources of revenue. Overall, academics arguably now resemble investors, departments have been likened to football teams, and universities are frequently seen as machines to mass produce headline grabbing research, with ‘impact’ trumping quality and scholarly integrity. Corporatisation, careerism, credentialism, and managerialism are the new norms of higher education.
