The knowledge market

Universities have become increasingly competitive and corporatised, as reductions in public funding have forced them to find new income streams across the emerging globalised higher education market. Austerity operates as an ideology justifying a switch from public to private in higher education – funds withdrawn from the public sector are now flowing to private sector operators as they compete for student loan money that is guaranteed by the state. The system that has been 'repurposed' to produce commodities that can be bought and sold in the international marketplace, and in which there are gross inequalities of access. Teachers are monitored as content producers; branding and marketing is a crucial focus of activity; and Vice-Chancellors play the role of CEOs.