ABSTRACT
Chapter 1 explores the anxieties that drive the utilitarianism of mass higher education. One of the detriments has been overblown aspirations for reputational attainments that prioritize the consumerist concept of higher education over culture-centered, inspirational and discursive learning. The first chapter also looks at how various forms of structuration promote the rise of boundaries, closures and competitiveness in global higher learning. In addition, it examines how competition-driven practices of boundary-crossing have dispersed the learning agency across local and global layers. Lastly, agency dilemmas are conceptualized.
