ABSTRACT

In a globalised society, where the acquisition and possession of knowledge becomes ever more critical, universities have restructured themselves as sites of knowledge production to take advantage of the market opportunities that arise. Governments worldwide are well aware of the significance of the role of universities as knowledge disseminators, ‘where higher education is increasingly seen as an industry for enhancing national competitiveness and as a commodity that can be sold in the global marketplace’ (Naidoo 2003: 250). Universities are coming under increasing government pressure to adopt market principles of cost-minimisation, flexibility and quality-enhancement, such is their significance to national economies. For universities the income streams generated are considerable, with the total volume of the global education market estimated at around US$30 billion (van der Wende 2003). In the case of the UK, the nature of the public funding system means that universities are now making decisions about how to operate internationally based on managerial rather than educational considerations (Elliott 1998). National governments are, therefore, playing for big stakes in the market for higher education, resulting in a perceived need to implement new technologies of management ‘to undercut the power and control of academics over knowledge production and reproduction’ (Naidoo 2003: 250).