ABSTRACT
One of the most important contributions that Roger Brown has made to studies in higher education is his critical analysis of the development and impact of the marketisation of higher education. This chapter relates to his work in two ways. First, he present an analysis of the relationship between the state and the market in higher education and show how this leads to a particular type of learning market that re-conceptualises students as consumers, and assumes a number of positive outcomes. Second, he suggests that consumer choice is in many important ways more tokenistic than real and indeed may be seen to work against equity and democracy. The quasi-marketisation of higher education by neo-liberal governments over the past decades has been justified by discourses of globalisation around competition as well as important domestic drivers that have dovetailed with the globalisation discourse. These discourses have been accompanied by consumer levers that aim to enhance student choice and control over education process.
