Introduction to the marketisation of higher education and the student as consumer

Since the late 1970s the culture of academic life has been transformed by the institutionalisation of the policies of marketisation. At least outwardly universities increasingly ape the managerial models of private and especially public sector corporations. Quaint academic rituals and practices have been gradually displaced by management techniques as departments mutate into cost centres often run by administrators recruited from the private and public sector. Whatever one thinks about the costs and benefits of these changes, marketisation is a reality that academics have to live with. This collection of articles addresses this reality and offers a variety of perspectives on the not-so-quiet managerial revolution in the university.