ABSTRACT
Beset by decades of underfunding, universities are increasingly comporting themselves as entrepreneurial corporations focussed more upon branding, world rankings and quantifiable performance measures than education for social justice. These conditions are opening doors of universities to outside corporations in search of business; for instance, voluntourism is one such industry that is ever more present on Australian campuses advertising ‘transformative’, once in a lifetime journeys overseas. This chapter analyses the hegemonic discourses evident in a set of voluntourism advertising materials before considering the current rise of international service in Australian higher education in the same analytic light. The chapter considers the agency of critical pedagogues inside neoliberal universities to engage students wishing to ‘make a difference’ in ‘disadvantaged’ contexts with dispositions that move beyond self-interest such that ‘transformation’ enables greater social consciousness. These explorations are ultimately used to question how aspects of the marketisation and corporatisation of higher education that frame these ventures might serve as vehicles for turning the analytic gaze back upon the neoliberal university itself.
