ABSTRACT
Education has been widely criticised in academic circles as being too narrowly focused on skills, capacities and the transference of knowledge that can be used in the workplace. Governments and business, however, are deeply critical of education which does not lead to graduates who are immediately employable and who can contribute to economic growth and national prosperity. The phenomenon of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) is the ultimate sign of how far and how deep commodification has become entrenched in education. The MOOC is ostensibly a free online subject or unit available to anyone who wishes to undertake it and is offered by prestigious higher educational institutions (HEI). Those taking it as a free subject, however, do not receive credit towards a degree or a qualification. The process of radically reconstructing HEIs, something already observed as beginning to occur in the post Second World War period in the 20th century, has accelerated in the last decade or so.
