ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with Ulrich Becks risk society thesis, and then discusses risk governance and the risk university thesis. It explores the growth of what author's are calling the risk industry and it's rapidly expanding role in both servicing and governing the university as a social institution during a period of significant transformation in the reorganisation of contemporary capitalism. Originating in the finance sector, risk has become the lingua franca of business management, and is rapidly colonising public policy domains, including higher education. Beck outlines a powerful analysis of the ways the rise of the risk society is transforming social reproduction, nature and ecology, intimate relationships, politics and democracy. In 2002 England's Higher Education Funding Council (HEFCE) launched a risk tree, where eight main areas of risk were identified and a set of sub-risks attributed to each area.
