ABSTRACT
On returning to Britain after spending much of my working life abroad, I was struck by how much everyone was talking about brands. Mention of them was everywhere, such talk had even penetrated academia. This looked to me like a major sell-out – not least because acceptance of the idea of brands buys into the corporate business model. The endorsement of brands is probably the most significant consequence of a remorseless and burgeoning marketization of every aspect of society. For such a model to be embraced by academia appalled me because it indicated acquiescence to, rather than critically challenging, the shallow vested interests that lie at its core. It turns academics into service providers, students into customers and reduces education to a stylishly advertised, fee-seeking, results-oriented transaction; some institutions have even resorted to ‘buy-one-get-one-free’ degrees. 1
