ABSTRACT
This chapter ventures into the terrain of free-market capitalism and the neoliberal economic approaches that perpetuate it, noting some of the influences these have exerted over institutions of higher education both locally and worldwide and the changes they have wrought. It explores various denizens of the occult academy, both human and non-human, and their beliefs, practices and predilections. Commodification extends to the students themselves: potentially profitable items augmenting the institutional income as fee-paying entities with the capacity to contribute to the institutional pass rates and ultimately the numbers of graduates. The next commodification casualty is knowledge itself, often envisaged not so much as a source of potential benefit to society and the individuals within it but as a consumer product benefiting the market. State funding for systems of higher education has become more tightly regulated by official bodies and funding cuts have become a widespread phenomenon, affecting relatively affluent and economically constrained institutions alike.
