ABSTRACT
The concepts like 'knowledge', 'culture', 'truth', or 'criticism' had functioned as nodal points in the higher education discourse and had thus legitimised the work of academia, the legitimising power of these concepts apparently diminished as society entered what Jean-Francois Lyotard famously coined 'the postmodern condition'. There is no shortage of ideas concerning the future role and function of higher education in society. The concern with education as a means to develop agency and change society for good has also been at the heart of what is often referred to as 'critical pedagogy'. The term 'public' and more specifically the question whether higher education was a 'public good' has moved to the centre of the debate on higher education. Higher education was said to be of public value for economic, social, cultural and intellectual reasons, and to be vital for a functioning democracy.
