ABSTRACT
The triple helix emerges as the knowledge economy gains precedence and universities come to be understood as central economic actors for their regions or nations. Etzkowitz links the emergence of the triple helix to the shifting nature of the global economy when science ‘emerged as an alternative engine of economic growth to the classic triumvirate of land, labor and capital’. Successive governments of all political persuasions have advanced the idea that universities should become ‘engines for economic growth’ that will drive New Zealand forward in the competitive knowledge economy. Universities seemingly everywhere have found themselves recast, discursively and structurally, as transnational corporations operating in a global knowledge economy, rather than public institutions with a social and critical mission. A university degree was no longer seen as a public good, as education for citizenship and personal growth, or as a necessary national measure for raising human capital and creating a more educated and skilled workforce.
