A Bastion of Elitism or an Emerging Knowledge Proletariat? Some Reflections About Academic Careers with an Economic Slant

Abstract

The increasing influence of economic and management ideas in higher education is associated with changing perceptions of the roles that higher education should play. In recent decades, societies and governments have evolved their views about the social role of higher education, with significant implications for the Identity of HEIs and the Organization of the HE Sector (Scott 1995; Geiger 2004). Educational decisions have been increasingly perceived as motivated by economic factors and educational institutions as economic institutions (Bok 2003; Winston 1999). Moreover, the social contribution of the activities of higher education and science organizations has been increasingly linked to a variety of ways of assessing their economic relevance (Slaughter and Leslie 1997). Hence, policy-makers and institutional managers have been exploring ways to steer individual and institutional behaviour through incentives that are consistent with an increasing influence of economic and management ideas in higher education and research.