The Modern University, Ltd

Today, the university in the United Kingdom (UK) appears to be being led far from its educational, egalitarian roots. It appears to be a corporate beast, increasingly marketised, commodified and commercialised. In recent years, many words have been written on this matter. In this article, I wish to consider how these perceived changes could affect a cherished notion for academics – academic freedom. I connect the marketisation of UK higher education to the (comparatively) recent economic changes in the structure of capitalism, and the rise of neoliberal economic theory.

This article contends that the modern shift to commercialisation and bureaucratisation in the university is not a new trend. Going back several hundred years’ State and market control in rationalising learning has been constant. The university should be seen as the precursor to the modern corporation, rather than its antithesis. The historically marketised elements of the university have simply been accentuated in modernity. Changes in the nature of capitalism have led to a change in the structure of corporations, which now operate in a system of competition rather than exchange. The effects of this change have made their mark in higher education. In this system, the work of the academic, and the widely touted idea of ‘academic freedom’, serves the ends of the university as a corporation.

Academic freedom is a term with a very nebulous and catholic meaning. It has often been synonymous with an idea of a university as a space for learning, inquiry and critical discussion. However, I do not take this view. Much of our discourse surrounding the university centres on an idealised view of academic freedom. Countering discourse which reads academic freedom as an expansive, empowering notion, I follow Stanley Fish in taking a deflationary reading of the term. Fish reads academic freedom as nothing more than the freedom to do one’s job.

I advance several arguments in support of this position. I first introduce the idea of academic freedom, and its legal position in relation to the UK academy. I then introduce Fish’s definition of academic freedom as freedom to academicise, contending that this view is one which would have great import in UK higher education. Next, I turn to the recent funding reforms to UK universities, including the introduction of £9,000 annual fees for UK undergraduates, and place them in their historical context in relation to state involvement in higher education over the past century. I place them within a broader history of governmental intervention in universities. I contend that the resistance to perceived marketisation and administrative meddling in academic matters is misplaced. The institution’s history illustrates that the university is the model for corporations, not vice versa.

In support of this view, I draw upon the writing of Maurizio Lazzarato, and his idea of ‘immaterial labour’. Engaging with Lazzarato’s thought, I argue that today, within a neoliberal economic system, Fish’s deflationary account of academic freedom is one which is both realistic, and will enable scholars within the university to better challenge the commercialisation they oppose. Academic freedom must be understood as nothing more than the freedom to do one’s job as a good corporate worker. In such a view, it can help offer us an alternative to the status quo, which can end up as an exploitative and paradigmatic form of immaterial labour.

What this indicates is that far from being the hotbed of revolt and revolution, the university is an embodiment of what many academics in their politics aim to overthrow. I conclude that it is only by understanding the intrinsically corporate nature of the university that it is possible to better the university.