Reprising notions of the public good

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Reprising notions of the public good

Market economics, globalization and technological change have converged over the past several centuries, to expand both market reach (especially with regard to the geography of trade) and density (the presence in daily life of opportunities for consumption.) Across certain thresholds of reach and density, this marketization of the world significantly affects the way education functions and is being transformed. Higher education is increasingly viewed as a good available to consumers (students and their parents) through market exchanges and as a means for the state to monitor access and equity. Marketization affects how institutions of higher education recruit students; how they market themselves to donors; how they align their “products” with market needs; and how they function as a useful laboratory for private industry and government. (Deane Neubauer)