When universities try to behave like businesses, education suffers
| Los Angeles Times | June 2016
Universities are getting cozier with businesses and
industrialists, and less discerning about the pitfalls of these
relationships, which include accepting donations with strings attached.
What’s worse is that universities are adopting the corporate model of
profit and loss as though they’re businesses themselves.Students
already are losing out. They’re not only saddled with an increasing
share of the direct costs of their education, but are offered a narrower
curriculum as universities cut back on supposedly unprofitable
humanities and social science courses in favor of science, engineering
and technology programs expected to attract profitable grants and offer
the prospects of great riches from patentable inventions… .What’s really at stake in the corporatization of academia is the
traditional role the university as a repository of culture and training
ground for open inquiry.