The market comes to higher education.

New Labour reform in publicly funded services is giving shape to a new kind of liberal or market state designed to promote economic efficiency and individual choice, rather than the collective provision of public goods. Government policy and commercial forces are integrtaing higher education into a global education economy. In consequence, universities are transforming themselves from an ideological arm of the state into relatively autonomous, consumer oriented, corporate networks. The article argues that universities need to find ways to reclaim knolwedge and learning as public goods, rooted in a democratic, not a market paradigm.