The Corporate Campus: Commercialization and the Dangers to Canada's Colleges and Universities

Alexander D. Gregor is director of the Centre for Higher Education
Research and Development at the University of Manitoba and co-editor of
Postsecondary Education in Canada: The Cultural Agenda.

This second volume in the CAUT (Canadian Association of University
Teachers) series is predictably tilted to the perspective of faculty
and, in particular, faculty associations. The 16 contributors are all
from the ranks of the professoriate. (Among the voices excluded from the
discussion are college and university administrations and governors,
corporations, government bureaucrats, and politicians.) Readers should
therefore keep in mind that the book presents a perspective, not a
comprehensive overview of its subject matter.

The common thesis that emerges from the various chapters is that the
universities and colleges are moving toward corporate control, often
with the ready compliance of their administrators and political masters.
Using international as well as Canadian examples, the authors discuss,
among other topics, the trend toward corporate control of governing
boards, the introduction of a corporate “management style, the efforts
to control not just the direction of research but also its outcomes and
use, and the Trojan horse of accountability and performance indicators.
Among the points made, with reasonable validity, is that international
trade forces public systems toward private benefit. At stake is the
tradition of “republican freedom” (i.e., self-government) and, more
importantly, the “public serving university.” The book, which
portrays faculty and students as the last line of defence, ends with a
consideration of the various strategies that might be taken to resist or
at least accommodate the trends.

Despite its limited perspective, The Corporate Campus provides a useful
introduction to an issue that demands informed public debate.