In countries such as Chile in which a neoliberal economic approach is predominant, higher education systems are characterized by productivity, competition for resources and income generation, all of which have impact on academics' experiences of time. Through a qualitative approach in which 20 interviews and two focus groups were conducted, this study focuses on a public university in Chile and examines ways in which academics experience time. The results reveal a felt expansion and contraction of time and timeframes to which academics accord different levels of investment. A patterning of narratives of time can be glimpsed in which academics are trading slots of time: they surrender part of their time to service institutional demands in return for time spaces in which they can pursue their own academic interests. Accordingly, the concept of "time-markets" may be helpful in understanding the evolution of higher education systems in neoliberal environments more generally.