This paper contributes to current debates on the relationship between globalisation and higher education. The main argument of the paper is that we are currently witnessing transnationalisation of academic capitalism. This argument is illustrated by examining the collaboration between transnational corporations and research universities, and how…

Concern has been expressed about the vulnerability of the "academic profession" as a consequence of threats from productivism, managerialism and the like (Beck and Young, Br J Sociol Educ 26(2):183-197, 2005). I question the apparent self-understanding of academe as a profession. Referring to thinking from higher education (Barnett, High Educ…

The objective of the European Higher Education Area is, among others, to adopt a comparable degree framework for both undergraduate and post-graduate studies. Different kind of studies, with a European extent (e.g. the Tuning Project and the DeSeCo Project), suggest that, on finishing their undergraduate studies, students should have acquired a…

In this article I argue that the use of practical reasoning in university classrooms is necessary to establish conditions under which university teachers and students can move beyond the dominant "transmission mode" of education (teaching and learning). This mode of education had been, and in many cases remains to be prevalent in several (South…

This paper scrutinises organisational change in Japanese and UK universities which are engaged in entrepreneurial activities. The study focuses on recent changes in governance, management, leadership, and funding in these universities. The paper argues there are convergent trends between Japanese and UK universities in terms of increasing…

This article argues (a) that universities are profoundly ambivalent institutions; (b) that this ambivalence explains a great deal about their behavior that would otherwise remain inexplicable; (c) that one of the most striking manifestations of this ambivalence can be found in universities' attitudes towards change; and (d) that this ambivalence…

This paper argues that the teaching of a subject can change our understanding of what it means to know, to teach and learn that subject. It also argues that when our understanding is questioned and changes then academic work can become an emotionally charged endeavour. This paper reports on a study where, over a semester's teaching, around two…

This article reflects on current debate over transformations of scientific research and universities. Four well-known mutation theories (Mode-2 knowledge production, triple helix of university-industry-government relations, academic capitalism and enterprise university), and their recent critiques, are reviewed. It is suggested that a better…

This paper argues that the conceptions of "space" (and increasingly "time") in the discussion of "the university" (in its most transcendent sense) have gone through four distinct phases in the UK. Using a Heideggerian conception of "space" where usefulness is more important than proximity, the "ancient" universities were "useful" to the gentry and…

Universities worldwide now encounter far greater challenges, and are subjected to an unprecedented level of external scrutiny. The change in governance ideology in the higher education sector has altered the way in which universities are managed, a phenomenon identified by Slaughter and Leslie as academic capitalism. This article examines how…