This article analyses key changes in higher education institutions as they have acquired more status, power and responsibilities in the UK higher education system and, indeed, in the polity at large. It argues that previously taken-for-granted academic ideologies now increasingly compete with those of managerialism and neo-liberalism in the university as "corporate enterprise". It explores the implications for institutional policy-making and the distribution of power, particularly between academics and other occupational groups in what are now multi-professional organizations. It analyses the impacts upon academic values and practices and outlines a range of strategies used by academics to conserve their identities in the new context.