대학 자본주의와 대학 공공성의 소멸

초록

Academic capitalism dominates the contemporary university. Unlike medieval, premodern, or modern universities, contemporary universities need to secure huge resources to maintain research and educational facilities and staffs. However, with the rise of neo-liberalism around 1980s, governmental subsidies have shrunk and universities are forced to secure money on their own effort. Universities have had to behave as markets or do market-like activities to earn financial resources. Universities sell knowledge and education to business corporations and student customers. Universities’ marketization is justified on the basis of new economy or knowledge based economy in which knowledge is claimed to functions as raw material for capital. The trend of globalization drives universities to sell the knowledge and education of the university on a global level. Academic capitalism started and prospered in the areas of United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia is now being expanded to the rest of the world including Korea. Korean academic capitalism was stimulated in 1995 when education reform for competition and excellence was practiced. Korean academic capitalism is now being driven by neo-lliberal governmental policies. The future of university is in gloom. Academic capitalism is a threat to the university and knowledge production in that knowledge is in principle a public good that cannot be traded as commodities and the university is a public institution for the whole society. The restoration of the university in its own raison d’être is desperately in need.

키워드