Scholars in the marketplace
Subtitle: the dilemmas of neo-liberal reform at Makerere University, 1989 - 2005
By: Mahmood Mamdani.
Publisher: HSRC Press
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Cape Town, South Africa
Language: eng
Number of pages: 248
ISBN-13: 9780796922144
Subjects: Makerere University; Privatization in education -- Uganda; Neoliberalism -- Research -- Uganda; Education, Humanistic -- Research -- Uganda; Education, Higher -- Economic aspects -- Uganda
Description: Scholars in the Marketplace is a case study of market-based reforms at Uganda's Makerere University. With the World Bank heralding neo-liberal reform at Makerere as the model for the transformation of higher education in Africa, it has implications for the whole continent. At the global level, the Makerere case exemplifies the fate of public universities in a market-oriented and capital-friendly era.The Makerere reform began in the 1990s and was based on the premise that higher education is more of a private than a public good. Instead of pitting the public against the private, and the state against the market, this book shifts the terms of the debate towards a third alternative that explores various relations between the two. The book distinguishes between privatisation and commercialisation, two processes that drove the Makerere reform. It argues that whereas privatisation (the entry of privately sponsored students) is compatible with a public university where priorities are publicly set, commercialisation (granting each faculty financial and administrative autonomy to design a market-responsive curriculum) inevitably leads to market-determined priorities in a public university. The book warns against commercialisation of public universities as the subversion of public institutions for private purposes.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.