Since 1990 there has been remarkable growth and diversification of worldwide capacity and output in science, and a distinctive global science system has emerged, primarily grounded in research universities, fostered by Internet-mediated communication and publication in English, cross-border authorship and researcher mobility. While global science…

During the pandemic in the United States and United Kingdom (unlike East Asia and parts of Europe), high individualisation and low social responsibility have been associated with an exceptional death toll, the undermining of higher education institutions in marketised systems, and continuing risks to the health of students and staff.

For more than two decades, governments around the world, led by the English-speaking polities, have moved higher education systems closer to the forms of textbook economic markets. Reforms include corporatisation, competitive funding, student charges, output formats and performance reporting. But, no country has established a bona fide economic…

The paper explores the dynamics of competition in higher education. National competition and global competition are distinct, but feed into each other. Higher education produces "positional goods" (Hirsch 1976) that provide access to social prestige and income-earning. Research universities aim to maximise their status as producers of…

Argues conventional academic freedom in higher education is a state of regulated autonomy wherein faculty freedom in teaching and research is necessary to discharge of normal functions, but exercised within boundaries controlled by government, and management. Market competition extends the terrain of this regulated autonomy, while highlighting…

Global university rankings have cemented the notion of a world university market arranged in a single "league table" for comparative purposes and have given a powerful impetus to intranational and international competitive pressures in the sector. Both the research rankings by Shanghai Jiao Tong University and the composite rankings by…

This article synthesises the social and economic dynamics of both non-market and market production in national education systems, drawing primarily on Marx's analysis of the commodity and Hirsch on positional competition. Market production has six principal aspects: a defined field of production, protocols governing entry/exit, the production of…

Higher education--particularly the research-intensive university, which is the focus of this article--is the subject of global/national/local effects, and is shaped by hierarchy and uneven development on a world scale. The article theorises social competition in higher education, and traces inter-university competition and stratification on the…

The origins and development of the free market theory of education are examined, and the problems in the trend toward increased privatization and reduced public funding of higher education are discussed, especially for the Australian system. (MSE)

A discussion of higher education as a market economy focuses on the situation in Australia. First, the nature of markets in higher education is examined. Subsequently, the role of the Federal Labor party's policy since 1983 in creating the current economy is assessed. Possible future policy directions are explored. (MSE)

If Australian universities are to be competitive in the global market for college faculty, salaries and career prospects across disciplines and institutions must be improved. Award restructuring will strengthen career structures, but this restructuring must not be limited to lower levels of the profession to be effective. (MSE)