Contemporary university: the clash of two cultures

Abstract

The widely expressed anxiety concerning the direction in which the institution of the university is currently evolving is due to the clash of traditional academic culture (values, ethos, standards, aspirations) with the completely opposite corporate culture typical of firms, enterprises, corporations. The opposition of these two cultures is to be found at ten dimensions. The erosion of the traditional academic culture and its replacement by corporate culture – bureaucratization, fiscalization, quantitative measures of effects, profit criteria, competitive individualism – undermines academic community and results in numerous pathologies. The remedy is the reactivation of the idea of the university and restoring the balance between its principles and the necessities of  late modernity and globalized society.