Academic Capitalism and the New Economy

"Painstakingly researched... Sheila Slaughter and Gary Rhoades warn of increasingly blurred boundaries among higher education, the state and the world of commerce. "

"The writers have made careers out of studying the issues they write about. They certainly have done their homework."

"Slaughter and Rhoades offer the most coherent account of how the academy is mired in commercialism."

"Unlike other recent popular works,... this one is not critical or afraid of intersections of higher education and the world of corporate sponsorships; the authors just want to help universities exploit these new opportunities for fun and profit."

"Provides a densely detailed and chilling description of the current 'state' of the university in the United States."

"Represents a timely scholarly work that unveils the complex development of academic capitalism and calls for a critical re-examination of the mission of higher education institutions."

"An impressive book and a major contribution to knowledge... The theory of academic capitalism presented in its pages will certainly stimulate and guide further studies in higher education for some time to come... All students of the educational arrangements in the new economy will find themselves in debt to the authors for their farreaching theory of academic capitalism, the wide variety of studies they offer to confirm it, and for the standard they set and the model they provide for subsequent work."

"The strength of this volume is their treatment of the impact of academic capitalism on academic work."

"This carefully argued and documented book fosters critical understanding of, if not the possibilities for 'regime change,' the implications of our actions."

"Perhaps the best book for understanding the commercialization and commodification within higher education is Slaughter and Rhoades's Academic Capitalism and the New Economy... It tracks the deep and pervasive changes in policy and practice that have created new social network and organizational structures, vastly changing the function and role of higher education to serve corporate interests... and covers a variety of topics including expansion of patenting and patent policies, copyright policies, ownership of courseware and teaching materials, entrepreneurial activities by departments, corporate connections of university trustees, and advertising and branding contracts."

"An important and much needed critical perspective."

"In the field of higher education and studies of colleges and universities, which are so dominated by stale and antiquated atheoretical arguments, this is the most innovative and important book to come along in years."