Universities in the Marketplace: The Commercialization of Higher Education

The William G. Bowen Series

by Derek Bok

Is everything in a university for sale if the price is right? In this book, one of America's leading educators cautions that the answer is all too often "yes." Taking the first comprehensive look at the growing commercialization of our academic institutions, Derek Bok probes the efforts on campus to profit financially not only from athletics but increasingly, from education and research as well. He shows how such ventures are undermining core academic values and what universities can do to limit the damage.


Commercialization has many causes, but it could never have grown to its present state had it not been for the recent, rapid growth of money-making opportunities in a more technologically complex, knowledge-based economy. A brave new world has now emerged in which university presidents, enterprising professors, and even administrative staff can all find seductive opportunities to turn specialized knowledge into profit.


Bok argues that universities, faced with these temptations, are jeopardizing their fundamental mission in their eagerness to make money by agreeing to more and more compromises with basic academic values. He discusses the dangers posed by increased secrecy in corporate-funded research, for-profit Internet companies funded by venture capitalists, industry-subsidized educational programs for physicians, conflicts of interest in research on human subjects, and other questionable activities.


While entrepreneurial universities may occasionally succeed in the short term, reasons Bok, only those institutions that vigorously uphold academic values, even at the cost of a few lucrative ventures, will win public trust and retain the respect of faculty and students. Candid, evenhanded, and eminently readable, Universities in the Marketplace will be widely debated by all those concerned with the future of higher education in America and beyond.

Genres: Education, Nonfiction, Economics, Teaching

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Derek Curtis Bok (born March 22, 1930) is an American lawyer and educator, and the former president of Harvard University.

Bok was born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, and graduated from Stanford University (B.A., 1951), Harvard Law School (J.D., 1954), and George Washington University (A.M., 1958). He taught law at Harvard from 1958, where he served as dean of the law school (1968–1971) and then as university president (1971–1991). Bok currently serves as the Faculty Chair at the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard and continues to teach at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the Harvard Kennedy School.

After 15 years away from the Harvard presidency, Bok returned to lead the university on an interim basis after Lawrence Summers's resignation took effect on July 1, 2006. He was succeeded by Drew Gilpin Faust on July 1, 2007.

Bok's wife, the sociologist and philosopher Sissela Bok, née Myrdal (daughter of the Swedish economist Gunnar Myrdal and the politician and diplomat Alva Myrdal, both Nobel laureates), is also affiliated with Harvard, where she received her doctorate in 1970. His daughter, Hilary Bok, is a philosophy professor at Johns Hopkins University.

Reviews

[Elizabeth K. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This seemed like a better book before I started thinking about it. Derek Bok, former president of Harvard and general all-around state of higher education guy, looks at the growing corporate pressures on universities. He focuses on Division I athletics, private sector sponsorship of scientific research, and for-profit continuing education/distance education programs. I like Derek Bok. But you know, he's not really saying a whole lot here. The advice offered in the book boils down to "universities should consider their options carefully before committing to commercial ventures, and make good decisions." "Make good decisions" is practically non-advice, right? I could have come up with that, and they haven't offered me the Harvard presidency (yet). I still like Derek Bok. He's smart, he's a good writer, he isn't a crank, he looks like a nice grandfather, and yet I still feel like this book was a bit of a snow job.

Grade: B-
Recommended: I can't figure out who would read this. It works pretty well as an overview of commercially driven activities at universities, but that's of interest to no one unless you're in that field. But if you are in higher ed, it's a little too basic.

[Doc Opp · Rating 2 out of 5]

To be honest, I didn't finish this one. It just didn't have enough in the way of novel ideas to keep me interested. The book deals with the potential benefits and pitfalls of universities developing partnerships with business, and adopting practices from corporate America. Ultimately, it is a fairly unsatisfying treatment, with a lot of anecdotes, and hand waving but little in the way of substance. I found it quite disappointing.

[Brittnee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bok makes some very valuable points about the negative side of the commercialization of higher education. I especially enjoyed reading this because of his views on university athletics and the high profile NCAA Division I teams that are well known for corruption that has resulted in unfair practices and the watering down of academic programs.

[Tamminh · Rating 2 out of 5]

As boring and as dry as it gets: The same dilemmas are repeated over and over again with really no earth-shattering ideas to solve.

[auria · Rating 2 out of 5]

18

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is outdated. It should be called "How college athletics led to the commercialization of higher Ed"