Scholars in the marketplace: the dilemmas of neo-liberal reform at Makerere Universtity 1989-2005

Abstract

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.

Scholars in the Marketplace 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 for to design a market-responsive curriculum) inevitably leads to market-determined priorities in a public university. The author warns against commercialisation of public universities as the subversion of public institutions for private purposes.