How universities became subservient to corporate influence

"Academic capitalism is defined as “institutional and professorial market or market-like efforts to secure externalmoneys” (Slaughter and Leslie, 1997, p. 8). In the 1980s and1990s academic capitalism flourished as government supportfor education declined, corporate interest in new productsand processes coincided with the university’s search for increased funding, and as the government sought to enhancenational competitiveness by linking postsecondary educationto business innovation. Many within higher education did not recognize the ways in which higher education fundinghad been impacted by world events and believed the situa-34tion to be temporary. However, States saw an absolute decline in funding for postsecondary education for the firsttime in 1993–94 and there has been a steady decline in revenues as a share of collected tax since 1988. As unrestricted resources became scarce, universities began to compete with each other for partnerships with business and industry andfor tuition dollars. Public higher education institutions became dependent on sources beyond the government and that process is already changing the roles, rewards, and structures" - Susan M. Awbrey SOURCE (PDF)