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Universities in the Marketplace: The Commercialization of Higher Education (The William G. Bowen Series) Paperback – December 5, 2004
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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.
- Print length256 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- Publication dateDecember 5, 2004
- Dimensions6.1 x 0.62 x 9.3 inches
- ISBN-100691120129
- ISBN-13978-0691120126
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- Reviewed in the United States on August 4, 2005Former Harvard University President Derek Bok warns that making commercial ventures part of the fabric of U.S. higher education endangers universities' basic values and goals. However, he also gives compelling descriptions of why trustees and administrators are tempted to sign deals with corporations. He is realistic about the slim prospects for keeping such ventures away, especially since some - like sports teams - are already entrenched. Because Bok's analysis is so deeply rooted in his years of experience leading Harvard, his proposed guidelines for how and when to allow big business on campus are particularly helpful. His views are occasionally unwarrantedly sunny, such as when he avers that faculty members rarely guide students into work that promotes the teacher's financial gain. He also asserts that faculty must be wary of collaborating with pharmaceutical companies to get access to facilities and materials, even though funding unfettered research has become increasingly difficult. Furthermore, after asserting that doctors are alert to drug companies' promotions in sponsored continuing education courses, he acknowledges research showing that doctors who attend such courses are more likely to prescribe the companies' drugs. Despite such detours, we find this book extremely valuable for anyone who believes that academic freedom and integrity truly matter. Academic leaders should read Bok's important, thoughtful and useful ideas on ways that colleges can minimize the risks of commercialization.
- Reviewed in the United States on July 14, 2010Nonacademic observers frequently express the wish that universities `be run like businesses'. The (often sad) fact is that they already are so run, to the detriment of academic principle and academic quality. Derek Bok is all too aware of these realities and explores them in this relatively brief book.
He is aware of the temptations, of course: big-time college athletics, licensing agreements with sportswear companies, the siren song of institution-saving patent income, the faculty/institutional participation in tech transfer businesses, medical school participation in clinical trials with self-interested pharmaceutical companies, the lure of the internet and mass, for-profit coursework, the exploitation of university extension, the erosion of admission standards in the face of significant development opportunities . . . the list goes on and on.
Bok provides a nice enumeration of the temptations, expresses sympathy for universities with regard to conditions that are already too far gone (athletics, the relationships between medical schools and the medical industry, e.g.) acknowledges that survival will generally trump values and principles, shows the pros and cons of commercial activities, relates some horror stories and offers counsel which, if implemented, would help to ameliorate our condition before it is too late.
Unfortunately, the advice takes a predictable form. For example, some university research has resulted in triumphs that have changed the institutions which developed the process or made the discovery. One thinks, for example (and Bok notes), Harry Steenbock's process for treating milk so that its constituent vitamin D would eliminate rickets. The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (which manages the Steenbock (and other) patent income is one of Wisconsin's major comparative advantages. On the other hand, chasing patent income can often fail; it can divert universities from their fundamental purposes and it can distort their values. Bok then offers a host of examples of things that one might do (increased trustee regulatory oversight, etc.) to ameliorate this situation. However, he also acknowledges the fact that his proposals are unlikely to be a be-all and end-all solution, that there are two sides to this issue, etc. etc.
Thus, we get a good elucidation of the potential problems, some examples of how succumbing to the temptations can be deleterious (but with an awareness that the payoffs, if handled wisely, can be very advantageous), some suggestions for muting the problems (with an awareness that they are likely to be insufficient in and of themselves) and a final hope that we will all do good and avoid evil, to the extent possible.
The book benefits from Bok's extensive experience and usually clear-headed judgment; it is limited, of course, by the fact that Harvard's `problems' are markedly different from nearly everyone else's. It may have greater temptations but it also has the armor of a multibillion dollar endowment. At one point, for example, he argues that we should be wary of using extension as a cost center (i.e. a cost-generating center) because the college and graduate school (to which extension's `positive variances' would likely be reallocated) already have enough money. Ah, would that that were always so. He also talks about the generosity of the country in funding public education. Not to bite any of the hands which feed us . . . but that allocation now represents a smaller and smaller portion of public universities' total budgets and entrepreneurship (though hopefully not of the whorish variety) is now a university necessity.
- Reviewed in the United States on January 29, 2008Great book with real life examples about higer education, capitalism, and marketplace. Quick and easy read.
- Reviewed in the United States on December 28, 2014Bok totally misses the role that indirect costs (IDC) play in the incentive structure at Research I universities. As a result, his analysis is partial and his self-serving because he does not explicitly discuss the financial incentive structure of administrators associated with IDC.
- Reviewed in the United States on November 22, 2015Good general overview of the commercialization of academic institutions from an expert on the subject. Subjects covered include intercollegiate sports, education, and scientific research.
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鮭尾Reviewed in Japan on December 2, 20105.0 out of 5 stars 米国の大学に対してこういう考え方もあった
日本が見習うべきお手本とされている米国の大学に対する批判。こういう批判もあるのだ。米国の大学の内部からの批判なので非常に興味深い。関係者は必読です。

