The Idea of the University: Between Neo-Liberalism and Post-Marxism

This article analyses some aspects of the critical discourse on the reform of the university. Some critics of the neo-liberal reform state that professionalization of the university cannot be a goal in itself because it nullifies the condition of the university, of being sans condition. The author of the article agrees with the notion of negative consequences of professionalization on formation and research. However, he shows that the professional orientation of the university is not new, as the radical critics of the neo-liberal perspective believe. Moreover, the radical critics of the current professionalization do not refer to the professionalization of the university in the socialist societies that employed Marxism and economic nationalism. This should be analysed because in the globalization era China meets the demand of the global market with a type of higher education based on the professionalization of the university in a political system controlled by Marxism, though open to the market. As a consequence, the critical stance towards the negative consequences of neo-liberalism is not honest as long as it does not analyse the problem of the negative consequences of the Marxist egalitarianism on the idea of university.