Adam Habib, deputy vice-chancellor of research, innovation and advancement at the University of Johannesburg, told a conference in Toronto on 16 June that on a recent tour of American universities, he was struck by how many were setting up campuses overseas.

¡°I was struck by how many really manipulate the desperation of people whose university systems are completely demolished and utilise that opportunity to make a fortune so that they can pad the balance sheets,¡± he said.

Professor Habib said that this was ¡°not simply an American problem¡±, but one that afflicted all unequal relationships across and inside continents. He pinned the blame on the move away from state support for higher education around the world.

¡°It is a problem that is increasing the more [universities] behave as private institutions, the more the state withdraws, the more we move towards a deregulated environment.¡±

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This was not because university presidents were bad people, he added, ¡°but because the system which demands that they run the balance sheets at a profit forces them to behave in ways that fundamentally violate the social value [of a university]¡±.

Professor Habib was speaking at the WorldViews conference on media and higher education, organised by the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations.

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Addressing delegates at the event at Ryerson University, he said that universities¡¯ social role was increasingly under threat, and that this was the ¡°big question¡± the media and the sector itself should be asking.

¡°We can simply say that universities have no social value, the job is to make money, the job is to run as for-profit institutions, so don¡¯t judge us as any different to anyone else,¡± he said. ¡°That is a legitimate point of view...But don¡¯t claim credibility for the social goals on the one hand and then behave in the most aggressive neo-liberal manner on the other hand.¡±

phil.baty@tsleducation.com