Has the modern university become just another corporation?

This is a pointless argument until everyone agrees on the definitions of "Corporation" versus "University." The article is careless on that point, and vague about what we should do if they are really the same. He highlights a few exceptional cases, which may be representative problems but are probably not.

In particular, he doesn't seem to have thought at all about the consequences of levying taxes on Universities. That seems to be the central injustice he's concerned about, but does he really think the money would be better off in government hands? He doesn't seem to have considered those implications.

Personally, I think there is a ton of value in the idea of a University, in spite of the possibility for corruption and definitely in spite of anyone's attempt to abstract away random differences until corporations and universities look the same in some meaningless description. The culture of any decent university campus encourages learning in a way that you almost never see at a large company. You might compare Harvard to Google, or Xerox PARC, but start comparing second tier colleges to second tier companies and companies don't even come close.

"How are college students treated in this brave new academic world? Not very well, at least not if this year's spate of bad news articles is any indication."

I don't know that this year's spate of bad news articles is any indication. College admissions are perennially weighted towards the already-advantaged, but once you're in, I have a hard time believing that motivated students were better off 30 years ago. The number of programs and opportunities for people willing to go for them is growing constantly.

Robg, your headline asks that question like it's a bad thing. There are certainly pitfalls, but it seems that if universities compete with each other more, students can only win.

For the most part, yes.

That would be awesome. I wish our schools were run like businesses.

There would probably be less porn stars coming to speak for "diversity" week ...