This morning's online Chronicle of Higher Education had a relevant article on the dangers of privitization and corporate interference.  The Future Project is releasing today the result of its five-year study, "Correcting Course: How We Can Restore the Ideals of Public Higher Education in a Market-Driven Era."  The report finds that "increased competition among universities and trends toward privatization are threatening the public mission of state universities and colleges" and identifies four areas of weakness in public higher education: rising costs and unaffordable tuition, limited need-based financial aid, the lack of a sufficient way to measure success, and an increase in the proportion of research funds coming from corporate rather than government sources. One of the authors of the report, Lara Couturier, says that universities are now competing for students who will increase an institution's ranking in U.S. News & World Report and those who can pay the full cost of their education, and that state universities are, in the process, sacrificing their public purposes, like providing need-based aid and conducting research free from corporate influence.

Jameela